Sigismund's Column

This guide to Sigismund's Column in Warsaw traces the monument King Władysław IV raised in 1644 to honor his father, Sigismund III, who had moved the Polish capital here from Kraków, and the message a filial tribute quietly sent about the son's own claim to the throne. It follows the bronze king's fall during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, when artillery brought him crashing to the square below. The shattered figure toured Warsaw in a wartime exhibition before it was recast and returned to this spot.