Adam Karol Czartoryski

Who is Adam Karol Czartoryski?

Prince Adam Karol Jezus Maria Józef Franciszek Salezy and all the Saints Czartoryski, his Spanish name Adán Carlos Jesús María José Francisco de Sales y todos los Santos Czartoryski-Bórbon Krasinski y Orléans is a Polish-Spanish aristocrat, the founder and president of the Princes Czartoryski Foundation, in Cracow.

He is the Head of the Polish House of Czartoryski, descendants of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and he is the 14th direct descendant of this line.

Prince Adam Karol was born in Seville on the 2 of January 1940. His parents fled Poland at the beginning of the 1939 German invasion and lived in Spain, his mother's native country. After his father's death, he remained in Spain where he was educated. Later, he lived for a time in England before returning to Spain when his maternal first cousin, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, came to the throne.

He was interested in martial arts and contributed on the organisation and creation of the Spanish Karate Federation. He is a black belt.

In 1975, at the death of his grandmother Princess Maria Ludwika Czartoryska, the Hotel Lambert was sold by the heirs. This family residence in Paris, bought during the exile in 1842, was the rallying point of the Polish émigrés and represented the political and cultural resistance movement. Prince Adam Karol kept the family portraits and miniatures.