Światowid
Wayside Shrines
Wayside shrine, Stare Miasto district. Date according to OpenStreetMap: 1968. Material: stone. Wayside shrines were often raised out of gratitude, to commemorate events, or to ask for a safe journey.
History
The stone sculpture standing on a little square at the foot of Wawel Hill, where St Giles Street, Grodzka Street and Droga do Zamku meet, is a copy of the Slavic idol from the Zbruch river. It was made by Józef and Waldemar Wesołowski, who worked on it in 1963-1968. In 1968 the figure was placed on the square along with many other copies of the Światowid that the authorities set up to mark the celebrations of the millennium of the Polish state. The sculpture was restored in 2008. Next to it grows a horse chestnut tree that is a natural monument, which was damaged during a storm in July 2021.
Did you know?
The original Światowid was pulled out of the Zbruch river in 1848. It depicts five Slavic deities and shows the cosmos divided into levels, and today it can be seen in Kraków's Archaeological Museum.