In 2023, during the modernization of park Akcja “Burza” (Operation Tempest Park) and the Kopiec Powstania Warszawskiego (Warsaw Uprising Mound), the wooden crosses that had been placed there by scouts since 2005 were removed. The city announced that the crosses would not return to the mound. Meanwhile, as part of a civic initiative, dozens of new insurgent crosses have appeared in the park. Will the city decide to remove them?
New insurgent crosses have been placed on the Warsaw Uprising Mound in the Operation Tempest Park in the capital. This is the result of a grassroots initiative by residents of Mokotów. Previously, in 2023, the crosses were removed during the park’s reconstruction and were never put back.
The civic initiative was reported to our portal by Radosław Sosnowski, a Law and Justice councilor from Mokotów.
In 2004, during Lech Kaczyński’s tenure as mayor of Warsaw, the city council adopted a resolution to name the mound near Bartycka Street in Mokotów the Warsaw Uprising Mound. That same year, on the 60th anniversary of the Uprising’s outbreak, the area was cleared and stairs leading to the top of the mound were built.
Along those stairs-named “W” Hour Avenue-small wooden insurgent crosses were placed by scouts. These crosses had previously stood in various locations commemorating the Uprising across Warsaw.
The crosses disappeared in 2023
During the 2023 modernization of the Operation Tempest Park, under Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski’s administration, the crosses disappeared from the mound’s landscape. The Municipal Greenery Authority stated at the time that “the crosses had been secured.” “The layout of the stairs was changed, and the project did not include reinstalling the crosses,” said Karolina Kwiecień-Łukaszewska, spokesperson for ZZM, at the time. Among those who protested this decision was Radosław Sosnowski.
“For years, those crosses stood there; people brought and lit candles,” said Sosnowski. He emphasized that the district authorities had regularly replaced damaged crosses over the years. Moreover, ZZM director Magdalena Młochowska stated in response to an official inquiry that “the crosses were intended to be temporary from the very beginning.”
An attempt to strip away tradition
In January 2025, Law and Justice politicians revealed how the insurgent crosses from the mound were being stored by the city of Warsaw.
“These crosses were placed by Warsaw residents; it was their act of will, their need. Why are crosses being removed from public spaces in Warsaw? We call on the city and expect that the crosses will return to their place,” said PiS MP Anita Czerwińska during a press conference.
“The disappearance of the crosses during the last modernization of the mound (…) is an attempt to strip it of spirituality, tradition, and history,” added Radosław Sosnowski. The politicians pointed out that the removal of the crosses from the mound had symbolic significance, linked to the city hall’s policy of “fighting the cross.” Now that Rafał Trzaskowski no longer needs to pose as a conservative, will the new crosses suffer the same fate?