The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw from the very beginning is 1 of the most crucial symbols of Poland. It is simply a evidence to the dedication of defenders of the homeland in the fight for freedom and independence. And although it is 100 years since its unveiling this year, not everyone realises that it is besides 1 of the most changing memorial sites in Poland.
During 1 of the first meetings connected with the formation of the Unknown Soldier's Sepulchre in Warsaw – on 22 May 1925 in the Ministry of Military Affairs – then minister, Gen. Dyw. Władysław Sikorski, in order to make amends to the dissatisfied part of the society by choosing the arcade of the Saski Palace to replace the national mausoleum, he argued that both the tomb and the location of its location considered to be makeshift until Poland became a more powerful expression of homage. It turned out – as he predicted – that this makeover could last a long time. The location has not changed, while the place and architectural concept have already changed.
The first updates, which were made in the already approved Unknown Soldier's grave project, were introduced even before it was unveiled. They covered the inscription on the tombstone. In July 1925, the Historical Office of the Ministry of Military Affairs announced that it would read: “An Unknown Polish Soldier Deciding for Homeland”. 4 days before the ceremony of laying down the body of an unknown defender of the homeland under the arcades Saxon Palace, on 28 October 1925, the concept of the inscription changed due to the fact that it was wanted to emphasize that it would be a real grave, not 1 of more than 20 places – which then arose in Poland – dedicated to the unknown defender of the homeland.
From November 2, 1925
When the monument was unveiled on 2 November 1925, 1 could first see how the artistic concept of the author of the project, Stanisław Ostrowski, had been realized. The base of the tomb is the 3 central arcades of the colonnade of the Saski Palace. This space was a mausoleum with a tomb in the middle. The coffin with the remains of the soldier was covered with a plate of grey sandstone with inscription: “Here lies the Polish soldier who died behind the Homeland”. Above the plate, there was a fresco on the ceiling depicting a bay wreath tied in decorative ribbons. At the top of the plate, a classical niche was placed, which formed black figures of slender angels with hands folded on their breasts. Their intersecting golden wings were a bracket for a semicircular bowl containing the flame of the snow. After dark, the mediate part of the arcade radiated the light of the flame, which additionally reflected in the mirrored black polished tomb floor. The side parts were illuminated suspended at the lamp ceiling.
On the walls of the 4 pillars surrounding the tomb plate there were 4 granite plaques with engraved names and dates of battlefields. They were limited to only 2 historical periods: 1914–1918 and 1918–1920. specified actions were justified by the request to keep the legibility of the tables and the associated limitations in the case of letters. However, there have been many disputes over time in both the political and the communist circles. yet placed on name and date boards were selected so that they lacked many important, winning battles related to Marshal Józef Piłsudski.
At the ft of each plate, it was akin in form to the main disc, but somewhat smaller. Each 1 was placed on a square stone plate. On the anniversary of battles, whose names appear on the plaques, the candles were lit.
Free spaces from the Saxon Garden were closed with openwork bars, on which 2 highest distinctions were placed: on the left side the Knight's Cross of the Military Order Virtuti Militari and to the right of the Cross of Valor, in the mediate of a silver eagle in a golden crown on the shield of the Amazon.
The central part separated from the another simple granite posts completed with balls and connected with cast iron rods. The walls ending the arcades on both sides were decorated with panoplic reliefs. On the left side with elements of insurgent combat in the form of banners above guns and cannonballs. The main axis of the reliefs marked 2 eagles with spread wings. Greater supported on cannon barrels and smaller at the top of the arch of the arcade. The full of the reliefs surrounded stylized Hussar wings. On the right, panoplia represented symbols of military formation battles from the period of independency struggle, in the same composition arrangement. However, the flagheads received more varied shapes, and the eagle at the central point had more stretched wings.
On the facade of the GNZ front, 2 central pillars feature reliefs depicting swords surrounded by stylized, as in the panoples, Husar wings. 2 further pillars were the background for advanced marble blocks sustaining classicist urns made of bronze and richly decorated. They contained engravings depicting a cord dressed in long robes of women's figures, which held down mourning torches in their hands. The advanced urn line was at the tallness of joining arches of the arcade, which was perfectly composed architecturally with the column of the palace. During state holidays, gas fires were lit in these urns.
The full form was artistically interesting and harmonized with the block of the Saski Palace.
