Pomnik Peowiaka, Warszawa

Pomnik Peowiaka commemorates the officers of the Polish Military Organisation, an underground force active from nineteen fourteen to nineteen twenty-one. Edward Wittig’s fallen warrior sculpture was removed during the German occupation, then reconstructed by Marek Moderau and Zbigniew Mikielewicz and unveiled on the tenth of November nineteen ninety-nine.

Pomnik Peowiaka is a memorial on Stanisław Małachowski Square, set before the Zachęta National Art Gallery. On its pedestal, a metal warrior is shown at the point of death: his bare body slackens, his head falls back, and a short sword remains in his left hand. Edward Wittig designed the original sculpture, unveiled on the tenth of November nineteen thirty-three.

It commemorates officers of the Polish Military Organisation, an underground force active from nineteen fourteen to nineteen twenty-one. Its members gathered intelligence and carried out sabotage against the empires ruling Poland’s territory. This site carries a particular memory of nineteen eighteen, when Józef Piłsudski watched a parade of those units from the balcony of Kronenberg Palace nearby.

The sculpture disappeared in nineteen forty during the German occupation. Marek Moderau and Zbigniew Mikielewicz rebuilt it from archival images and surviving plaster material; the replacement was unveiled on the tenth of November nineteen ninety-nine. Notice the P.O.W. initials cut into the pedestal: they identify the organisation honoured here.