The World of Apples

Apple varieties, Poland

Kosztela

Probably raised by monks at Czerwińsk in the 16th century; a legend ties its name to King John III's garden at Wilanów

History

Kosztela is one of the few old apples of Polish origin1. Marta Dziubiak of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ botanical garden in Warsaw thinks it probably the Wierzbówka Zimowa that monks raised at Czerwińsk in the sixteenth century1. Writing for the museum of the palace at Wilanów, she dates their seedling to about 1590, says that the apples were brought to Wilanów from the monks by the royal gardener Jakób Wieńczarek, and reports that old manuscripts found in the palace attic tell how King John III Sobieski named one of the trees in his garden2.

A legend recorded by W. Smardzewski in 1932 explains the name. Queen Marysieńka was fond of the sweet apples, but in a lean year only a basket of them was gathered, kosz tylko; the king’s word for them, Kosztylki, stuck, and the apple became Kosztylka and then Kosztela1.

In 1905 Józef Drège set down an old gardener’s memory that kosztele grew in the century-old orchard bought in 1805 by Jan Ulrych, founder of the Ulrych nurseries, and in 1894 Edmund Jankowski had listed them among old local apples1. Julian Brunicki’s nursery catalogue for 1931 offered Kosztela among its Polish varieties1, and it appears among the Polish varieties in nursery catalogues of the early 1930s3. Long popular in Polish orchards, it had become rare by 20082.

The fruit

The apples are sweet, firm and greenish yellow2, weigh 120–160 grams, and have no flush5. A guide for Polish home orchards gives mid-September for picking5.

In a 2021 study of apples grown organically at Bolestraszyce, Kosztela had the second-lowest content of Mal d 1, the main apple allergen, of twenty old varieties, at 0.6 µg per gram of fresh flesh, and the authors grouped it with five other varieties as potentially hypoallergenic4.

Growing

The tree is very vigorous and very hardy to frost, and has a low susceptibility to scab and powdery mildew5. Like many old varieties, it tends to crop heavily one year and little the next1,2.

Where the sources disagree

  • The legend. In Dziubiak’s 2006 account the queen loved the apples and the king coined the name1; in her museum article the king himself exclaims kosz tylko?2, while Szot and colleagues give the words to the queen as she gathered the crop3.
  • The old name. Dziubiak calls the apple from Czerwińsk Wierzbówka Zimowa in 20061 and wierzbówki białe in 20082.
Kosztela
Where Kosztela came from.

Sources

  1. Old apple cultivars and their origin (in Polish), Marta Dziubiak, Rocznik Dendrologiczny 54: 51–66, Polish Academy of Sciences Botanical Garden, Warsaw, 2006. Supports: Kosztela among the few apples of Polish origin; probably the Wierzbówka Zimowa raised by monks at Czerwińsk in the 16th century; a fine Wierzbówka tree in King John III Sobieski's garden at Wilanów; alternate bearing; the legend, after Smardzewski (1932), of Queen Marysieńka's fondness for the sweet apples, the lean year's "kosz tylko" and the king's name Kosztylki, becoming Kosztylka and then Kosztela; kosztele among old local apples in Edmund Jankowski's list of 1894; kosztele in the century-old orchard that Jan Ulrych bought in 1805, from an old gardener's account recorded by Józef Drège in 1905; Kosztela among the Polish varieties in Julian Brunicki's nursery catalogue for 1931.
  2. Kosztele, Queen Marysieńka's favourite apples (in Polish), Marta Dziubiak, Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów, 2008-04-23. Supports: old manuscripts found in the palace attic mentioning how King John III named an apple tree in the royal garden; the sweet apples called wierzbówki białe, brought to Wilanów from the monks of Czerwińsk, who raised them from seed about 1590, by the royal gardener Jakób Wieńczarek; alternate bearing; the king's reported exclamation "kosz tylko?"; very popular in old orchards until recently and now very rare; sweet, firm, greenish-yellow apples.
  3. Importance of old and local apple cultivars, Iwona Szot, Inna Goncharovska, Svitlana Klymenko and Petro Bulakh, Agrobiodiversity for Improving Nutrition, Health and Life Quality 6(2): 156–170, 2022. Supports: Kosztela among the Polish cultivars in nursery catalogues of the early 1930s; the legend in which Queen Marysieńka, gathering fruit under the tree in a poor year, judged the crop "kosz tylko?" (the basket only).
  4. Molecular and immunological identification of low allergenic fruits among old and new apple varieties, A. Siekierzyńska and others, International Journal of Molecular Sciences 22(7): 3527, 2021. Supports: Kosztela grown organically at Bolestraszyce; Mal d 1, the main apple allergen, at 0.6 µg per g of fresh flesh, second lowest of the twenty old varieties tested (Table 2); Kosztela, Kandil Sinap, Rumianka from Alma-Ata, Kantówka Gdańska, Reinette Coulon and Gala selected as potentially hypoallergenic.
  5. Apple and pear varieties for home gardens and orchards (in Polish), Józef Rusnak, Wieś i Doradztwo 3–4 (71–72), pp. 40–43, Małopolskie Stowarzyszenie Doradztwa Rolniczego, 2012. Supports: Table 3, old apple varieties of low disease susceptibility, Kosztela: picked in mid-September; very vigorous; fruit 120–160 g, without a flush; low susceptibility to scab and powdery mildew; very high frost hardiness.
  • Watercolour painting of Danziger Kantapfel apples by Deborah Griscom Passmore.

    Danziger Kantapfel

    Described by Knoop in 1760 and grown in Germany under dozens of local names; a parent of Freiherr von Berlepsch

    Poland, by 1760

  • Photograph of Elise Rathke apples at the National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, on the tree.

    Elise Rathke

    Poland, by 1884

  • Fantazja

    Poland, 1944

  • Watercolour painting of Landsberger Reinette apples by Ellen Isham Schutt.

    Landsberger Reinette

    Poland, about 1840

  • Ligol

    Selected at Skierniewice in 1972 from Linda and Golden Delicious; by 2017 the fourth most planted apple in Poland

    Poland, 1972