After December 29, 1944,
The grave in the unchanged expression survived the interwar period and part World War II – until 1944, erstwhile in December he divided the destiny of left-wing Warsaw. Saski Palace with a colonnade on December 29, 1944 The Germans blew up. According to witnesses, however, the full column did not fall. 2 central columns over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier remained. The Nazis didn't blow it up until the next day. Then the ceiling over the grave collapsed and the plate was covered with rubble. Only 3 arcades from the side of the square and 2 from the Saski Garden survived from the colonnade, which are at the same time the closest surroundings of the GNZ.
After the end of the war, as early as May 1945, the Unknown Soldier's Sepulchre was defused. The decision was besides made to give it a fresh expression and to change its appearance and immediate surroundings. It was to stay in the mediate of the square as part of the mutilated colonnade of the erstwhile palace. Within a year, the full area surrounding GNZ was cleared. Nearly 40,000 m3 of rubble was exported. The ruins of the side wings of the palace and the remains of the monument of Prince Joseph Poniatowski were torn down, reinforced concrete bunkers were removed and trenches were buried. In the area where the palace stood before destruction, pavements were laid out, and in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier the roadway was expanded.
Unfortunately, for the fresh authorities – decision-makers of the People's Poland – it was unacceptable to rebuild the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in its first form. From now on, he was to witness the brotherhood of arms with a fresh ally, and an earlier enemy – the Union of Socialist russian Republics.
After May 8, 1946,
At the end of 1945, the chief commander of the Polish Army, Marshal Michał Rola-Żymierzski, recommended the preparation of a preliminary task to rebuild the Unknown Soldier's tomb. The survey was presented on 13 November 1945 by a commission composed of officers of the Warsaw Military District, supported by architects of the Capital Reconstruction Office. It was assumed to leave the grave in the form in which he survived the war, as evidence of the barbarism of Nazi Germany.
The communist state authorities rejected the monument's reconstruction project, and the fresh concept was requested by the architect Zygmunt Stępiński. He accepted the thought of rebuilding the Unknown Soldier's Sepulchre as a ruin—a symbol. However, there was besides a change in its political tone. The authorities of the People's Republic decided to remove all elements related to the fight against the Russian aggressor and the Red Army. In the fresh imagination of the monument, it was decided to preserve the 3 central arcades, originally the mausoleum. From the side of the Saski Garden, the author of the task closed them (similar to Stanisław Ostrowski) with hollow bars. The Order of Virtuti Militari Cross was placed on the left crater, on which the date of 1792 (Polish-Russian War in defence of the Constitution on 3 May) was omitted. On the mediate was added the Grunwald Cross, over which the eagle was dominated without a crown. On the right – the conflict Cross, on which the date 1920 (Warszawski Battle) converted to 1918 (Poland's regaining independence). In addition, 1 of the 2 lamps hung before the panoplia was mounted above the sandstone plate, alternatively of the painted fresco depicting the laurel wreath.
At the top of the head of the gravestone the niche was mounted in modified form: made of brass on the wheel plan and in the base raised above the plate level. It was not restored before battlefield plates, but there were 4 large boilers containing urns with the ground from planet War II. In place of the first 4 battlefields names of 1914–1920, six fresh conflict fields were mounted to commemorate “the fight against fascism and Nazism in 1936–1945”. In its current form, the swords were reliefs in the halo of Hussar wings and low poles with balls connected with cast iron rods, closing the side arcades. On the another hand, the changes were made, which were placed outside the pillars. Classical monumental urns were replaced with tiny urns on black low columns.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on May 8, 1946, the chief military authorities solemnly handed over the capital's stewardship to the administration. The fresh urns placed in the corners of the monument were poured in from 24 places where Polish soldiers fought. For the next 44 years, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier did not change its form. In 1965, the monument was renovated in social activity by Warsaw craftsmen. At that time, a gravestone was replaced from sandstone to granite.
After June 18, 1989 and November 11, 1990
In the late 1980s, together with the process of systemic changes in Poland, the issue of restoring the first plates with battlefield sites and extending the symbolism of the tradition of Polish weapons in this mausoleum was increasingly raised. The first component of the change became the assembly of June 18, 1989, in 1 of the 4 urns of land from the Katyn graves. Polish POWs – mainly officers of the Polish Army and the State Police – murdered in 1941 by NKVD officers.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier passed another shift on November 11, 1990. The panels mounted in 1946 were removed from the pillars and the plates from 1925 returned (in the form of copies). Six months later, further changes were made to mark the National Constitution Day 3 May. This was then added 14 fresh plaques commemorating the armed activity of Polish soldiers throughout our 1000 years of history. On the 2 plaques were immortalized the names of battles fought from 972 to 1683, on 2 consecutive battles: buoys from 1768 to 1863; 2 more include dates: 1863 to 1921, 5 plaques commemorating the Polish armed act from 1939 to 1945. On a separate plaque, the moments of the top martyrdom of the Polish nation were commemorated – from 1768 (Barsk Confederation) to 1945 (war crime committed in Podgajy by Waffen-SS soldiers on POWs – soldiers of 4 companies of the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division), without a final date. The 2 plaques commemorate separate types of armed forces and are dedicated to airmen and sailors.
