Sigismund's Column in Warsaw

When a statue of a king on a tall column went up in 1644 on the square outside the Kraków Gate, the papal nuncio protested: until then, only saints, Christ and the Virgin Mary had been raised so high. Sigismund's Column (Kolumna Zygmunta III Wazy) is Warsaw's oldest secular monument and one of the first column monuments to a secular person in early modern Europe. Today it marks the start of a walk through the Old Town and is a traditional meeting point.

History

The monument was funded by King Władysław IV in honour of his father, King Sigismund III, who had moved the royal court from Kraków to Warsaw. It was designed by Augustyn Locci and Constantino Tencalla; the statue was modelled by Clemente Molli, brought in from Bologna, and cast by the royal founder Daniel Tym. The shaft was carved from a single block of conglomerate stone from Czerwona Góra near Chęciny; it came to Warsaw by river along the Vistula, and about 300 people, helped by 200 royal guardsmen, rolled it to the square in a single day. The monument was unveiled on 24 November 1644. In the 1880s the weathered stone shaft was replaced with granite.

Destruction and rebuilding

On the night of 1–2 September 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, German troops destroyed the column. The statue fell so luckily that it only lost part of its forearm with the cross and the sabre; it was taken by sledge to St Anne's Church and in spring 1945 shown at the exhibition "Warsaw Accuses". A new shaft of Strzegom granite was made in 1948–1949 (the first block cracked in the quarry). The king returned to his column on 12 July 1949 – but 6 metres away from the original spot and slightly turned: because of the new East–West route (Trasa W-Z) he now faces Krakowskie Przedmieście rather than Senatorska Street as before the war.

What to look for

• The statue is 275 cm tall, and the whole monument 22 m. Sigismund III wears archaic armour, a coronation mantle and a crown; he holds a sabre in his right hand and supports a cross with his left, rests his right foot on a plumed helmet and wears the Order of the Golden Fleece on his chest.
• Four bronze plaques on the pedestal with Latin inscriptions – one says the king "fought with the sword and conquered under the sign of the cross" – and four bronze eagles.
• Two former shafts of the column lie next to the Royal Castle, on the side of the East–West route: the first, of 17th-century conglomerate, and the second, of 19th-century granite.

Interesting facts

• From 1855 to 1929 a fountain with four tritons designed by August Kiss surrounded the column. After removal they were taken to the Waterworks Museum and later disappeared.
• Under the unrealised German "Pabst Plan" for Warsaw, the column was to be replaced by a statue of a Germanic goddess of victory.
• Timber from the scaffolding used in the 19th-century restoration was reused to build a church at Bródno Cemetery.
• The Romantic poet Juliusz Słowacki described the column in his poem "Uspokojenie".

Tripto tip

The monument stands on open Castle Square and can be seen free of charge at any time. A few minutes are enough for the column itself, but do walk over to the old shafts by the castle. At midday the square can be crowded; in the evening the monument is lit up and the square is calmer. The column fits naturally into a visit to the Royal Castle, the Old Town, St John's Archcathedral and Krakowskie Przedmieście.