Pomnik Solidarności, Kraków

Pomnik Solidarności is the monument before you, commemorating Nowa Huta’s opposition to communist rule. Its steel V rises from a plinth, drawing on the victory gesture made with a hand. The plaques embedded in the structure mark eleven moments that shaped the district, including the defence of the cross, Solidarność’s creation, and steelworkers’ strikes.

A crowned eagle appears at the base. The memorial was unveiled in nineteen ninety-nine beside the Sendzimir Steelworks rolling mill, where the complex’s most powerful Solidarność group formed and a strike committee operated during nineteen eighty-eight. When plans threatened the mill with demolition after privatisation, the monument came to Plac Centralny and was unveiled again. Its name, “Bądź wierny, idź,” comes from a passage involving Mr Cogito, the figure in Zbigniew Herbert’s poetry.