On that day the first elements of the grave were restored – the eagle's head on the central crater was crowned, the date 1920 was restored on the conflict Cross, and the Order of Virtuti Militari on the Knight's Cross – 1792. The Grunwald Cross from the central part was moved to the side, replacing the positions of the Knight's Cross Order Virtuti Militari and the Grunwald Cross.
An crucial day in the past of the Unknown Soldier Sepulchre was December 22, 2004. Information was then provided about the planned city authorities reconstruction of Saxon Palace, in cooperation with an external investor. According to the projects over GNZ, the palace colonnade was to be reconstructed, and the Saxon Palace was to find offices of state administration or the Museum of Independence.
Unfortunately, on 13 May 2005, the tender announced in December 2004 for the construction of Marshal Józef Piłsudski Square was cancelled by the authorities of Warsaw. no of the investors decided to rebuild the Saxon Palace (and Brühl Palace and the Royal House) for their own money without being able to own it (this was the condition placed in the tender). In this situation, in early 2006 the Warsaw authorities decided that the reconstruction would be carried out without an external investor and signed an agreement with Budimex Dromex to rebuild the palace. extended archaeological investigation was conducted during the preparatory work. The old basements and foundations were dug out. Due to their inclusion in the registry of monuments, it was not possible to proceed the work in accordance with the prepared projects that assumed their demolition. In 2007, the agreement to rebuild Saski Palace was terminated.
After August 15, 2016
Further changes in the appearance of the Unknown Soldier tomb occurred on August 15, 2016. On the Day of the Polish Army, president Andrzej Duda unveiled the first plaque dedicated to Non-violent Soldiers, participants of the anti-communist underground. Another plaque appeared on the grave on November 10, 2016 – on the eve of the National independency Day.
A year later, on 10 November 2017, 2 more plaques were unveiled, this time commemorating soldiers of Polish self-defense, defending the local community against Ukrainian nationalists. They included the dates and names of the towns where there were fights between Poles and the OUN/UPA branches in Volyn, east Małopolska and Lublin. And in this case besides the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier became “the hostage of history”. On 1 of these plates, for 1 day before its unveiling, there was an inscription about Bircza defended by troops of the Polish People's Army from 1945 to 1946 before the attacks of the CNS/UPA. However, the plaque was mentioned in the night hours, and the fresh name Bircza was no longer named.
There are presently 22 plaques on the pillars of the Archadum of the Unknown Soldier. fresh changes related to the elimination of the remnants of the communist period in the mausoleum decor took place on 11 November 2022: they were removed from the grate closing space under 1 of the arcades of the Grunwald Cross. The justification for this decision refers to the fact that the Grunwald Cross and its graphic images are among the most crucial symbols utilized by the communist authorities during the period of the Polish People's Republic. It was established during planet War II as an interior discrimination in the communist conspiracy, implementing on the Polish lands the policy of russian dictator Józef Stalin. He was then by the communist authorities, functioning from the broadcast and under the protection of the ZSRS, recognized as 1 of the most crucial orders dominated by the communists of the non-divide country. In 2022 the independency Cross, established by the decree of the president of the Republic of Poland of 29 October 1930, was installed in his place "in order to separate persons who deserved to be active for Poland's independency in the period before or during the planet War and during the period of Polish arms struggles in 1918–1921 but for the Polish-Russian war in Poland".
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw, despite so many changes and harm suffered during planet War II, continues all the time as a symbol of dedication and dedication to the homeland. Regardless of the graves of symbols placed in the surroundings, it was and is simply a manifestation of respect and memory for the sacrifice which the Polish soldier, not only the unknown soldier, has borne for over 1000 years of our past in defence of independency and freedom.
Source of the quote:
Regulation of the president of the Republic of 29 October 1930 on the Cross and the Medal of independency (Journal of Laws of 1930 No 75, item 591).
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