Statue of the Week

MEMORIAL OF THE 1944 WARSAW UPRISING, KRASIŃSKI SQUARE, WARSAW

Krasiński Square was the site of some of the worst fighting during the Warsaw uprising in late summer, 1944. The Polish Home army desperately held the city for 63 days before the Nazis finally overcame them and then razed Warsaw to the ground in retaliation.

Wincenty Kućma’s memorial is a fitting testimony to these events: two groups of bronze figures, one (the insurgents) defending a barricade and the other (the exodus) descending into the sewers. The monument was not unveiled until 1989, when the Soviets were on their way out.  The dynamic of the tableau and the attitudes struck by the figures makes an immediate impression on the viewer: without coming across all Keats about it, it’s surprising to find, on a second visit, that the soldiers are still in their same positions.