Pałac Saski | Chapter 20

Część IV

The peregrinations of the Poniatowski statue

Do you know that the statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski, currently to be found in front of the Presidential Palace, stood in front of Saski Palace during the interwar period? As it turned out, it was just one of the stops on the remarkable journey of this celebrated sculpture.

Monument to Józef Poniatowski on Saski Square

Photo: The National Digital Archive

A tribute to the hero

The history of the monument began shortly after the death of Prince Józef Poniatowski. The commander of the troops of the Duchy of Warsaw died on October 19, 1813 having drowned in the strong currents of the Elster River, when covering the retreat of defeated Napoleonic forces following the Battle of Leipzig. On January 6, 1814, Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, in a letter to General Stanisław Mokronowski, suggested building a monument to the hero. Mokronowski, Poniatowski’s comrade-in-arms, soon became one of the supporters and organisers of the initiative. The erection of the monument, however, required the consent of Tsar Alexander I. This was obtained by a relative of Poniatowski, Anna Potocka, née Tyszkiewicz, who hosted the monarch in Wilanów in 1815.

Monument to Józef Poniatowski

The National Library in Warsaw

The Polish Marcus Aurelius

The creation of the monument was entrusted in 1818 to the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, one of the greatest and most revered sculptors of his time. The model of the monument was completed in 1828, the work having taken a decade, mainly due to the large number of commissions that had been accepted by Thorvaldsen’s studio at that time.

Thorvaldsen was a classicist, and drew on ancient models; even his studio was located in Rome. In line with this assumption, the sculptor prepared a design for a horse statue modelled on the ancient statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius from Rome’s Capitoline Hill.

Bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitoline Hill

The design of a monument to Poniatowski in a Lancer's uniform

Classics versus romantics

The vision proposed by Thorvaldsen referring to antiquity did not appeal to everyone.
When the model of the monument was presented on June 11, 1829 in Warsaw, a stormy discussion arose in the press and in the salons. The Roman costume in which Poniatowski was depicted and the dissimilarity of facial features were commented on. The conflict between the supporters and opponents of Thorvaldsen’s vision was part of the then growing dispute between the classicists and the romantics. The first opted for Thorvaldsen’s vision of presenting Poniatowski as an unwavering leader. Others were in favour of the dynamic depiction of the prince in his historic Uhlan uniform. Supporting such a depiction were, among others Adam Mickiewicz and Aleksander Orłowski, who had even prepared a design for the monument (pictured).

Monument to Józef Poniatowski in the Royal Łazienki Park

Photo: The National Digital Archive

The prisoner of Paskievich

Tsar Nicholas I appointed the courtyard of the Governor’s Palace as the location for the monument. A year later, the casting of the bronze statue began in the studio of the Gregoire brothers. The works were interrupted by the outbreak of the November Uprising. The failure of the uprising prevented the unveiling of the monument – all manifestations of Polishness had been eliminated from the public space. The monument was dismantled and transported together with the plaster model to Modlin fortress. The boxes with the inscription Poniatowski were placed in storage. Finally, the tsar presented the monument to Field Marshal Ivan Paskievich as a symbol of triumph over the Polish insurgents. The Russian placed it in front of his palace in Gomel (now Belarus). The monument spent nearly nine decades in exile.

Demotion of the memorial to Ivan Paskevich

Photo: The National Library in Warsaw

By a strange turn of fate, in the place where the statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski stands today, in the years 1870-1917 there was a monument commemorating the hated Paskievich. The material obtained from the pedestal of this monument was used to build the pedestal on which the Poniatowski monument was erected on Saski Square.

The ceremonial unveiling

The monument to Józef Poniatowski returned to Warsaw only four years after Poland had regained its independence. Its return was one of the conditions contained in the Treaty of Riga ending the Polish-Bolshevik War. Under it, Soviet Russia undertook to restore Polish monuments and works of art. Thorvaldsen’s work was fortunate as the Bolsheviks soon ceased to fulfil the terms of the contract; many valuable items never returned to their homeland.

Poniatowski’s monument was first temporarily erected in the courtyard of the Royal Castle. Ultimately, it was decided to place the statue of the heroic commander in the most important place for the Polish Army – in front of the General Staff headquarters of Saski Palace.

Unveiling of the statue of Józef Poniatowski in front of Saski Palace

Photo: The National Library in Warsaw

The unveiling took place on May 3, 1923, on the anniversary of the adoption of the first modern constitution in Europe and the second in the world. The celebrations were accompanied by a military parade and a fly-over of airplanes over Saski Palace. The honorary rostrum was attended by luminaries such as President Stanisław Wojciechowski, Marshal Józef Piłsudski and Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski. The special guest of the ceremony was the French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, who had been awarded the rank of Marshal of Poland a few days earlier in recognition of his services to the reborn state. Thus, the only French person with the rank of Marshal of Poland was present at the unveiling of the monument to the only Polish person who had achieved the rank of Marshal of France.

During the occupation

The monument to Józef Poniatowski stood in front of Saski Palace throughout the entire period of the German occupation during World War II. On September 1, 1940, during the celebrations of the “first anniversary of German rule”, the monument was covered with scaffolding with occasional decorations. This aroused concern among the inhabitants of Warsaw, who were afraid that the figure of Poniatowski would share the same fate as the monument to Chopin, which had been blown up by the Germans. On September 12, 1940, a note appeared on the pedestal: “Józiu, if you want to avoid my fate, claim to be a Volksdeutsch – Chopin”. Volksdeutsches were the citizens of the countries conquered by the Third Reich who signed the German nationality list. During the occupation, this attitude was considered a betrayal.

Blowing up the monument

The Germans blew up the monument after the Warsaw Uprising, as part of the demolition of the Polish capital on December 16, 1944. The fate of the monument after the war, in May 1946, was also shared by the pedestal.

Destroyed statue of Józef Poniatowski

Photo: PAP/CAF

A gift from Denmark

Thankfully, the model of the monument was preserved in the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, from which a new sculpture was made. The new sculpture returned to Warsaw in 1951 as a gift from the Kingdom of Denmark to Warsaw.
The monument donated by Denmark was erected in an unexpected place in 1952 – in front of the Old Orangery in Łazienki Park, where it remained for 13 years.

The final journey

In October 1965, the inhabitants of Warsaw witnessed an unusual event. The statue of Prince Józef, encased in protective scaffolding, was moved along the streets of Powiśle on a truck trailer. The whole project was led by the engineer, Kazimierz Chromiński, from Mostostal. Moving along Bednarska Street and Krakowskie Przedmieście, the monument eventually reached the courtyard in front of the Governor’s Palace. At that time, the building housed the offices of the Office of the Council of Ministers and the Office for Religious Affairs. Since 1994, it has been the seat of the President of the Republic of Poland. It was the last stop on the journey of a statue commemorating the life and feats of Prince Józef Poniatowski.

Erecting the statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski in front of the Palace of the Office of the Council of Ministers (today the Presidential Palace)

Photo: Stanisław Dąbrowiecki/PAP

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