In October 2016 the monument to King Władysław II Jagiełło (1362-1434) was unveiled in New York's Central Park after restoration. Many people ask themselves how one of the most splendid Polish equestrian statues of the 20th century ended up in Manhattan and has "reigned" there for over 80 years? The answer is complicated and requires going back several decades.

In the late 1930s both the USA and Poland were in a difficult economic situation after the global economic crisis. One of the forms of overcoming it in all spheres of public life were world exhibitions organised in several countries. In April 1939 the USA announced the opening of the New York World's Fair with the slogan "The Dawn of the New Day", which was to create visions of technological transformations bringing positive changes for both Americans and other nations. Notwithstanding the growing threat of war, its organisers created a far-sighted vision of human development "for happiness, hope and profit", as the official pamphlet stated. For the purposes of the World’s Fair the city conducted the reclamation of about 500 hectares of neglected land and dumping ground in the borough of Queens, which was a feat that already highlighted the unlimited possibilities of human activity. The process of turning this area into a park with islands and lagoons took just over a year and left visitors to the exhibition awestruck and amazed. By comparison, Central Park, founded in 1857 and covering 341 hectares, took 15 years to build and 20,000 workers were employed to develop the land.

The world of tomorrow
In November 1937 the Polish government, after what must have been serious discussions on the concerns due to the huge military expenditure at the time, decided to participate in the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and appointed Professor Stefan Ropp (1892 - 1983), an outstanding economist and long-time director of the Poznań International Fair, Commissioner General of the Polish Pavilion. Consul Sylwester Gruszka wrote from New York: ”There is no doubt that the future New York World’s Fair will have a very momentous significance for public relations and trade”. It was hoped that there would be new contacts and loans, an influx of tourists from North America and Canada and that the Polish Pavilion would be visited by more than four million Poles, for most of whom this would be their first contact with their reborn homeland. A huge propaganda effort was made, especially promoting the Polish economy, and the best Polish and local architects, as well as outstanding artists, were invited to collaborate.

After seventeen months of feverish preparation the Polish Pavilion was officially opened on the 148th anniversary of the Constitution of 3 May 1791, with the exhibition Poland's Past and Future in the Hall of Honour. It showcased our centuries-old traditions in an emphatic effort to dispel the myth that Poland had only come into being after World War I, as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. Around 11,000 exhibits were presented as a display of Poland’s cultural heritage as well as its scientific and economic achievements. The theme of struggle was omitted in order to focus on creating an optimistic vision of the country and its impressive achievements within only 20 years of recent existence. This was in keeping with the futuristic theme of the world exhibition, “The world of tomorrow”.

The Golden Tower and Jagiełło
The hallmark of the Pavilion was the historicising style of the so-called Golden Tower rising 18 storeys in front of the modernist mass of the main building. The juxtaposition of the simple geometric forms of the pavilion's architecture with the lacy structure of the Tower shooting upwards was complemented by the ideologically connected, very dynamic and expressive bronze statue of King Władysław II Jagiełło by Stanisław K. Ostrowski (1879-1947). And all this was set against the backdrop of Manhattan's skyscrapers.

Ostrowski’s design for the Jagiełło monument was created 30 years earlier for the competition held in Cracow to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald. It got an award at that time, but a different design, one by Antoni Wiwulski, was used for the Cracow monument, because it had been selected by Ignacy Jan Paderewski, who funded the project. In 1937, while preparing the ideological guidelines for the Polish Pavilion, Ostrowski's vision of a monument expressing the power of arms defending the country against a German threat found supporters and the decision was made to place the statue of Jagiełło in front of the Polish Pavilion. As Stefan Ropp, the main proponent of this idea, wrote in a letter to the sculptor, this work “will live in the minds and hearts of many generations after we are gone”. This was contrary to the views of the government, who were rightly concerned about upsetting relations with Germany, and for this reason, probably at the eleventh hour, a telegram was sent from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the artist, instructing him to change it into a monument to King Bolesław Chrobry. The distraught artist replied: “Change impossible. Stop. Michelangelo himself would not be able to do it. Stop”, and as we know, he prevailed.

An outstanding work of art
In the workshop in Carrara, famous for the extraction of precious marble, the work on the 3-metre high monument, named by the author Jagiełło the Victorious, lasted for almost two years. It was preceded by studies of equestrian monuments of the antiquity and the Italian Renaissance in Venice, Padua and Rome, and of arms and knightly garb in Florence. The crowned head of the king, modelled on the image of Kazimierz Jagiellon, was based on earlier studies made in the royal crypts at the Wawel Castle in Cracow. “For the artist this theme was an intention to create something similar to the Victoire on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris [...],” wrote Stanisław Ostrowski about the idea of the work.

The bronze cast, after two earlier sketches in plaster, was made using the "lost wax" technique (cire perdue) in the famous workshop of master Marinelli in Viareggio. It was a long-established family foundry which had created statues for Michelangelo himself, so the cooperation with it was much appreciated by Stanisław Ostrowski and the organisers of the Polish Pavilion. “It is not an easy thing to transport such a load by truck through tunnels and other obstacles (...)”, the artist recalled years later. “But the Italians are wonderful artists at work. Everyone, even the humblest worker, has a reverence for art and the effort put into a work of art, everyone feels a co-creator and experiences the joy and anxiety of creation as much as the artist. We brought the work to completion and broke bottles of red wine on the bronze (I mean the monument) to improve the patina. Let it go to the New World and viva l'arte” (Elżbieta Grabska). The monument was shipped from the port of Livorno to America for the New York World’s Fair in March 1939, to add splendour to the Polish Pavilion. It was placed on a 4-metre-high plinth bearing only the inscription POLAND, so as not to provoke political repercussions.

