Maciej Piotrowski, memorial to the soldiers of the 2nd Division of Foot Riflemen in Switzerland who died in Leysin (fragment), 1967, metal, marble, Polish war cemetery Les Larrets, photo Norbert Piwowarczyk, 2024, all rights reserved
Źródło: Instytut Polonika
Fotografia przedstawiająca Monument to the soldiers of the Second Infantry Rifle Division in Leysin
Maciej Piotrowski, pomnik żołnierzy II Dywizji Strzelców Pieszych, 1967, beton, granit, blacha aluminiowa, Leysin, polski cmentarz wojskowy, photo Andrzej Pieńkos, 2014
Licencja: CC BY-SA 4.0, Źródło: Instytut Polonika, Warunki licencji
Fotografia przedstawiająca Monument to the soldiers of the Second Infantry Rifle Division in Leysin
Maciej Piotrowski, pomnik żołnierzy II Dywizji Strzelców Pieszych, 1967, beton, granit, blacha aluminiowa, Leysin, polski cmentarz wojskowy, photo Andrzej Pieńkos, 2014
Licencja: CC BY-SA 4.0, Źródło: Instytut Polonika, Warunki licencji
Fotografia przedstawiająca Monument to the soldiers of the Second Infantry Rifle Division in Leysin
Maciej Piotrowski, pomnik żołnierzy II Dywizji Strzelców Pieszych, 1967, beton, granit, blacha aluminiowa, Leysin, polski cmentarz wojskowy, photo Andrzej Pieńkos, 2014
Licencja: CC BY-SA 4.0, Źródło: Instytut Polonika, Warunki licencji
Fotografia przedstawiająca Monument to the soldiers of the Second Infantry Rifle Division in Leysin
Maciej Piotrowski, pomnik żołnierzy II Dywizji Strzelców Pieszych, 1967, beton, granit, blacha aluminiowa, Leysin, polski cmentarz wojskowy, photo Andrzej Pieńkos, 2014
Licencja: CC BY-SA 4.0, Źródło: Instytut Polonika, Warunki licencji
Fotografia przedstawiająca Monument to the soldiers of the Second Infantry Rifle Division in Leysin
Maciej Piotrowski, memorial to soldiers of the 2nd Division of Foot Riflemen in Switzerland who died in Leysin (fragment), 1967, metal, marble, Polish war cemetery Les Larrets, photo Norbert Piwowarczyk, 2024, all rights reserved
Źródło: Instytut Polonika
Fotografia przedstawiająca Monument to the soldiers of the Second Infantry Rifle Division in Leysin
Maciej Piotrowski, memorial to the soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Rifle Division in Switzerland who died in Leysin, 1967, metal, marble, Polish war cemetery Les Larrets, photo Norbert Piwowarczyk, 2024, all rights reserved
Źródło: Instytut Polonika
Fotografia przedstawiająca Monument to the soldiers of the Second Infantry Rifle Division in Leysin
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ID: POL-001374-P

Monument to the soldiers of the Second Infantry Rifle Division in Leysin

ID: POL-001374-P

Monument to the soldiers of the Second Infantry Rifle Division in Leysin

Variants of the name:
Monument aux soldats polonais morts à Leysin

At the municipal cemetery of the resort town of Leysin, located about 3 km west of the town, high in the forest, there are two separate soldiers' cemeteries: a French-Belgian one (the dead were mainly from the First World War) and a Polish one. The latter, established on the very edge of the slope, holds the bodies of 28 officers and soldiers who died while being treated for tuberculosis in Leysin, a well-known spa town high in the Alps above the Leman. Polish internees were also building a mountain road to the Forclaz ski resort in the area. The cemetery, however, rests with soldiers who were transferred from the internment camps to the sanatoriums in Leysin for treatment - they died here or those who wished to be buried with their comrades-in-arms. The memorial was funded and inaugurated with the participation of representatives of the communist authorities. Although the authorship of the design for the monument by the painter Michał Kalitowicz was put forward, it seems certain that the author is the leading sculptor of Polish emigration in Switzerland, the Winterthur-based Maciej Piotrowski, also a veteran of the interned Second Rifle Division. In the artists' dossier of the federal Schweizerisches Kunstarchiv in Zurich, there is a photograph showing him at the military cemetery in Leysin; the metal eagle from the monument is reminiscent of the treatment of form in Piotrowski's sculptures in several public places in Winterthur. The composition of the monument is reminiscent of the symbols from the divisional badge: the eagle (admittedly much stylised and simplified) is supported by three swords. This aluminium figurative part rests on a two-part plinth, clad in polished granite slabs. Attached to the front face of the upper part of the plinth is a metal plaque with the inscription in French and Polish: "Here rest the Polish soldiers of the Second Infantry Rifle Division interned in Switzerland during the Second War and died in Leysin". As a whole, this is the main (albeit relegated to the edge) accent of the small, terraced layout of the Polish cemetery: simple, identical gravestones arranged in three rows with small slabs decorated with the divisional eagle. The cemetery is looked after by the municipality of Leysin, but the conservation of the monument was carried out in several stages until 2011 with funds from the Polish state.

Related persons:
Time of origin:
unveiled 1.11.1967
Creator:
Maciej Piotrowski (rzeźbiarz; Polska, Szwajcaria)(preview)
Bibliography:
  • J. Zieliński, Nasza Szwajcaria, Warszawa 1999, s. 109-110.
  • Teczka „Mattias Piotrowski”, Zurych - Schweizerisches Kunstarchiv.
Keywords:
Publikacja:
18.07.2024
Ostatnia aktualizacja:
18.07.2024
Author:
prof. Andrzej Pieńkos
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