Adam Mickiewicz Monument in Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

, , is one of the best known bronze monuments in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, and a favourite meeting place at the Main Market Square in the Old Town

Kraków-Stare Miasto

Kraków Old Town is the historic central district of Kraków, Poland. It is one of the most famous old districts in Poland today and was the center of Poland's political life from 1038 until King Sigismund III Vasa relocated his court to Warsaw in 1596...

 (Stare Miasto) district of Kraków.

The statue of Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...

, the greatest Polish Romantic

Romanticism in Poland

Romanticism in Poland was a literary, artistic and intellectual period in the evolution of Polish culture that began around 1820, coinciding with the publication of Adam Mickiewicz's first poems in 1822. It ended with the suppression of the January 1863 Uprising against the Russian Empire in 1864. ...

 poet of the 19th century, was unveiled on June 16, 1898, on the 100th anniversary of his birth, in the presence of his daughter and son. It was designed by Teodor Rygier

Teodor Rygier

Teodor Rygier was a Polish sculptor known for his Adam Mickiewicz Monument in Kraków, Poland. Rygier studied in Warsaw, Dresden, Munich and in Vienna. In the years 1865-1866 he studied sculpture in Berlin and in Paris...

, a little known sculptor at the time, who won the third and final competition for this project by popular demand ahead of over 60 artists in total, the renowned painter Jan Matejko

Jan Matejko

Jan Matejko was a Polish painter known for paintings of notable historical Polish political and military events. His most famous works include oil on canvas paintings like Battle of Grunwald, paintings of numerous other battles and court scenes, and a gallery of Polish kings...

 included.

Even though the first prize was awarded to famed Cyprian Godebski

Cyprian Godebski (sculptor)

Cyprian Godebski was a Polish sculptor and from 1870 a professor at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg...

, professor at the Imperial Academy of Arts

Imperial Academy of Arts

The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, was founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy of the Three Noblest Arts. Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned a new building, completed 25 years later in 1789...

 in St. Petersburg from Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, with Rygier at a close second, for the final execution a more popular design by Rygier was accepted with a contract signed in November 1889. At the poet's feet are four allegoric groups symbolising the Motherland (from the face of the monument along Sienna Street), Science (facing north), Courage (facing Sukiennice

Sukiennice

The Renaissance Sukiennice in Kraków, Poland, is one of the city's most recognizable icons. It is the central feature of the Main Market Square in the Kraków Old Town . It was once a major centre of international trade. Traveling merchants met there to discuss business and to barter...

 Hall) and Poetry (facing Church of St. Wojciech

Church of St. Wojciech

The Church of St. Adalbert or Church of St. Wojciech , located to the side of the Main Market Square in Old Town, Kraków, is one of the oldest stone churches in Poland...

, south). The inscription on the pedestal reads: "To Adam Mickiewicz, the Nation".

History

The monument came into being at a studio on Długa Street under the supervision of an artistic committee. All the figures were cast in the Nellich foundry in Rome. The final location of the monument was not decided at once, with at least three other city squares taken into consideration. Ultimately, it was the city Mayor who suggested that the structure be placed in the Main Market Square instead.

In 1940 the Monument was destroyed by the Nazis

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 following German invasion of Poland

Invasion of Poland (1939)

The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...

. It was not to be seen in the Square until its restoration in 1955. However, most of the figures were recovered from a Hamburg scrap metal heap in 1946, which allowed the restoration of the Monument's original appearance.

Adam Mickiewicz had himself never been to Kraków. 35 years after his death, in 1890, his remains were brought there from Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and ceremoniously laid to rest in the St. Leonard's Crypt

St. Leonard's Crypt

St. Leonard's Crypt under the Wawel Castle in Kraków, Poland, is a Romanesque crypt founded in the 11th century by Casimir I the Restorer who made Kraków his royal residence as the capital....

 under the Wawel Cathedral

Wawel Cathedral

The Wawel Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Stanisław and Vaclav, is a church located on Wawel Hill in Kraków–Poland's national sanctuary. It has a 1,000-year history and was the traditional coronation site of Polish monarchs. It is the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Kraków...

, which partially inspired the project with the original idea put forward by university youth.

Every year on Christmas Eve, the Adam Mickiewicz Monument is decorated with flowers by the florists of Kraków.