The artistically inspired depiction of Jagiełło, with his cloak flowing and the legendary two swords raised, was very original when compared to earlier works of this kind in Poland. Close up the precision of the king's face, as well as the decoration of his robes, armour and gear, changing colours on the surface of the bronze, made an additional impression. “The colossal statue of a horseman – referring to the noble monumental tradition and a sign of its time – contains a plethora of strongly differentiated forms, both heavy, massive and light, lofty, expressing the movement and tension of the entire composition. [...] The structure of this sculpture, with the horizontal and vertical axes crossing harmoniously, is <>” (A. Melbechowska-Luty). It is worth stressing that Stanisław Ostrowski, previously known for his portrait sculptures of famous Poles, was able to bring out elements of genius in his work even though it was not created to satisfy the need of the artist’s spirit but to fulfil a specific state order.

The war!
On 1 September 1939 the German attack on Poland began the tragedy of the Second World War. As a result of these events, the exhibition at the Polish Pavilion in New York was deprived of its financial support. Moreover, the Polish Pavilion's debts incurred in the USA had to be repaid; therefore further participation in the World Exhibition in 1940 was becoming problematic, and so was the liquidation of the Pavilion. Undoubtedly, the Commissioner General used all his professional experience and personal commitment to prevent the dispersal of the collection which made up “a snapshot of Poland in 1939” (Ropp), and which suddenly became vitally important for a country whose cultural assets were being destroyed each day of the war. This is why efforts were made e.g. to make the two ideologically linked Polish symbols, the Golden Tower and the monument to King Władysław Jagiełło, remain on the exhibition grounds. The help of the Polish American community was invaluable at the time, e.g. that of Dr. Mieczysław Haiman and President Józef Kania of the Polish Museum of America, who took care of the works of art from the Pavilion.

Thanks to Ropp’s efforts, the Citizens’ Committee of the American-Polish Memorial was established on 24 June 1940, consisting of a number of prominent people from the political, financial and business world of New York. Its aim was to purchase the Golden Tower and the Jagiełło Monument from the Polish government in order to raise some funds to cover the debts. One of the ways of obtaining the funds was the announcement of the possibility of buying the 1200 shields of the Golden Tower in the form of "bricks" at $50 each. On 18 September 1940 the Citizens Committee organized a high-profile charity event, involving the sale of 300 shields; among the purchasers were the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Senator John Townsed and other celebrities. The total of all donations collected and paid to the Commissioner General was $20,000, and it was three times less than had been expected. There was also an official ceremony during which the care of both the Tower and the Jagiełło Monument was entrusted to the City of New York, and Commissioner Ropp decorated the Mayor of New York City Fiorello La Guardia with a solid gold medal bearing an image of Ignacy Jan Paderewski.

Relocation of the monument
However, when the United States joined the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, New Yorkers had other things on their mind than the aesthetic solutions for the former World's Fair grounds, and thus the fate of the Golden Tower was sealed. Had it remained, it would now be one of the highest points in the Flushing Meadows Park, where the famous "US Open" tennis tournament takes place.

“The splendid work of art”, as the influential daily newspaper The New York Herald Tribune called the Jagiełło statue, met a better fate. Initially it aroused great interest, especially among the Polish American community, particularly after Ostrowski himself had arrived in the US and took an active part in promoting the monument. However, on the very next anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald on 15 July 1942, the statue was found on the abandoned exhibition site, next to the toppled Golden Tower stripped of its shields. The Poles realised that the monument needed to be moved to a different, more prestigious location..

Thus representatives of the New York Polish community formed the Władysław Jagiełło Monument Committee, with Mayor Fiorello La Guardia as honorary chairman. It was thanks to his influence and support that the committee was offered a possibility for locating the monument in Central Park; New York City also financed the technical design for that location by the renowned architect Aymar Embury. The Commissioner General of the Polish Pavilion even wrote in his memoirs that the location in Central Park had been applied for by Great Britain and Argentina, but it was granted to Poland. “The site for the monument, chosen with Mr. Ostrowski's assistance, is one of the best, as it is right next to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There will be enough space around the monument for Polish celebrations to take place at its foot in the future, and besides, the monument itself will be permanently in the public eye and will be a source of permanent interest in Poland”, commented the Polish Consul Sylwin Strakacz.

The ceremony of unveiling the Władysław Jagiełło monument on its new site in Central Park took place on 15 July 1945. The speakers were the chairman of the Władysław Jagiełło Monument Committee Józef Onka and Professor Oskar Halecki, who delivered a scholarly speech in great oratory style. The ceremony was attended by dozens of Polish American societies bearing their standards. There was also a delegation of Lithuanians, who claimed their ruler, the Great Duke of Lithuania, who had borne the name of Jogaila before he changed it to Jagiełło when he became King of Poland. It was a meaningful and important ceremony for the Polish American community, who could to revisit the moments spent in the Polish Pavilion in the atmosphere of an independent country whose freedom was once again under threat. For the successive generations of Poles visiting this place, the monument to King Władysław II Jagiełło is an object of pride and remembrance of Poland, the Old Country, thousands of kilometers away.