Trampled Underfoot

Across Łazienki Park back to the office. A different way this time; further along ul. Agricola. And what's this I see? A monument to the Unknown Polish Pedestrians? No, on horseback this is King Jan III Sobieski, whose army relieved the Turkish siege of Vienna, thus saving Europe from invasion from the East. (For the first time*. Poles would save Europe from barbaric hordes again in 1920, and in 1944. The 63-day long Warsaw Uprising ensured Stalin's tanks got no further west than the Elbe).

Beneath the hoofs of the triumphant king not hapless pedestrians, but Turkish Janissaries. (Click on pics for larger image.)

The statue itself's a bit ...er... clumsy. At first sight, I took the rider to be Ben Turpin, silent film comedy actor. And what's to be made of the inscription (in Polish) on the right-hand shield?

In Polish this reads: "IANOWI III, K(rólowi) P(olski i) W(ielkiemu) X(ięciu) L(itewskiemu), OYCZYZNY Y SOIUSZNIKÓW OBROŃCY, KTÓREGOŚMY POSTRADALI R(oku 1696).
S(tanisław) A(ugust) K(ról). R(ok) 1788"

'Postradać' means 'to lose' (ie he died in 1696). Note how Polish spelling has changed over the centuries; 'i' and 'y' have mutated into 'j', 'y' into an 'i', 'x' into a 'ks'.

In English: "To John III, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Defender of the Fatherland and its Allies, whom we lost in 1696. Stanislaus August, King. 1788."

* Some say Poland saved Europe from the Golden Horde at Legnica when Genghis Khan's Mongol Army swept westward. But historians say the Golden Horde, who actually won the battle, went home to elect a new Khan when the old one died.

WEATHER REPORT:
It was a bizarre day weatherwise. Overcast with some sunny spells, wind from the west, and the temperature... daytime high of +24C! In mid-October! In the night, it will to tumble to +5C; a massive difference.

This time last year:
Proto park'n'ride at W-wa Jeziorki