Pomnik Bohaterów Powstania Węgierskiego, Wrocław

This is the Monument to the Heroes of the Hungarian Uprising, a memorial to those who took part in Hungary’s 1956 revolt. Its sculpture turns the Hungarian tricolour into a torn flag: a vivid image of a nation under strain, fixed above its pedestal rather than flying from a mast. Notice the writing on the pedestal.

The message appears in Polish, Hungarian and English, so this small riverside memorial speaks simultaneously to its home city, to Hungary, and to passing visitors. Monika Molenda created the monument, which was unveiled on the second of November 2006. Wrocław’s president Rafał Dutkiewicz and Hungary’s ambassador, Michaly Győra, opened it in the fiftieth anniversary year of the Hungarian events.

Its setting is fittingly open: the monument stands on Słoneczny Boulevard in Nadodrze, beside the northern bank of the Northern Odra. Here, the riverfront becomes a place for Wrocław to mark solidarity with people beyond Poland’s borders.