Grób Nieznanego Żołnierza, Warsaw

This is Warsaw’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a monument honouring soldiers who died for Poland. Its most striking story is beneath the surviving arcade: since 2 November 1925, it has held the unidentified body of a young soldier killed during the Defence of Lwów. The body was selected from three coffins recovered at the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów, and the choice was made by Jadwiga Zarugiewiczowa, whose son had fallen at Zadwórze without a recovered grave.

The structure around you is the only surviving part of the Saxon Palace, destroyed during World War II. The architect of this memorial was sculptor Stanisław Kazimierz Ostrowski; after the war, Henryk Grunwald restored the small section sheltering the Tomb. Look at the memorial opening and the pillars: urns there contain soil gathered from battlefields where Polish soldiers fought.

An eternal flame burns here, beside a guard post maintained by the Representative Regiment. This is the setting for Poland’s principal military ceremonies and for wreath-laying by visiting foreign representatives. The guard changes every full hour, throughout the year. The Tomb remains powerful because a single unidentified soldier stands for all those who died without a known name.