Franciszek Bieliński

Who was Franciszek Bieliński?

Franciszek Bieliński of Junosza was a Polish politician and statesman. A Grand Marshal of the Crown, Marshal of Prussia and a voivode of Chełmno, he is best remembered as a strong proponent of the expansion and the modernisation of the city of Warsaw. He is also the eponym of Marszałkowska Street in Warsaw, the main street of Poland's capital.

He was born in 1683 to Grand Marshal of the Crown Kazimierz Ludwik Bieliński and Ludwika Maria née Morsztyn, daughter of Grand Treasurer of the Crown. While officially a high-ranking military officer, for most of his life Bieliński had been in fact a skilled civilian administrator. Initially a starost of Malbork, Czersk, Grójec and Garwolin, with time he allied himself to the mighty Czartoryski family. This allowed him to move to the royal court and start his career there.

In his role as a Marshal of the Court and then Grand Marshal of Poland during the reign of Augustus II the Strong, Bieliński had in fact administrative and judiciary control over a large part of Prussia, Masovia and the city of Warsaw. In 1740 he created the Warsaw-based Cobblestone Commission, tasked with paving the streets and creating a modern sewer system.