Piłsudski's Mound

50°03.36′N 19°50.50′E / 50.05600°N 19.84167°E / 50.05600; 19.84167

Piłsudski's Mound (

Kraków's VII District "Zwierzyniec". It is the newest and largest of Kraków's four mounds.^[a]

History

In 1934 the Polish Legionists, and their associations, proposed to build a monument commemorating the re-establishment of Poland's independence. The Committee for Mound Construction was created in Warsaw and was chaired by Walery Sławek. Construction began on 6 August 1934, the 20th anniversary of the departure of First Cadre Company from Kraków at the beginning of World War I.^[2]

After the death of Marshal Józef Piłsudski on 12 May 1935, the Legionists - former subordinates of Piłsudski, the creator of the Legions - decided to change the name of the mound after their leader. The mound was completed on 9 July 1937. Soil from every World War I battlefield in which Poles fought was placed into the mound.

During

communist government of Poland, which considered the mound a relic of the capitalist Second Polish Republic, still supported by the Polish government-in-exile, tried to minimize the mound's importance. Any mentions of it were removed from official publications and the surrounding area was filled with trees to help obscure the view. Unofficially it was referred to as the "Kopiec Sowiniec" (Sowiniec Mound). However, the most damage to the monument was inflicted during the Stalinist

era; in 1953 the granite tablet with the Legion's cross was removed, and much of the surface area of the mound was devastated.

In 1981, with the

fall of communism in Poland, the first major renovation of the mound was completed. In 1997 a major flood damaged the mound, and a second renovation began soon afterwards, finalized in 2002 with a ceremony attended by the president of Poland

.

Design

architect: Franciszek Mączyński
landscape architects: Romuald Gutt and Alina Scholtz^[3]
height: 35 m (383 m
AMSL
)
diameter of base: 111 m
volume: 130,000 m³

Notes

a. ^{^} The other three major mounds in Kraków are Krakus Mound, Wanda Mound, and Kościuszko Mound.

References

^ E-Krakow, mounds in Krakow
^ E-Krakow, mounds in Krakow
^ Majdecka-Strzeżek, A.; Niemirski, A.; Szumański, M. (2016). "Alina Scholtzówna (1908–1996)". Szkoła Główna Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego (Warsaw University of Life Sciences (in Polish). Warsaw, Poland: Wydział Ogrodnictwa, Biotechnologii i Architektury Krajobrazu (Department of Horticulture, Biotechnology and Landscape Architecture). Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2017.

(in Polish) Kopiec Józefa Piłsudskiego on the pages of Pedagogical University of Cracow
(in Polish) Remont kopca Piłsudskiego w latach 2001 - 2002 based on articles from Dziennik Polski
(in Polish) Gallery at Gazeta Wyborcza

External links

Panoramic photo

[1] E-Krakow, mounds in Krakow

[2] E-Krakow, mounds in Krakow

[3] Majdecka-Strzeżek, A.; Niemirski, A.; Szumański, M. (2016). "Alina Scholtzówna (1908–1996)". Szkoła Główna Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego (Warsaw University of Life Sciences (in Polish). Warsaw, Poland: Wydział Ogrodnictwa, Biotechnologii i Architektury Krajobrazu (Department of Horticulture, Biotechnology and Landscape Architecture). Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2017.

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