Fontanna Niedźwiadek exists because a lost sculpture was brought back to life. Beside the southern wall of Wrocław’s Old Town Hall, this is a rebuilt version of a fountain that stood here before the war. The first bronze bear cub was created by Ernst Moritz Geyger in 1902.
On 17 August 1904, it was installed by the town hall in a modest stone basin, sending water out through the animal’s mouth. The original statue disappeared during the Second World War. The return began with an initiative from Maciej Łagiewski and the Wrocław Shooting Fraternity.
Ryszard Zamorski made the replacement sculpture to match the earlier bear, and the revived fountain was unveiled here on 18 June 1998. This bronze figure is 1.5 metres tall and weighs 270 kilograms. Its casting came from the Gliwice Plant of Technical Devices, paid for by Wrocław Centrozlot and the Wrocław Piast Brewery. While you stand safely beside the town hall, the little bear makes a remarkably concentrated memorial: a playful water feature carrying the memory of what the city lost and chose to restore.
