A 70 million zloty project is in the pipeline for a memorial garden to the heroes of Poland's World War II Underground Army.
The project was first put forward over a year ago, and this Monday, the winning design was chosen from amongst 23 applicants.
The gardens will be created on the site of a part of the nineteenth century Austrian fortifications. The section in question lies just off the main road that leads east from Cracow. A park that adjoins the popular Museum of Aviation occupies the proposed site.Three hectares of this space will be remodelled for the memorial gardens.
The story of Poland's underground army is a dramatic and deeply emotive one until this day. Poland's 'secret state' encompassed every aspect of life in Nazi and Soviet occupied Poland, with underground newspapers, schools, radio-stations, law-courts and, of course, the Home Army itself, which ultimately launched the largest and most controversial resistance operation of the Second World War, the Battle for Warsaw, which began in the Summer of 1944.
The new gardens will include 10 statues in memory of key events and personalities in the struggle for independence. There will also be paths of remembrance and a focal pavilion which will have a multi-media presentation recalliing the plight of the Home Army. Cracow's Mayor Jacek Majchrowski is a major supporter of the project, and a large portion of the funds needed are expected to come from the city's pocket.
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