The Warsaw Nike commemorates everyone who died in Warsaw between 1939-1945, including the participants of the defense of Warsaw in September 1939, participants of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Warsaw Uprising, and the victims of the German terror during the occupation.
Monument’s second location
At the beginning of the 1990s, the monument had to be moved to another location following the plans to reconstruct the buildings on the north wall of the Square.
On 14th November 1995 the monument was taken off the pedestal and temporarily placed at the back of the Jabłonowski Palace. The design of the monument’s adaptation to the new location was contracted out to its original author, Marian Konieczny. During the works, some disagreements regarding e.g. the pedestal height appeared. Konieczny imagined the sculpture to be placed on a 20m tall pedestal. The authorities wouldn't agree to that, instead proposing for the pedestal to be 6.5 m high. In the end, the two sides compromised on fourteen metres – a height that enhanced the sculpture’s proportions and expressive effect.
The new pedestal was designed by Marta Pinkiewicz-Woźniakowska. Since the monument was supposed to stand on a post-rubble landfill scarp, it was necessary to build a deep foundation. The pedestal was made out of reinforced concrete imitating natural stone.
On 15th December 1997, the sculpture was placed on the new pedestal in a new location next to the East-West thoroughfare, near the Old Town tunnel and two of Warsaw’s representative squares – the Theatre Square and the Bank Square.
Text published courtesy of the Independence Museum in Warsaw, February 2015, ed. Tk, transl. AM