Adam Mickiewicz Monument

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz de Poraj was born in 1798 in Navahroudak (Nowogrodek in Polish, currently in Belarus), in what was then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and died in Istanbul in 1855. He was a Polish poet and writer.

Adam Mickiewicz was above all a great creator, one of the greatest European Romantic poets, and an intellectual. His lectures at the Collège de France were remarkable for the freshness of their perspective. He is celebrated in his native country as the spiritual father of modern Polish literature. He sublimated an unhappy love by immortalizing Maryla. His almost immediate literary success, combined with his political engagement, earned him the role of a moral leader recognized by the entire Polish nation. His inspiration was always drawn from Polish and Catholic tradition. "Ballads and Romances" (1822) is folkloric, "The Ancestors" (1823) draws from Lithuanian soil, and "Conrad Wallenrod" (1828) reveals a patriotic commitment.

His involvement in patriotic circles led to his exile in Russia from 1824 to 1829, after which he moved to France. During the 1831 uprising, he unsuccessfully attempted to join the rebels but could not get past Dresden. From 1832, and with "Conrad Wallenrod" in the last part of "The Ancestors," he found his doctrine (fervent patriotism, rediscovered religion). He preached regeneration through accepted sacrifice, suffering sublimated into love for his homeland. The cause of Poland became sacred in the history of the world. He affirmed this commitment by writing the "Books of the Polish Pilgrimage" (1832). On July 22, 1834, he married a twenty-two-year-old compatriot, Félicie Szymanowska, in Paris, with whom he had six children. In 1839 and 1840, he taught Latin literature in Lausanne before being appointed in 1840 as a professor of Slavic literature at a chair created for him at the Collège de France. However, his lectures were suspended in 1844 because he was accused of being influenced by the opinions of the mystic Andrzej Towiański. He was eventually dismissed — along with Jules Michelet and Edgar Quinet — after the coup d'état of 1851 by decree of March 9, 1852.

He died of cholera in Istanbul, where he had gone to join the Polish colony living in Polonezköy during the Crimean War. He had planned to form a Polish legion there to fight against the Russians. His body was brought back to Paris and, in 1890, transferred to Krakow, where he was solemnly buried in the Wawel Cathedral.

Six bas-reliefs decorate the base of the column: Wallenrod, the Captives, Dziady, Aldona, Old Halban, and the Three Polands. In the upper part, there is the high relief of the Polish Epic. Finally, the column is topped with the Statue of Mickiewicz.

In 1908, a Franco-Polish committee commissioned this monument from the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle. In 1926, it was accepted by the Paris municipal council, a gift from the Polish government through its embassy.