Pan Twardowski, the Polish Faust

Pan Twardowski is Poland's own Faust: a 16th-century nobleman and alchemist from Kraków who, according to legend first written down in the 17th–18th centuries, sold his soul to the devil (often named Mefistofeles or simply 'Rogal') in exchange for magical knowledge and power, on the condition the devil could only claim him in Rome. Twardowski is said to have used his sorcery for tricks like conjuring the spirit of King Sigismund Augustus's late wife Barbara Radziwiłł at court, and to have kept the devil at bay for years by simply avoiding the city of Rome. The story goes the devil finally tricked him into an inn called 'Rzym' ('Rome' in Polish) on the outskirts of Kraków, and as the devil seized him, Twardowski grabbed a passing rooster and began singing hymns; the devil, startled, dropped him — but only as far as the Moon, where legend says he remains stranded to this day with his spider companion, visible in the man-in-the-moon's silhouette. Kraków still marks the rocky outcrop by the Vistula known as Twardowski's Rock (Skałka Twardowskiego) as the site of his last magic tricks.