Edvige Toeplitz Mrozowska, the traveler who rebelled against conventions and fascism to tell women: “Let yourself be carried away by passion”

«The history of geography and cartography is up to now a story without women. Yet in the interstices of a history of male written geography, a different picture comes out », thus begins the documentary on Edvige Toeplitz Mrozowskacreated by the Italian Geographical Society, On the roof of the world.

There Italian Geographical Societyfounded in Florence in 1867, moved to Rome in 1872, where Since 1924 it has been based in the sixteenth -century building of Palazzetto Matteiinside Villa Celimontana. It is a private body, an ETS, which preserves a rich collection of documents, books and other materials inherent in geography and travel. The collections Today they include over one million between geographical maps, phototypes, Books and periodicalsarchival documents, paintings, memorabilia, videos that tell more about 500 years of geography, explorations and travel.

Among the many forgotten stories, but kept by the Italian geographical society there is one of a woman to the most unknown: it is that of Edvige Toeplitz Mrozowska, woman lived between the eight and twentieth centuries, a cosmopolitan traveler, freewho challenged the social conventions to follow his passions and who was commissioned by the Italian Geographical Society to guide the first Italian expedition to the Pamir.

Edvige Toeplitz Mrozowska, traveler, free and independent

But what did an Italian woman do on the roof of the world in the 1920s? And why was she chosen? Edvige Toeplitz Mrozowska was born in Poland in 1880 and addressed by parents to a musical career, However, he became passionate about the theater. He crowned his dream at the age of twenty, shooting Europe by reciting. At the end of the First World War, after serving as a nurse, he tried to reach Italy, but since he owned an Austrian passport, he was exchanged for an enemy light e locked up in the prison of Perugia. It was freed from a compatriot, Joseph Leopold Toplitz, called Giuseppe, who was then the head of the Italian Commercial Bank. The two married in 1918.

Photo: Italian Geographical Society

Double life was close to her. And so he began to travel. In the books he wrote over the years his ideas emerge, absolutely revolutionary compared to the period: «Home occupations and duties of society they can serve to spend time, but they are not enough to fill life. What should women do full of vigor, initiative, that uncontrollable strength called vitality? And those who finished their university studies? And those who do not find husband? And those who are sterile? What should they do? Inseching like Salici in the winter, gaining like the Easter geese? It is perhaps not true that our ladies, after a few years of marriage, physically let themselves go and spiritually fall asleep and make everything dominate by theirs man, who in the twentieth century still abuses his right as a landlord and master of a woman? The limitation by the men of women’s activity is not right ».

And in fact Edvige Toeplitz Mrozowska was not made to stay in the living room of the Milanese bourgeois and aristocracy and he decided to go out to discover the world. And really extraordinary thing for the time, he did it alone. Until then, in fact, most of the travelers had been in the capacity of travel companions of their husbands or had leaning on shipments of others. Instead, she from 1919 traveled in Asia continuously for years, going to India, Mesopotamia, Persia, Burma and Tibet. A storyteller was defined And in 1926 he began to keep some conferences to tell his adventures. In 1929 The Italian geographical society, of which he was a member, commissioned her to make a trip to the Pamir as a cappiodition.

Obviously to such interest and enthusiasm for his adventures he corresponded the discontent of others and the Fascist newspaper The Empire He published a very hard invective against Edvige: “How is it possible that the rector of the University of Rome and the real Italian geographical society give space to a foreign dancer accused of espionage? A woman who, instead of performing her maternal and housewives functions, went around the world, alone».

The expedition to Pamir by Edvige Toeplitz Mrozowska

Edvige started from Osh towards Lake Zorkul in 1930. The expedition was very hard and his diaries describe everything he saw: the environment, nature, the geopolitical situation. The day that reached the goal (the lake) described it as The most memorable of his life. “I am taken from this emotion – he wrote – that I forget the physical pain and I no longer feel a breath in breathing. I tell me, It is worth having suffered and suffering like this to see this miracle». Returning and looking for a source of water, Edvige Toeplitz Mrozowska pushed towards a valley not reported on the cards, crossing one step also not marked: he decided to call the valley Valle d’Italia And when the former Soviet Union that then controlled the Pamir made that name, he also decided to call that step with the name of Edvige.

The extraordinary life of this woman is forgotten by history, but is remembered by geography, as well as by the Italian geographical society that In 1931 he gave her the silver medal (she was the first woman to receive her), describing her how: «Intrepid traveler in Central Asia».

The last publication concerned the uses and customs of the Soviet Union and dedicated the last chapter to the female condition. The book is called Sine anger and was published in 1933 in full fascist regime, but she wrote an appeal to women: «Free the hearts from the impermeability of conventions and traditions. Distall your thoughts from frivolity, vanity, fashion. Let yourself be carried away by the passion and superhuman love and shout once in the face of all the derelicts, the poor, the unnamed, the unhappy, the persecuted, the miserable, the jokes from the rod of fate: “Sisters, let’s work together“»

The Italian Geographical Society of Rome

The story of Edvige and that of other travelers and explorers was told in an exhibition entitled In the footsteps of explorers: stories of distant lands last April 4, on the occasion of the Geonight (the international night of geography). The event will replicate the May 17, on the occasion of the Museums Night.

On display, set up in the spaces of the library and the archive, can be seen and browsed Photographic books and albums that tell the companies of some explorerslike that of Ermanno Stradelliexplorer and photographer who between 1879 and 1889 documented the life of indigenous populations along the main rivers Amazonians. Then there are the studies of Guido Boggiani on the indigenous communities of the Paraguayin particular the Caduvei and Chamacoco, and its photographs concerning the tradition of tattoos in the territories of the Chaco. And then again the shipments to the Karakorum And Himalayastarting from the mission of the Duke of Abruzzi in 1909 which had the aim of climbing the K2. In the Council room, on the other hand, they are exhibited Maps and maps and maps (some are reproductions of very ancient specimens) which concern the Mediterranean. A section is dedicated to women travelers, with the projection of the documentary On the roof of the world.

Secondary Entry of Villa Celimontana, Rome, ItalyOnly_fabrizio

The Italian Geographical Society is located a Rome on the Celio hill, The villa overlooks the seedbed of San Sisto and is bordering the San Gregorio park. In the villa, in addition to Palazzetto Mattei, there were also three secret gardens with ancient sculptures, fountains and bitter orangesthe underground nymphaeum called the bird and an Egyptian obelisk by Ramsete II, donated to Ciriaco Mattei by the Capitoline magistrates in 1582, as a recognition of his merits.

There Library It houses the most important specialized documentary collection in Italy and among the major ones in Europe; And open to the public every day with the following times: Monday 9-13, Tuesday 9-17, Wednesday 9-13, Thursday 9-17, Friday 9-13. The Italian Geographical Society also organizes guided tours group lasting about 60 minutes. Visits are made by appointment, sending an email to: [email protected].

Finally, the Italian Geographical Society also organizes Scientific-cultural excursions, study trips to Italy and abroad, guided tours and meetings. The activities are scheduled annually and/or according to events and are open to shareholders and non-Considers, with the participation of specialized tourist guides or experts. For detailed information on travel and excursions already carried out click HERE