Florian Straszewski, Kraków

This obelisk, raised in eighteen seventy-four as the first monument in Kraków’s Planty, commemorates Florian Straszewski. A civic campaigner and key founder of the park, he managed its finances, supervised its construction, and sometimes paid workers himself. The monument includes a portrait medallion designed by Edward Stehlik.

This obelisk in the Planty commemorates Florian Straszewski and was the first monument erected in the park, in eighteen seventy-four. Its portrait medallion was designed by Edward Stehlik. Straszewski was a landowning civic campaigner and one of the people who created Kraków’s Planty.

Born in Kocmyrzów in seventeen sixty-seven, he made Kraków his permanent home in eighteen oh seven and lived at Bracka Street number nine. When work on the Planty began in eighteen twenty-two, he handled its finances as a member of the Economic Committee. He also supervised the work himself, collected money for it, and at times paid the labourers from his own funds.

That personal commitment helps explain why this small memorial occupies such an important place in the park’s history. Straszewski also served in Kraków’s Senate and helped initiate the building of the Kościuszko Mound. As leaseholder of the city lottery, he devoted the wealth he won through it to public purposes.

In eighteen thirty-eight, he received a medal honouring his efforts to beautify Kraków. A section of the street running alongside the Planty, between Podwale and Podzamcze, bears his name.