Adam Mickiewicz Monument is one of the best-known bronze monuments in Poland, and a favourite meeting place at the Main Square in Krakow’s Old Town. The statue of Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest Polish Romantic poet of the 19th century, was unveiled on June 16, 1898, one hundred years since his birth, in the presence of his daughter and son. The inscription on the pedestal reads: “To Adam Mickiewicz, the Nation”.
The 10-metre monument depicts Mickiewicz standing on a pedestal above four allegoric groups of figures symbolising, respectively, the Motherland, Science, Courage and Poetry. It was designed by Teodor Rygier, a little known sculptor at the time, who won the 3rd and final competition for this project by popular demand ahead of over 60 artists in total, including the renowned painter Jan Matejko.
Even though the first prize was awarded to famed Cyprian Godebski, professor at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg from Paris, 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.
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 immediately decided, 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 Square.
Forty two years after the construction, the monument was destroyed by the Nazis following German invasion of Poland. It was not to be seen in the Main Square until its restoration in 1955. The unveiling of the reconstructed monument took place on the 100th anniversary of Mickiewicz’s death – November 26, 1955.
Most of the figures that Germans had taken were recovered from a Hamburg scrap metal heap in 1946, which allowed the restoration of the monument’s original appearance.
Adam Mickiewicz himself had never been to Krakow. 35 years after his death, in 1890, his remains were brought there from Paris and ceremoniously laid to rest in St Leonard’s Crypt under the Wawel Cathedral, which partially inspired the monument, with the original idea put forward by university youth.