Frédéric Chopin Monument, Warsaw

Frédéric Chopin Monument in Warsaw

Frédéric Chopin Monument in Warsaw
Location	Warsaw, Poland
Designer	Wacław Szymanowski
Material	bronze
Beginning date	1909
Completion date	1926
Opening date	November 14, 1926 May 11, 1958
Dedicated to	Frédéric Chopin
Historic Monument of Poland
Designated	1994-09-08
Part of	Warsaw – historic city center with the Royal Route and Wilanów
Reference no.	M.P. 1994 nr 50 poz. 423[1]

The Frédéric Chopin Monument in Warsaw (Polish: Pomnik Fryderyka Chopina w Warszawie) is a large bronze statue of Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849), designed by Wacław Szymanowski, that stands in the upper part of Warsaw's Royal Baths Park (also known as Łazienki Park), adjacent to Aleje Ujazdowskie (Ujazdów Avenue).

History

It was designed in 1907 by Wacław Szymanowski for its planned erection on the centenary of Chopin's birth in 1810 but its execution was delayed by controversy about the design, then by the outbreak of World War I. The statue was finally cast and erected in 1926.^[2] The members of the jury who selected the winning project included such figures as Antoine Bourdelle, Józef Pius Dziekoński and Leopold Méyet.^[3]

Statue destroyed by the Germans (1940)

The statue was blown up on May 31, 1940,^[4][5] during World War II, on the order of Governor-General Hans Frank and was the first monument destroyed by the occupying Germans in Warsaw.^[6] According to local legend, the next day a handwritten sign was found at the site which read: "I don’t know who destroyed me, but I know why: so that I won’t play the funeral march for your leader."^[7]

After the end of the war, the monument was rebuilt. Architect Oskar Sosnowski designed the pedestal and basin, which are made of red Wąchock sandstone.^[8] The inscription on the pedestal reads: "The Statue of Fryderyk Chopin, destroyed and plundered by the Germans on 31 May 1940, rebuilt by the Nation. 17 October 1946."^[9] Another inscription engraved on the monument is a quote from Adam Mickiewicz's narrative poem Konrad Wallenrod: "Flames will consume our painted history, sword-wielding thieves will plunder our treasures, the song will be saved..."^[9]

The original mould for the statue, which had survived the war, made it possible to cast a replica, which was placed at the original site in 1958.^[2] Since 1959, free piano recitals of Chopin's compositions have been performed at the statue's base on summer Sunday afternoons.^[10]

The stylized willow over Chopin's seated figure echoes a pianist's hand and fingers, and the Polish eagle's head on the right end.

A 1:1-scale replica of Szymanowski's statue stands in Hamamatsu, Japan. There are^[when?] also preliminary plans to erect another replica along Chicago's lakefront, in addition to a different sculpture commemorating the artist in Chopin Park.^[11]

Szymanowski's statue was the world's tallest Chopin monument until the unveiling, on March 3, 2007, of a slightly taller, modernistic bronze in Shanghai, China.

Gallery

• 
  Opening ceremony, 1926
• 
  Chopin Statue in Warsaw
• 
  Annual Chopin summer piano concerts at the Royal Baths Park
• 
  General view

See also

• Adam Mickiewicz Monument in Warsaw

References

1. Zarządzenie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 8 września 1994 r. w sprawie uznania za pomnik historii., M.P., 1994, vol. 50, No. 423
2. Encyklopedia powszechna PWN (1976), vol. 4, p. 372.
3. Kotkowska-Bareja, Hanna (1970). Pomnik Chopina. Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. p. 15.
4. Warszawa - Pomnik Fryderyka Chopina w Łazienkach Królewskich Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine
5. Wysadzenie pomnika Chopina w Warszawie przez hitlerowców Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine
6. Kotkowska-Bareja, Hanna (1970). Pomnik Chopina. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. p. 47.
7. "Zabytki z Łazienek Królewskich w paryskim Ritzu". Retrieved 1 June 2020.
8. "Pomnik Fryderyka Chopina". Retrieved 30 March 2020.
9. "Warsaw: Royal Baths Park". Archived from the original on 24 September 2019. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
10. Jabłoński, Rafał (2002). Warsaw and surroundings. Warsaw: Festina. p. 107. OCLC 680169225.
11. "Chopin Monument in Chicago". Archived from the original on 2009-06-28.

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