Kotwica Returns To Uprising Hill

The PLN 15 million project to rejuvenate the so-called Uprising Hill in the south of the city took another step closer to completion after its Kotwica monument was returned to its crest on Friday.

Beginning last year, the investment will see the transformation of the iconic hill. Found in the city’s Siekierki district, the mound was created in the post-war years from tons of rubble brought from the center. Measuring approximately 35-meters in height, many viewed it as being a symbolic ‘tomb’.

Accessed by what was reputedly the longest stairwell in the city, the 350 steps took visitors to a peak proudly capped with a Kotwica – the official emblem of ‘fighting Poland’.  

Touting staggering views of the city, it was here that annual commemorations to mark the insurgency would reach their zenith with the solemn lighting of a pyre that would then be kept alight for 63-days – the length of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

Now, however, plans are in full swing to breathe new life into the hill with these including the construction of a new viewing platform and a lapidarium containing relics discovered during the subsequent reconstruction of the city.

Benefiting from a full renovation, the return of the Kotwica marks another key stage of a reconstruction process that should finally finish later this year.