Grunwald Monument

The commemoration of the anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald (10th June 1410) is connected to the unveiling of the monument, which was the last of the patriotic ceremonies organised in Kraków from the mid-19th century to the outbreak of the first world war. Even though Poland did not exist on the maps at the time, as its lands had been divided among the three occupying states, the policy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the so-called Galician Autonomy (c. 1866-1914) left considerable liberties to the nations living within it.

The unveiling of the monument in 1910 was the central point of the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the victory over the Teutonic order won by the Polish and Lithuanian armies under King Ladislaus (Władysław) Jagiełło. The main initiator of its erection and at the same time the founder of the monument was the eminent pianist and composer (and in 1919 also the Prime Minister of the already free Republic of Poland), Ignacy Jan Paderewski.

The architectural and spatial concept of the monument was prepared by Jan Sas Zubrzycki, while Antoni Wiwulski made the sculptures. The granite plinth is crowned with the mounted figure of King Władysław Jagiełło, with two symbolical swords and the figure of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Witold, below, at whose feet the mortally wounded Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Ulrich von Jungingen, lies dying. The sides of the monument are decorated with a Polish knight and a squire, and a Lithuanian knight with a bound Knight of the Cross taken hostage. Standing 24 m (79 ft) tall, the monument was unveiled in the central part of Matejko Square on 15th July 1910, i.e. precisely on the 500th anniversary of the battle, in the presence of around 150,000 onlookers.

The monument was destroyed by the Nazis in 1939; its reconstruction and repeated unveiling did not take place until 1976. The author of the quite faithfully recreated monument was Marian Konieczny. The Grave of the Unknown Soldier, made of marble and bronze to the design of Wiktor Zin, was composed of a majestic stair before the plinth.