Nike, Warsaw

Before you rises Nike, the Monument to the Heroes of Warsaw. This memorial is dedicated to people killed here during the war years, including the city’s defenders, fighters in the Ghetto and Warsaw Uprisings, and victims of German occupation terror. Notice the sweeping figure: a woman seems to surge forward, her sword held aloft and her free hand thrust upward.

Nike is the Greek deity of victory. The sculpture is immense—ten tonnes, seven metres high and six metres long. Even its sword is an engineering feat: around six metres long and close to a tonne in weight, it contains steel rods that let it bend by about fifteen centimetres in fierce wind.

The inscription on the granite base dedicates the monument to Warsaw’s heroes of nineteen thirty-nine to nineteen forty-five. Marian Konieczny created the winning design with Zagremma and Adam Konieczny after a public competition. The monument was unveiled at Teatralny Square in nineteen sixty-four, then moved here after the rebuilding of Jabłonowski Palace required its former site.

The figure reached this pedestal in December nineteen ninety-seven. The tall support is deliberately hollow, allowing conservators to reach the sculpture within.