The bust of Piotr Wysocki,[a] also known as the Piotr Wysocki Monument,[b] is a monument in Warsaw, Poland, located in the Royal Baths Park, within the Downtown district. The sculpture consists of a bronze bust depicting Piotr Wysocki, a 19th-century military officer, a colonel in the Army of Congress Poland, and one of the organisers and commanders of the November Uprising.
It was made in 1926 by Aleksander Żurakowski, and unvailed in 1930 in town of Ostrów Mazowiecka. It remained there until the outbreak of the Second World War, during which it disappeared. It was rediscovered in 1978, and placed in the Na Książęcem Park. It was relocated to its current location in 1980.
History
The sculpture was made in 1926 by Aleksander Żurakowski, to commemorate Piotr Wysocki, a 19th-century military officer, a colonel in the Army of Congress Poland, and one of the organisers and commanders of the November Uprising.[1][2] It was unvailed in 1930, and placed outside the barracks of the Infantry Officer Candidate School in Ostrów Mazowiecka.[3]
The sculpture disappeared during the Second World War. It was searched after by the military and its author Aleksander Żurakowski, then a head conservator-restorer of Warsaw. The sculpture was found in 1978, bricked up in one of grottoes in the Na Książęcem Park in Warsaw, near the back of the Warsaw National Museum. It was discovered by Marek Kwiatkowski, the curator of the Royal Baths Park, whom explored the grotto together with a television crew. The sculpture was given to the museum, and placed in the southern portion of the Na Książęcem Park.[1][4] It was moved again, and on 29 November 1980, the 150th anniversary of the begging of the uprising, it was unveiled in the Royal Baths Park. It was placed next to the building of the Warsaw Officer Candidate School, where Wysocki used to teach in, and where he begun the uprising with his students.[1][5]
^ abcdIrena Grzesiuk-Olszewska: Warszawska rzeźba pomnikowa. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Neriton, 2003, p. 81. ISBN 83-88973-59-2. (in Polish)
^ abJarosław Zieliński: Atlas dawnej architektury ulic i placów Warszawy: Agrykola–Burmistorzowska. Warsaw: Towarzystwo Opieki nad Zabytkami, 1995, p. 41. (in Polish)