Monuments & mounds

The Warsaw Mermaid Monument

In the middle of the Old Town Market Square, in a round basin on a granite pedestal, stands the Mermaid with a sword raised to strike and a shield in her left hand — the symbol of Warsaw that has appeared in the city's coat of arms for over six centuries.

From dragon body to fish tail

The siren has figured in Warsaw's emblem since 1390 — originally as a creature with bird's claws and a dragon's body, but with a man's head. The seal of 1459 already shows a woman with a fish tail, and the city adopted an image close to today's in 1622. The monument on the square was the first Warsaw monument to the city's emblem.

Hegel's fountain and the statue's wanderings

The sculpture was designed by Konstanty Hegel and cast in zinc at Karol Juliusz Minter's workshop in Warsaw. It arrived on the square with the construction of the first modern waterworks (1851–1855, designed by Henryk Marconi) — on 7 August 1855 it stood in the middle of a fountain basin. The nearly two-metre melusine rises from foamy waves with a spirally coiled tail. The statue then wandered the city: from 1928 a warehouse under the Poniatowski Bridge viaduct, then the pitch of the "Syrena" club in Solec, and from 1972 the slope of the Marszałkowska Tower by the Old Town walls. It survived the war — both Warsaw mermaid monuments stood by the Vistula, along which the front line ran from September 1944 — although it was damaged in the fighting for Czerniaków; the Łopieński Brothers' workshop later patched more than 50 bullet holes. It returned to the square ceremoniously on 12 December 1999, and in May 2008 it was replaced by a copy — Hegel's original went to the Warsaw Museum.

Practicalities

The monument can be viewed free of charge, around the clock; in winter an ice rink operates around the basin. The other Warsaw Mermaid stands on the boulevards by the Vistula, and the legend of the Old Town siren tells of two sisters separated at the Baltic Sea.