Csáky Ferenc Flórián Lengyelországa XVIII. századi magyar térképésze

A statue was erected in the end of 2017 in Bydgoszcz. The Rafts man reminds everybody of one Hungarian map maker – Ferenc Flórián Csáky – who had big influence on the construction of Bydgoszcz Canal. The statue was sculptured by local artist Michał Kubiak. Franciszek Florian Czaki comes from Csaky de Kerestszegh, a Hungarian noble family, which immigrated to Poland in 1711. Initially, Franciszek served in the artillery where he achieved the rank of a captain. At that time, cartography was a domain of the military, which hired special units for measurement works. Czaki’s works in the field of Polish cartography date back to 1740, the first presumably being the works on the “Sarmatia Atlas” (Atlas Sarmacji), a map of Spiš district (Starostwo Spiskie) scaled 1:167 000. On the basis of his own terrain measurements Czaki also drew up a map of the Warsaw area, scaled 1:70 000, oriented to the south, 12-sheet Vistula map, scaled 1:180 000, as well as maps of certain crown voivodeships, which went missing except for a 3-sheet Volyn map, scaled 1:263 000, published in Paris in 1769. Since 1760 Czaki had been working for Józef Aleksander Jabłonowski (1711–1777), Nowogród voivode, on a multi-sheet map of the entire Poland. Czaki, however, did not finish the map because in 1765 he began his service as a crown artillery captain and court cartographer in a cartographer’s team for the king Stanisław August Poniatowski (1732–1798). His earlier cartographical works (about 200 maps) were given back to Czaki, Jabłonowski who handed his materials to G.A. Rizzi-Zannoni, an Italian cartographer. Rizzi-Zannoni on the basis of Jabłonowski’s materials developed “The Great Map of Poland” in 1772. Czaki as court cartographer elaborated a detailed map of the lower course of the Vistula, scaled 1: 30 300, as well as made maps of Bydgoszcz areas. In Lithuania Czaki supervised works regarding the Niemen River cleansing and its adjustment for sailing and also completed some canals and drainage systems. In 1770, Czaki made the economic map of Brzeg for the king.