Tarnów’s greatest son was without doubt the swashbuckling hero of Poland, Hungary and Turkey - Józef Bem - who was born in the city on March 14, 1794 in what was then part of Hungarian Galicia. After receiving a first class military education in nearby Kraków, the young, diminutive and famously courageous Bem fought in many notable battles, including the Russian campaign of 1812, earning the Cross of the Legion of Honour during the bloody defence of Danzig (Gdańsk) only a year later. As a teacher at a Russian military college he spent some time testing missiles before getting himself thoroughly mixed up in a conspiracy to restore Polish independence, an act that almost cost him a year in jail. After resigning his commission in his late 20s, Bem, who is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest Polish and Hungarian generals of all time, lived a progressively eccentric and romantic life, earning his Polish credentials from the part he played in the failed 1830-1831 Polish uprisings against tsarist rule and, after a failed assassination attempt by the Russians in Portugal, acquiring the status of Hungarian national hero after fighting heroically in the 1848 uprising in Vienna. Via skirmishes in Transylvania and a victory over the Austrian general Anton Freiherr von Puchner in 1849, Bem was seriously wounded at the Battle of Segesvár, a crushing defeat that forced him into exile in the Ottoman Empire. To facilitate a career in the Turkish army, Bem converted to Islam, changed his name to Yusuf Pasha and served as the governor of the city of Aleppo in what’s now Syria. In his final act of bravery, Bem helped save Aleppo’s Christian population from being massacred by the Muslims before succumbing to a fever which took his life on December 10, 1850.

In 1929, Bem’s remains were brought back to Tarnów, and the city has since become a place of pilgrimage for both Poles and Hungarians. Józef Bem’s ashes lie in a grand Mausoleum in the middle of a lake at the far northern end of the city’s main park, and features inscriptions in Polish, Hungarian and Ottoman Turkish. A special Józef Bem trail can be followed in Tarnów, which takes in the Mausoleum as well as the house he was allegedly born in that stands at number 8 in the square named in his honour just southwest of the Rynek. A statue of Bem, unveiled on May 11, 1985 can be found at ul. Walowa at the eastern edge of the Old Town.