Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw

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Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Polish: Grób Nieznanego Żołnierza) is a monument in Warsaw, Poland, dedicated to the unknown soldiers who have given their lives for Poland. It is one of many such national tombs of unknowns that were erected after World War I.

[edit] History

Eternal flame and honor guard.

In 1923, a group of unknown Varsovians placed, before Warsaw's Saxon Palace and the adjacent Saxon Garden, a stone tablet commemorating all the unknown Polish soldiers who had fallen in World War I and the subsequent Polish-Soviet War. This initiative was taken up by several Warsaw newspapers and by General Władysław Sikorski. On April 4, 1925, the Polish Ministry of War selected a battlefield from which the ashes of an unknown soldier would be brought to Warsaw. Of some 40 battles, that for Lwów was chosen. In October 1925, at Lwów's Łyczakowski Cemetery, three coffins were exhumed: those of an unknown sergeant, corporal and private. The coffin that was to be transported to Warsaw was chosen by Jadwiga Zarugiewiczowa, mother of a soldier who had fallen at Zadwórze and whose body had never been found.

On November 2, 1925, the coffin was brought to Warsaw's St. John's Cathedral, where a mass was held. Afterwards eight recipients of the order of Virtuti Militari bore the coffin to its final resting place beneath the colonnade joining the two wings of the Saxon Palace. The coffin was buried together with 14 urns containing soil from as many battlegrounds, a Virtuti Militari medal, and an erection act. Since then, except under German occupation in World War II, an honor guard has continuously been held before the Tomb.

[edit] Architecture

The Tomb was designed by the famous Polish sculptor, Stanisław Kazimierz Ostrowski. It was located within the arcade that linked the two symmetric wings of the Saxon Palace, then the seat of the Polish Ministry of War. The central tablet was ringed by 5 eternal flames and 4 stone tablets bearing the names and dates of battles in which Polish soldiers had fought during World War I and the Polish-Soviet War. Behind the Tomb were two steel gratings bearing emblems of the two highest Polish military medals—the Virtuti Militari and the Krzyż Walecznych (Cross of Valor).

One of the original tablets from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. As the tablets mentioned battles of the Polish-Bolshevik War, they were dismantled after the World War II by the Allied-backed communist authorities of Poland and hidden in the cellars of the Museum of the Polish Army in Warsaw. After Poland regained her independence in 1989, the tablets were restored and are currently on exhibition in the same museum, while the tablets on the actual Tomb were refurbished and extended to include the original battles as well

Some of the stone tablets.

During the Polish Defensive War of 1939 the building was lightly damaged by German aerial bombing, but it was quickly rebuilt and seized by the German authorities. After the Warsaw Uprising in December 1944 the palace was completely demolished by the Wehrmacht. Only part of the central colonnade, sheltering the Tomb, was preserved.

Saxon Garden, with the Tomb visible in the background.

After the war in late 1945 the reconstruction started. Only the small part of the palace containing the Tomb itself was restored by Henryk Grunwald. On May 8, 1946 it was opened to the public. Soil from 24 additional battlegrounds was added to the urns as well as more tables with names of the battles in which Poles fought in World War II. However, the communist authorities erased all the traces of the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920 and only a small part of the battles of the Polish Army in the West was included. This was corrected in 1990 after Poland regained its political autonomy. There are also plans to rebuild the Saxon Palace, but it is unknown when and if these plans will be realized.