Monument sights in Poland
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Ghetto Wall
The ghetto wall with a plaque marking the site.
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Monument to Nicolaus Copernicus
The contemplative figure sitting on a plinth south of Warsaw University is a Monument to Nicolaus Copernicus, the great Polish astronomer.
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Monument to Joseph Conrad
Just beyond the aquarium is a large monument to Józef Konrad Korzeniowski, better known to the English-speaking world as author Joseph Conrad.
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Streetlamp
Gorlice claims to have the world's first kerosene Streetlamp, dating back to 1854. It's attached to roadside shrine of Christ and an unusual umbrella on the corner of ul Kościuszki and ul Węgierska.
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Monument to Mordechaj Anielewicz
From the Ghetto Heroes Monument head north along ul Zamenhofa, past a garden with a little mound topped by a simple limestone block, a Monument to Mordechaj Anielewicz, leader of the Ghetto Uprising, who perished in a bunker on this site in 1943.
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Monument to Stefan Czarniecki
In the middle of the spacious Rynek (called Plac Czanieckiego) stands the Monument to Stefan Czarniecki, a national hero who distinguished himself in battles against the Swedes. The statue, from the 1760s, is one of the oldest secular monuments in Poland.
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Statue of Copernicus
The square at the Old Town Hall is also furnished with a number of interesting items of statuary. A few steps from the town hall entrance is a Statue of Copernicus, one of the oldest monuments dedicated to the stargazer and a regular feature in holiday snaps.
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Statue
On the opposite side of the Rynek, you'll find another curious critter-related Statue at knee-level, depicting a dog and umbrella. The pooch's name is Filus, and he starred in a famous long-running Polish comic strip as the pet of brolly-wielding Professor Filutek.
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Town Hall Tower
This tall tower is all that remains from the 15th-century town hall. In summer months, you can climb 70m to the top for a bird's-eye view of the goings-on. Nearby is the 11th-century Church of St Adalbert (Kościół Św Wojciecha), which predates the Rynek Główny.
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Dominican Church
The oldest surviving monument on the west side of the river is the former Dominican Church, now belonging to the Jesuits. Built in the mid-13th century, it was repeatedly reshaped and redecorated in later periods, but the fine early-Gothic doorway at the main entrance is still in place.
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Monument to the Poznań Army
The Monument to the Poznań Army is stark, modern monument dedicated to the local armed force that resisted the German invasion of 1939 for almost two weeks. It's just opposite the sloping Cemetery of the Meritorious (Cmentarz Zasłużonych; M015F), the oldest existing graveyard in the city (1810).
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Schweik Statue
The odd little bronze likeness of a soldier sitting on a bench in the centre of ul 3 Maja is the Schweik Statue, representing the antihero of Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek's polemical novel The Good Soldier Schweik (1923). According to the book, Schweik (or Švejk) visited Sanok on 15 July 1915. Fame at last.
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Basilica of St Francis
Duck into the dark basilica on a sunny day to admire the artistry of Stanisław Wyspiański, who designed the fantastic Art Nouveau stained-glass windows. The multicoloured deity in the chancel above the organ loft is a masterpiece. From the transept, you can also enter the Gothic cloister of the Franciscan Monastery to admire the fragments of 15th-century frescos.
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Jewish Monument
The most overt reminder of the Jewish legacy of Kazimierz Dolny is the Jewish Monument in front of the old cemetery. The Nazis murdered some 3000 Jews from the town and its surrounds and desecrated the old cemetery. The Jewish Monument was assembled in 1984 from several hundred tombstone fragments collected here. The monument is just over 1km from the Rynek, on the road to Opole Lubelskie.
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Kościuszko Mound
The human-made Kościuszko Mound pays tribute to Tadeusz Kościuszko, the hero who embodied the dreams of independent Poland in times of foreign occupation. Enter through the chapel and climb 34m for a spectacular panorama. There is a separate waxworks exhibition called Polish Routes to Independence (adult/child 8/6zł; open 9.30am to 6.30pm). From Salwator, take bus 100 or walk about 1.5km to the monument.
