Statue of King Jan Sobieski
Pomnik króla Jana III Sobieskiego
Drzewny Targ (Wooden Market), Gdansk, Poland
Originally built in Lviv (Lemberg in the Habsburg Empire) in 1898, the monument was transferred to Gdańsk in 1965.
The monument was funded by the city of Lemberg /Lviv, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). It was officially unveiled on 20 November 1898. The equestrian statue of the Polish king was designed by sculptor Tadeusz Barącz and cast in bronze by the Viennese company owned by Artur Krupp. The large Neo-Baroque pedestal of the monument made of grey Ternopil sandstone was created in Julian Markowski's sculpture studio in Lviv. The design of the king was modelled on a Lviv entrepreneur Marian Stipal. It was erected at a garden square along the Wały Hetmańskie Avenue (currently Freedom Avenue), one of the most representational pedestrian boulevards of the city. At present, a monument dedicated to Taras Shevchenko is located in that place.
Sobieski was/ is depicted in a festive national costume (wearing żupan and kontusz) jumping on horseback over a fallen enemy cannon and smashed remnants on the battlefield including a broken gun carriage. The figure of the king faced the south-eastern direction from where Lemberg/ Lwow/ Lvov/Lviv was frequently subjected to attacks by invading forces.
The original plaque with the inscription Królowi Janowi III, miasto Lwów, MDCCCXCVIII ("To King John III, the City of Lviv, 1898")
When the USSR handed the statue to Poland, it was for 16 years displayed in a park near the Wilanów Palace, one of the monarch's residences, before it was moved to Gdańsk. City officials from Kraków and Wrocław were also interested in acquiring the monument but their bids to host it proved unsuccessful.
20240413_114115 Sobieski
