The Westerplatte Monument, also known as the Monument to the Defenders of the Coast (

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

: ''Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża'') is a

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

located in

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, on the Westerplatte Peninsula in the Gdańsk harbour channel constructed between 1964–1966 to commemorate the Polish defenders of the Military Transit Depot (''Wojskowa Składnica Tranzytowa'', or WST) in the

Battle of Westerplatte The Battle of Westerplatte was the first battle of the German invasion of Poland, marking the start of World War II in Europe. It occurred on the Westerplatte peninsula in the harbour of the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). In the mi ...

, one of the first battles in Germany's

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

, which marked the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in Europe.

History

The urban project including an unrealized museum was drafted by Adam Haupt, while the monument itself was designed by sculptors

Franciszek Duszeńko Franciszek Duszeńko (6 April 1925 – 11 April 2008) was a Polish sculptor, professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk and its Rector in the years 1981–87. He was a former prisoner of Nazi concentration camps in World War II. During the ...

and Henryk Kitowski. The project by Duszeńko and Kitowski was selected from 63 proposed projects. The construction of the monument was initiated by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites (''Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa'') and consists of 236

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

blocks transported from the

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environ ...

Strzegom Strzegom (german: Striegau) is a town in Świdnica County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the Gmina Strzegom administrative district (gmina). It lies approximately north-west of Świdnica, and west of th ...

and Borów and weighing 1,150 tons. The monument is decorated with

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

s and inscriptions, which pay tribute to the defence of the Polish sea coast, the naval battles of WWII in which Polish sailors and soldiers took part as well as the

Battle of Lenino The Battle of Lenino was a tactical World War II engagement that took place on 12 and 13 October 1943, north of the village of Lenino, Mahilyow Voblast, Lenino in the Mogilev region of Byelorussian SSR, Byelorussia. The battle itself was a part ...

Battle of Studzianki The Battle of Studzianki was a tactical engagement between elements of the Soviet Red Army's 2nd Guards Tank Army employed as a cavalry mechanized group of the 1st Belorussian Front, together with Polish 1st Armoured Brigade and elements of th ...

and Battle of Kołobrzeg. The memorial also includes the inscription "Glory to the Liberators" (''Chwała wyzwolicielom''). The shape of the monument resembles in its appearance a jagged

bayonet A bayonet (from French ) is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit on the end of the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar firearm, allowing it to be used as a spear-like weapon.Brayley, Martin, ''Bayonets: An Illustr ...

impaled in the ground. Seven candle lights at the foot of the monument symbolically represent the seven days of heroic defence of Westerplatte by Polish soldiers against the numerically superior

Nazi German Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

army. The 22-meter high artificial

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...

on which the monument is located was erected from the earth collected from the redevelopment of the

Port of Gdańsk The Port of Gdańsk is a seaport located on the southern coast of Gdańsk Bay in the city of Gdańsk, extending along the Vistula estuary Martwa Wisła (Dead Vistula), Port Channel and Kashubia Canal. It is one of the largest seaports on the ...

. The construction of the monument took 2 years to complete and it was ceremonially unveiled on 9 October 1966 on the anniversary of the Battle of Lenino. Each year, official state ceremonies to commemorate the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

take place at the foot of the monument and have been attended by prominent Polish and foreign dignitaries and heads of states.

Gallery

File:Westerplatte 2846.JPG, Westerplatte Monument File:79th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II (3).jpg, 79th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in Gdańsk File:Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża na półwyspie Westerplatte 1.jpg, Westerplatte Monument seen from a distance File:Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża na Westerplatte.jpg, Inscriptions on the monument FILE:00565 Westerplatte Monument von SE.jpg, Seen from SE File:0577 Westerplatte monument NE.jpg, Seen from NE File:0578 Westerplatte monument NW.jpg, Seen from NW File:0579 Westerplatte monument SW.jpg, Seen from SW File:06561 Westerplatte pillars monument.jpg, Pillars and monument

References

{{Gdańsk 1966 sculptures Outdoor sculptures in Poland World War II monuments and memorials in Poland Buildings and structures in Gdańsk Sculptures in Poland

History

Gallery

See also

References