The founder of the monument was King Władysław IV Vasa. He employed some of the most renowned artists and craftsmen to create the monument commemorating his father. The royal architect Agostino Locci the Elder, who came from Rome, was entrusted with urban planning. The final shape was given to the monument by Constantine Tencalla, known at the beginning of the reign of Władysław IV as ‘the second royal architect’. The sculpture of King Sigismund was created by the sculptor Clemente Molli from Bologna. The casting of the plaques on the pedestal and the statue itself was done by the Warsaw moulder Daniel Tym. The two latter immortalised their names on the base of the statue, where we read: ‘CLEMENS MOLLUS STATUAR DANIEL TYM FUSOR A[NNO]: D[OMINI]: 1644’.
Over the centuries, numerous paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and postcards have recorded changes in the surroundings and appearance of the column. One of the earliest iconographic records is a copperplate engraving made in The Hague in 1646 by Wilhelm Hondius, who made it according to drawings by the master planner Locci. This engraving, dedicated to Queen Marie Louise, shows the column with the history of its origin and construction placed in rectangular frames on its sides. Below, the texts of the plaques on the pedestal and, in decorative cartouches, the scenes of the assembly and transport of the column block are shown.
It originally consisted of a worked block of coloured limestone, so-called ‘świętokrzyski marble’ quarried near Chęciny and later bearing the significant name ‘zygmuntówka’. The core of the monument was later replaced three more times. The fence of the column also underwent changes – in modern times it was surrounded by an iron balustrade, from 1817 by wooden posts connected with chains, from 1855 by a waterspout with four tritones in the corners of the pool created in place of the steps and from 1931 – by granite steps. Conservation and restoration of the monument was carried out successively in the years 1743, 1810, 1855, 1887, 1928-1931, 1949, 1977, 1987 and 1994-1996.
Sigismund III is depicted on the monument as a knight and a ruler. The crown and coat are symbols of monarchical power, whilst the armour and sword of chivalric power, the cross is a sign of devotion to the Catholic faith. The construction of the column dedicated to his father was an element of the dynastic policy of Władysław IV and, at the same time, a clever propaganda device.
When visiting the capital in 1711, Tsar Peter I the Great, delighted with the column, received it as a gift from August II Sas, but luckily, due to technical reasons, it could not be transported to Russia. Sigismund’s Column standing in the heart of the Old Town, in the immediate vicinity of the Royal Castle, is a unique monument with an extensive ideological and political background. Until the unveiling of the Napoleonic column in 1810 at the Place Vendôme in Paris, it was the only secular column in Europe.
Originally written in Polish by Katarzyna Mączewska, December 2009, translated to English by PG, December 2021.