Ignacy Jan Paderewski Monument
Kraków Artists: Music
A monument in Strzelecki Park, at Lubicz Street 16, in the Grzegórzki district. This work by Czesław Dźwigaj was funded by the Kraków Fowler Brotherhood, of which Paderewski was an honorary member, and it was unveiled on 17 July 2010. The plinth bears the inscription "Ignacy Jan Paderewski artist-statesman 1860-1941" and a stave with the opening bars of the song "Hej, Orle Biały", Paderewski's last composition and last poem, from 1917. It is one of three monuments to the pianist and composer in Kraków.
History
The monument stands in Strzelecki Park on Lubicz Street, in a garden bought by the Kraków Riflemen's Society in 1837. The sculpture is the work of Czesław Dźwigaj, a professor at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, and it was unveiled on 17 July 2010. It was funded by Kraków's Fowler Brotherhood (Bractwo Kurkowe), of which Paderewski was an honorary member - a small plaque bearing the Silver Rooster, the Brotherhood's emblem, was placed at the base of the sculpture. The monument marked several anniversaries: the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald, the centenary of the unveiling of the Grunwald Monument and the 600th anniversary of the Kraków Merchants' Congregation. The pedestal bears a musical stave with the opening bars of the song "Hej, Orle Biały" ("Hey, White Eagle") and the inscription "Ignacy Jan Paderewski artysta-mąż stanu 1860-1941" ("artist and statesman"). The piece, from 1917, was the artist's last composition and his last poem.
Paderewski was born in Kuryłówka in Podolia and studied at the Music Institute in Warsaw. He gave his first major concert in Paris in 1888, and his concert tour of the United States in 1891-1892 was a great success. His only opera, "Manru", had its world premiere in Dresden in 1901, and a year later it was staged at the Metropolitan Opera. When the First World War broke out, he threw himself into diplomatic work for Poland, and on 16 January 1919 he became Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He died in New York in 1941.
Paderewski also funded Kraków's Grunwald Monument on Matejko Square, erected for the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald. At its unveiling on 15 July 1910 he addressed 150,000 people of Kraków and many visitors from elsewhere. In January 1919, soon after returning to the country, he came to Kraków and, at this very monument, called on his compatriots to unite and work together for the reborn state.
Did you know?
Kraków has two more monuments to Paderewski: one by the Pusłowski Palace, home to the Institute of Musicology of the Jagiellonian University, and the other in the courtyard of the Collegium Paderevianum.