The Grunwald Monument

The monument was unveiled on August 20, 1911, in the Zakopane Market Square (nowadays Independence Square). The design was selflessly executed by Wojciech Brzeg, and the material for the monument was donated by Count Władysław Zamoyski. The costs were covered by the municipality, the Highlanders' Association, and individual citizens. The stonework was carried out by Jan Stopka Czajka and his son Józef, while the bronze figures were cast by the Krakow-based company of Franciszek Kopeczyński. In 1925, a plaque commemorating the Unknown Soldier was placed at the base of the monument, as a result of an anonymous donation. During the interwar period, numerous patriotic ceremonies took place beneath the monument. In World War II, the monument was dismantled on the orders of the Nazis, but a group of Zakopane residents preserved the founding documents and elements of the monument throughout the occupation. The monument was reinstalled on June 29, 1948, in the Municipal Park, as a new monument called the Gratitude Monument (also serving as the grave of Soviet soldiers who died in the Podhale region in 1945) was erected directly after the war in the former market square. In November 1990, the remains from Independence Square were exhumed, the Gratitude Monument was dismantled, and the graves of the Soviet soldiers were relocated to the monument commemorating the victims of World War II in the New Cemetery.