Prosp. Shevchenka – former monument to Kornel Ujejski ID: 102

The monument to Kornel Ujejski, "the last great poet of the Romantic era," was installed on the initiative of the Literary and Artistic Circle near the City Casino in 1901. It was made by sculptor Antony Popiel. After the Second World War the monument was transported to Szczecin (Poland).

History

The Literary and Artistic Circle was one of the main places of the literary life of Lviv's Polish community. It was the Circle members who took the initiative to construct a monument to Kornel Ujejski (1823-1897), a well-known Polish poet of the 19th c., who lived and worked in Lviv for a long time and was popular due to his patriotic works. In 1893 one of Lviv's streets was already named in his honor (now vul. Ustyianovycha). In 1901 the Literary and Artistic Circle established a monument to Aleksander Fredro, a Polish playwright, politician and public figure, on ul. Akademicka (now prosp. Shevchenka), near the place where the Fredro family estate was located and not far from the building of the Circle. The solemn opening of the monument to Ujejski was held on 8 December 1901. The author of the monument was Antoni Popiel, a famous Lviv sculptor.

Architecture

At the time when the monument was erected, there were three zones with greenery in the middle of ul. Akademicka (now prosp. Shevchenka): a round one in the center and two elongated ones. In the middle of the round zone, a monument was placed: a bronze bust of the writer on a high granite pedestal with bronze lyre (a symbol of poets) and broken chains at the foot. The monument was located on the central axis of the Casino building, opposite the main entrance. Facing the boulevard, the monument became a kind of the trademark of the Casino and the Literary and Artistic circle. Initially, a few trees were planted behind the monument, and a flower bed with small bushes was arranged in the front. After the reconstruction of the boulevard in the late 1920s, the monument found itself between two parallel rows of poplars. After these trees were cut down and replaced by rows of spherical maples in the 1990s, the place where the monument had been located cannot be distinguished from its surroundings.

People

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