A tribute to a Scottish merchant is being held in a Polish town on Thursday evening, including pipers and traditional songs.<\/p>\n
Robert Porteous was a Scottish protestant who moved to the south of Poland in the 1620s.<\/p>\n
Settling in Krosno, he made his living importing Tokaj wines from Hungary<\/a> and having accumulated vast wealth contributed heavily to the development of the town.<\/p>\n Thousands of Scots travelled to Poland<\/a> in the late 16th and early 17th Century, with effects that can still be seen today.<\/p>\n Read More:<\/p>\n In the Kashubian dialect of north-central Poland the traditional word for a commercial traveller is ‘szot’ (Scot), and there is a village in the Kuyavia-Pomerania region called Szkocja (Scotland).<\/p>\n Many Polish second names are transliterations of Scots surnames: Czochran (Cochrane), Machlejd (MacLeod), Szynkler (Sinclair).<\/p>\n On Thursday evening Porteous (spelled Portius in Poland) is to be celebrated at the Glass Heritage<\/a> Center in Krosno.<\/p>\n The program was prepared by the Scottish-Krakow ensemble Celtic<\/a> Triangle, formed by Scottish bagpiper Lindsay Davidson, harpist Irena Czubek-Davidson and singer Katarzyna Wiwer, soprano.<\/p>\n It is suspected that Scottish emigration to central and Eastern Europe may be behind the fact many Hungarian jokes are about Scots.<\/p>\n