Tytus Woyciechowski

Tytus Sylwester Woyciechowski (Lemberg, Galicia [now Lviv, Ukraine], 31 December 1808 – 23 March 1879, Poturzyn, now Poland) was a Polish political activist, agriculturalist and patron of art. He was an early friend of Frédéric Chopin.

In his youth Woyciechowski was a fellow student of Chopin at the Warsaw Lyceum, and boarded with the Chopin family. He went on to study law at Warsaw University. Chopin dedicated to him his Op. 2 Variations on "Là ci darem la mano". In 1830 Chopin visited Woyciechowski at his estate in Poturzyn, which he had inherited from his mother. Woyciechowski acted as a confidant during Chopin's passion for the singer Konstancja Gładkowska.

Woyciechowski accompanied Chopin in his 1830 journey to Austria but, on learning of the November 1830 Uprising, returned to Warsaw to take part in the fighting. Whilst the two never met thereafter, they continued to correspond.

Woyciechowski dedicated himself to agriculture, pioneered the introduction of crop rotation in Poland, and in 1847 founded one of the first sugar factories in the country. In 1861-62 he was an active member of the White Party, which took part in the failed January 1863 Uprising.

The Woyciechowski collection of Chopin memorabilia was destroyed by fire in 1914, and the family manor house at Poturzyn was destroyed during the Second World War.