Światowid, Kraków

Here is Światowid, a stone carving set on the small green space below Wawel, at the meeting point of Świętego Idziego, Grodzka and Droga do Zamku streets. It arrived here in 1968, made by Józef and Waldemar Wesołowski between 1963 and 1968. What you see is a copy of the Zbruch Idol, an object recovered from the River Zbruch in 1848.

The original is kept in Kraków’s Archaeological Museum. Its imagery brings together five deities from Slavic religion and arranges the universe in stacked levels, making this compact pillar a map of an entire sacred world. This was not an isolated work of public art.

The authorities installed it during the celebrations marking one thousand years of the Polish state, among numerous Światowid copies erected for that anniversary. Notice also the horse chestnut beside the sculpture: it is protected as a natural monument. A severe storm damaged it in July 2021. The carving itself received restoration in 2008, and it remains an unexpected Slavic counterpoint at the base of Kraków’s royal hill.