Kołłątaj Hugo, born in 1750 in Derkały Wielkie in Volhynia, was a famous Polish education reformer, writer, canon of Krakow and doctor of philosophy of the Krakow Academy (Polish: Akademia Krakowska, which is now called the Jagiellonian University).
Achievements of Hugo Kołłątaj in Krakow
Kołłątaj came to Krakow in 1777 to reform the run-down Nowodworskie Schools (Polish: Szkoły Nowodworskie) and the university. This met with opposition from the Krakow clerical and conservative community. Despite these problems, Kołłątaj managed to reform the university, which was called the Main Crown School (Polish: Szkoła Główna Koronna). In 1780 he was expelled from Krakow by the clergy and moved to Warsaw. Young, progressive professors objected to it, so they began to do everything to bring Hugo back to Krakow. Kołłątaj returned in 1782, became the rector and continued his work. He owned a summer house in Krzesławice, which later belonged to Jan Matejko.
Undoubtedly, one of the most famous achievements of Kołłątaj was also the command to create the Kołłątaj Plan (Polish: Plan Kołłątajowski) in 1785. This plan was intended to provide a description of all the church and monastery estates in Krakow, to show that the city was overrun by the clergy and therefore cannot develop properly.
The University of Agriculture (Polish: Uniwersytet Rolniczy) and one of the streets in Krakow were named after Kołłątaj. He died in 1812 in Warsaw.