Piłsudski Square

Holy Mass

, 1979

Piłsudski Square (

Warsaw city centre. The square is named after Marshal Józef Piłsudski who was instrumental in the restoration of Polish statehood after World War I.^[1]

Current and previous names

Over the centuries, the square has been named successively as Saxon Square (Plac Saski) after Poland's Saxon kings with the

World War II occupation of Warsaw; and, after 1946, Victory Square (Polish: plac Zwycięstwa) in honour of Poland's and her allies' victory in World War II

. Since the fall of communism in Poland, it is again called Piłsudski Square.

Piłsudski Square is the site of the

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, erected on top of the underground foundations of the Saxon Palace

, destroyed by the Nazis in World War II.

History

The square has been the scene of many historic events over the centuries. Important guests of Warsaw and Poland have been officially welcomed there. Military parades have been held at the square since the 19th century Polish partitions. From the 1890s to the 1920s, the Russian Orthodox Church Alexander Nevsky Cathedral stood there. As with most of the other Moscow Patriarchate churches in Warsaw it was demolished in mid-1920s by the Polish authorities less than 15 years after its construction, and in 1928 the square was renamed after Józef Piłsudski.

It was on the Piłsudski Square (then Victory Square) in 1979 that

fall of communism in Poland. In April 2005, his death was mourned there also. Pope Benedict XVI celebrated an open-air Mass on the square on 26 May 2006, during his first pastoral visit to Poland. The square is now a location of some luxury shops, such as Italian Valentino

and others.