Studzienka Badylaka, Kraków

Studzienka Badylaka is a memorial well on Kraków’s Main Market Square commemorating Walenty Badylak. Its paving plaque, metal tablet and base inscription recall his self-immolation here on the twenty-first of March nineteen eighty, protesting the official suppression of the truth about the Katyn massacre.

Studzienka Badylaka is the memorial well on Kraków’s Main Market Square, bearing the name of Walenty Badylak. Beside it, a plaque is fitted into the paving; a metal tablet hangs from the well itself, and its base also carries an inscription. Together, they mark an act of protest that forced a forbidden subject into public view.

On the twenty-first of March nineteen eighty, Badylak chained himself to a hydrant in the western part of this square and set himself on fire. He was protesting the authorities’ suppression of the truth about the Katyn massacre. In nineteen ninety, his grandson, Father Wojciech Badylak, unveiled the paving plaque beside this well.

The hydrant was restored in two thousand and four, when an additional memorial to Badylak was attached to it. This modest piece of street furniture is therefore a public memorial: its plaques and inscription preserve the name of a man who made his protest here, in the heart of Kraków.