"In honor of the Poles in Peru" reads the Spanish inscription engraved on the monument commemorating the Polish engineers working in Peru in the second half of the 19th century: Jan Edward Habich, Aleksander Babiński, Władysław Kluger, Władysław Folkierski and Franciszek Ksawery Wakulski.

Peruvians’ gratitude
In gratitude for their contribution to the modernization of the newly formed republic of Peru, a monument was erected in Parque Polonia in the central part of Lima to commemorate the activities and merits of Jan Edward Habich, founder of the first technical college on the continent, as well as his compatriots who formed the academic core of the college. In addition to their teaching activities, they also carried out projects commissioned by the Peruvian government, where they worked in the field of civil engineering, railways, mechanics, geology, hydrology, topography and other sciences.

Originally, the token of gratitude of the Peruvian society for the Polish contribution to the economic development of Peru was a marble monument to J.E. Habich, erected in 1914, on the fifth anniversary of his death. It was first located in the prestigious historical part of Lima, opposite the Basilica and Convent of San Augustin. However, in 1934, on the centenary of J.E. Habich's birth and the 400th anniversary of the foundation of Lima, another monument was created, where the first sculpture was incorporated. Nowadays the monument is located in the Parque Polonia, in the old district of Jesús María (near the Polish Embassy in Lima), where it is a part of the memorial to Polish engineers working in Peru. Some sources say that the author of the memorial was the Parisian sculptor Charles Theodor Perron and others that it was Carlo Libero Valente.

The memorial was designed in the modernizing style, in the shape of three adjacent rectangles. The central one is the largest and forms a frame for Habich's bust placed on a statue depicting a female figure holding a torch. According to some interpretations, the torch symbolizes knowledge and the woman is the goddess Nike and represents the nation. The left hand part of the monument features the Polish crowned eagle and bronze plaques with the busts of Franciszek Ksawery Wakulski and Władysław Folkierski. In the right hand part of the monument there is the coat of arms of Lima resting on two condors, and the busts of Wladyslaw Kluger and Aleksander Babinski on bronze plaques. Under Lima's coat of arms an inscription in Spanish is engraved: "In honor of the Poles in Peru".

It should be emphasized that the Polish engineers who contributed to the development of technology in Peru and unlocking its economic potential rooted in the rich natural resources, came to a very young republic, only a few decades old, in an extremely turbulent period. As South America was undergoing rapid changes and countries engaged in the post-colonial economic race, Peruvians were often involved in armed conflicts. First they defended themselves against the Spaniards trying to regain their influence (1865-1866), and later they competed with their neighbors for territories and deposits of valuable mineral resources (the Saltpeter War 1879-1883). Apart from the obvious achievements of the Polish engineers, it was the fact that they were present in Peru during this historic period that strengthened such a positive image of Poles in the consciousness of Peruvians.

The beginnings of scientific cooperation
Building a common scientific and technical heritage started earlier, from the Polish engineer Ernest Malinowski, the designer of the Central Trans-Andean Railway (up to 2006 it was the highest railway line in the world). Thanks to his heroic attitude during the defense of the port of Callao during the war with Spain, Malinowski became the national hero of Peru. His reputation as an expert helped to convince representatives of the Peruvian government to employ more Polish immigrant engineers, including graduates of the Paris School of Roads and Bridges (École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées - ENPC). Among them was Jan Edward Habich, a veteran of the Crimean War and the January Uprising; after the suppression of the Uprising he fled to France, where he held the post of the director of the Polish College in Paris. When he came to Peru he initially had a contract only for three years, and he coordinated irrigation projects in the south of Peru, executed urban development projects, and conducted works on the repair of central railway and the expansion of the port of Arica.

Soon, thanks to his experience in education and science, the Peruvian government entrusted him with the mission of founding a university. In 1873 Habich was a delegate of the Peruvian government to the World Exhibition in Vienna, where he started to develop a rich network of social and professional contacts which subsequently helped him to recruit the academic staff in sciences. Soon the Peruvian Embassy in Paris began to employ Polish scientists, academics and engineers. Their decision to go to South America was facilitated by their difficult situation resulting from the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, involving the closing of Polish educational centers in France in accordance with Prussia’s demands.

The oldest technical college on the South American continent
Among the Poles coming to Peru at the time were Władysław Folkierski, Władysław Kluger, Franciszek Ksawery Wakulski and Aleksander Babiński, who became faculty members of the School of Civil Constructions and Mining Engineers (Escuela de Ingenieros de Construcciones Civiles y de Minas del Perú), opened in 1876. Habich later had it upgraded to university level, and nowadays it operates as the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería. Later another Pole, the architect Ryszard de Jaxa Małachowski, founded the Faculty of Architecture of the University.

In addition to their academic activity, the engineers were also involved in government projects still financed from guano exports. Wakulski established a telegraphic network in Peru and Folkierski ran the Peruvian Sailing Company of Lake Titicaca and designed a railway line between Pisco and Ica. Kluger designed the water supply and sewage network in Callao and coordinated the construction of the port in Arica. Babiński designed the first Peruvian geological maps. J.E. Habich himself, in addition to holding the position of the rector of the University until the end of his life, coordinated the activities of the Central Council of Government Engineers (1878-1884), co-created the Peruvian mining law and co-designed the introduction of the metric system in Peru. He co-organized the Geographic Society in Lima (with E. Malinowski, among others), the Chamber of Industry and the Bureau of Weights and Measures. He was an expert of the Civil Engineering Council. In recognition of his merits he was awarded an honorary citizenship of Peru.

The activity of Polish engineers in Peru, to which we owe a positive perception of Poland on the west coast of South America, still has not been properly researched by scientists, nor is it sufficiently familiar to contemporary Poles.