Prosp. Shevchenka – former monument to Aleksander Fredro ID: 100

The monument to the count, a Polish playwright and a honorary citizen of Lviv, was set up in 1897 on the Akademicka square on the initiative of the Literary and Artistic Circle. Its author was sculptor Leonard Marconi. After WW2 the monument was transported to Poland and installed on the market square in Wrocław in 1956.

History

An initiative to install a monument to Fredro was first launched by professor Romuald Bobin, a representative of the Literary and Artistic Circle (pol. Koło literacko-artystyczne) in 1891. It was then that a committee was created, headed by Albert Wilczyński. For several years, funds for the monument were collected through donations; at the same time, a contest for projects was announced. During June 1892, an exhibition of thirteen competitive projects was held, which could be observed in the premises of the Circle on Akademicka, 13 (now prosp. Shevchenka). The winner was chosen by the following  judges: count Jerzy Borkowski, A. Daun, count Andrzej Fredro, Józef Janowski, Juliusz Kossak, Władysław Łoziński, Karol Młodnicki, and Julian Zachariewicz. The first place was awarded to Leonard Marconi, a famous Lviv sculptor and professor of the Polytechnic. The second place was awarded to professor Tadeusz Wiśniowiecki for a project entitled "The Akademicka street's public garden"; the third place was awarded to Zawiejski from Florence for a project called “Jednemu Gody, drugiemu głody”. In January 1893, Marconi presented the completed project of the monument in the form of a plaster figure (Gazeta Lwowska, 1895, No. 255, 4).

The figure was cast in bronze by the company of Anton Krupp in Vienna. For the pedestal, red Terebovlia sandstone was used. To erect the monument, an old well was removed, and the City Council allocated funds for the arrangement of a square with a public garden near the monument. The work was delayed due to the fact that Marconi was busy with a considerable number of projects before the General Provincial Exhibition in Lviv in 1894 (Gazeta Lwowska, 1895, No. 255, 4).

The opening of the monument took place on 24 October 1897.

People

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