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Monument to the Warsaw Uprising
Directly opposite the cathedral stands one of Warsaw’s most important landmarks, the Monument to the Warsaw Uprising. This bronze tableau depicts Armia Krajowa (AK; Home Army) fighters emerging ghostlike from the shattered brickwork of their ruined city, while others descend through a manhole into the network of sewers. The monument was unveiled on 1 August 1989, the 45th anniversary of the uprising.
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Monument to the Victims of June 1956
The Monument to the Victims of June 1956 is one of Poznań's most significant memorials. It commemorates the ill-fated workers' protest. The monument, consisting of two 20m-tall crosses bound together, was unveiled on 28 June 1981, the 25th anniversary of the strike, at a ceremony attended by more than 100,000 people. It's a huge, evocative landmark, similar to the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers in Gdańsk.
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Stary Rynek
The Old Town is on the southern bank of the Brda River, a 20-minute walk from the train station. Its heart, Stary Rynek, is dominated by the palatial town hall and a large Modernist monument to the victims of fascism. It was here that the Nazi invaders kept hostages at gunpoint for two days in September 1939, shooting 40 of them. Nowadays the grim monument seems somewhat at odds with the life of the square and the surrounding streets.
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Racławice Panorama
Wrocław’s pride and joy is the Racławice Panorama. Housed in a cylindrical building in a park southwest of the National Museum, it’s a cyclorama, a giant canvas painting measuring 15m by 114m and wrapped around the internal walls of the rotunda. It is viewed from an elevated central balcony. Three-dimensional items (tree trunks, plants, weapons, roads), special lighting and sound effects bring it to life.
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Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady
The Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, better known in these parts as the Mariacki. The first church on this site was built in the 1220s and, typically for the period, was ‘oriented’ – that is, its sanctuary pointed eastward. Following its destruction during the Tatar raids, the construction of a mighty basilica began, using the foundations of the previous church. That’s why the church stands at an oblique angle to the square.
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Barbican
The most intriguing remnant of the medieval fortifications, the Barbican is a powerful, circular brick bastion adorned with seven turrets. There are 130 loopholes in its 3m-thick walls. This curious piece of defensive art was built around 1498 as an additional protection of the Florian Gate, and was once connected to it by a narrow passage running over a moat. It’s one of the very few surviving structures of its kind in Europe, and also the largest and perhaps the most beautiful.
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Memorial
As you walk from the train station to the town centre, you'll notice a park containing a Memorial to the 1939 defence of the town during the Nazi invasion. Hel was the last place in Poland to surrender; a garrison of some 3000 Polish soldiers defended the town until 2 October.
The peninsula became a battlefield once more on 5 April 1945, when about 60,000 Germans were caught in a bottleneck by the Red Army and didn't lay down their arms until 9 May; this time it was the last piece of Polish territory to be liberated.
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Umschlagplatz Monument
The Umschlagplatz Monument marks the site of the umschlagplatz (literally, 'taking-away place'), the railway terminus from which Warsaw's Jews were transported to Treblinka. The rectangle monument's marble walls are carved with more than 3000 Jewish forenames, from Aba to Zygmunt, and the stark message: 'Along this path of suffering and death over 300,000 Jews were driven in 1942-43 from the Warsaw Ghetto to the gas chambers of the Nazi extermination camps'.
Its shape is symbolic of the cattle trucks into which the prisoners were herded.
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Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland
The Church of Our Lady Queen of Polandis otherwise known as the Arka Pana (Lord’s Ark). This interesting, though rather heavy, ark-shaped construction was the first new church permitted in Nowa Huta after WWII, and was completed in 1977 entirely by volunteer labourers. Up till then, Nowa Hutans used the two historic churches that had somehow managed to escape the avalanche of concrete. They are both on the southeastern outskirts of Nowa Huta, in the Mogiła suburb about 2.5km southeast of Plac Centralny (tram 15), and are worth a visit if you are in the area.
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Neptune Fountain
According to legend the Neptune Fountain, next to the town hall, once gushed forth with the trademark Gdańsk liqueur, Goldwasser. As the story goes, it spurted out of the trident one merry night and Neptune found himself endangered by crowds of drunken locals. Perhaps that's why in 1634 the fountain was fenced off with a wrought-iron barrier. The bronze statue was the work of another Flemish artist, Peter Husen; it was made between 1606 and 1613 and is the oldest secular monument in Poland.
A menagerie of stone sea creatures was added in the 1750s during the restoration of the fountain
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