On my list of must-see’s in New York City was a sojourn to Central Park, not only because there’s so much there, but because there is a Polish statue there of King Jagiello. Henry had a small black and white photo in his scrapbook, so I decided I wanted to see it in person.
It is indeed large. What was kind of fun was handing my camera to a stranger and asking him to take my photo you can see the relative size. His exact words were ‘Well, I’m all Polish and here’s someone I never heard of.’ I actually felt kind of proud I’m far enough along on my self-education of Polish history and key historical figures I knew not only who King Jagiello is, I knew the history of the statue. The statue was cast for the Polish pavillion at the 1939 World’s Fair. When war broke out in Europe the statue couldn’t be returned and was later gifted to New York City.
Just for fun I’m including a photo of nearby Belvedere Castle, a purely decorative, small-scale castle that offers fabulous views of Central Park.
