On a magnificent stone plinth stands a statue of the King of Poland and Duke of Lorraine -Stanisław Leszczyński, who founded the square and the surrounding buildings. Stanislaus is portrayed heroically, in Polish costume and royal cloak, but without sacrificing the realistic characterisation of the obese ruler's face and stature. He appears to be walking along the main axis of the city he built and pointing to the triumphal arch closing the square. The statue stood in the middle of the city's main square, the former Place Royale, dedicated by the Duke of Lorraine Stanislas Leszczynski to his son-in-law, King Louis XV of France, whose statue was erected there. The king's statue was removed in 1792, and the revolutionary authorities also changed the name of the square. During the Consulate period, the idea of erecting a Leszczynski monument there was raised, but quickly abandoned. During the Napoleonic era, various monuments were intended to be erected on the empty plinth several times. The idea of a monument to the founder of the square and benefactor of the city, Leszczyński, was conceived in the early years of the Restoration. The decision was taken in 1823 and a subscription was immediately circulated in the region, appealing to the memory of the widely loved ruler of the duchy. A young sculptor from Nancy, Georges Jacquot drew up the first model of the monument in 1825; the details of the concept were still revised in the following years, and the sculpture was finally created in 1829, but its unveiling was delayed by political accidents in France. It was Jacquot's first important work after his return from a scholarship in Rome, and remained the most important in his oeuvre, despite his later work in Paris, including the decoration of the Arc de Triomphe on the Place de l'Etoile and the New Louvre. On the pedestal of the monument, inscriptions proclaim Lorraine's gratitude to her benefactor: "A Stanislas le bienfaisant la Lorraine reconnaissante/ 1831 Meurthe-Meuse-Vosges". A restoration of the monument and the entire square was carried out in 2005.