Pomnik Lotnika, Warsaw

Pomnik Lotnika is the aviators’ memorial at the Ochota roundabout where Żwirki i Wigury, Wawelska, and Raszyńska streets meet. The standing airman holds a propeller, making flight itself the monument’s subject. It honours Franciszek Żwirko and Stanisław Wigura, Polish aviation heroes.

Edward Wittig devised the original sculpture, using Leonard Zbigniew Lepszy as the figure’s model. The monument was unveiled at Lublin Union Square on the eleventh of November nineteen thirty-two, paid for by public subscriptions and income from aviation events; it belonged among Europe’s early monuments devoted to flying. During the German occupation, Jan Gut and Jan Bytnar marked its pedestal with the Fighting Poland anchor.

After the Warsaw Uprising, German forces destroyed the memorial during the city’s systematic demolition. This is a faithful postwar return: Alfred Jesion recreated Wittig’s work from surviving designs, and the present monument was unveiled on the ninth of September nineteen sixty-seven. Notice the Polish Air Force checkerboard carved into the front of the tall granite pedestal, beneath the immense cast figure.