Warsaw mermaid

City arms of Warsaw (1938)

The Mermaid of Warsaw ( Polish : Warszawska Syrenka ) is a symbol shape of Warsaw , and in the form of a mermaid shape of Warsaw city arms.

The oldest image of the Warsaw mermaid dates from 1390. The old town's coat of arms depicts a figure with bird's feet and a dragon's body. In the next century (1459) the mermaid got a fish tail, a woman's torso with hands and bird feet with claws. The current figure of a woman with a fish tail dates back to 1622. This arrangement is still valid today. She holds a shield in her left hand and a sword in her right . In the city arms from 1938 it is shown on a red background.

There are two statues of the mermaid in Warsaw. The older one was created by the sculptor Konstanty Hegel . It was cast from a soft zinc alloy and erected on the Old Town Market Square (Rynek) in 1855 . In the period 1928-2000 it was set up in various places and was often damaged by vandals. In 2000 she returned to the market square ( Lage ). In order to protect the sculpture, which was only slightly damaged in the Second World War , from the weather, a bronze cast was made in 2008 and is now on the market square. On June 1 of the same year, the original figure was given a permanent place in the Historical Museum. Another copy was made on behalf of the Office of the Polish President and was intended as a present for the President of Georgia .

The sculptor Ludwika Nitschowa created a new statue in 1939, for which the ethnographer Krystyna Krahelska sat as a model. She later died as a medic in the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The statue was originally intended to be placed on a pillar in the middle of the Vistula , but was finally placed on the left bank of the Vistula opposite Tamka Street ( Lage ).

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  Warsaw mermaid (1659)

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  Warsaw Mermaid by Konstanty Hegel on the Old Town Market Square (1855)

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  Warsaw mermaid on the bank of the Vistula (1939)

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  Warsaw Mermaid at the Markiewicz Viaduct (1905)

Web links

Commons : Warsaw mermaid on the bank of the Vistula  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Warsaw Mermaid on Old Town Market Square  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

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• Wojciech Kryński: Warszawa. Starlings Miasto . 2 Buffi, Warsaw 2009, ISBN 978-83-88279-18-8

1. ↑ Row Over Replica Mermaid on www.warsawvoice.pl (English); accessed on March 21, 2014