Monument to the victims of 2010 Smolensk air crash in Warsaw, Memorial monument at Piłsudski Square, Poland
The Monument to the victims of 2010 Smolensk air crash in Warsaw is a memorial structure located on Piłsudski Square in the Polish capital. The construction made of black granite resembles an aircraft boarding ramp and includes an underground chamber situated two meters below ground level, covered by a glass ceiling.
The memorial was inaugurated on April 10, 2018, eight years after the tragic event near Smolensk in Russia. The accident claimed 96 lives, including high-ranking representatives of the Polish state.
The site bears the inscription "To the Victims" in Polish and displays the first and last names of all deceased in alphabetical order on the granite walls. This form of listing deliberately omits ranks or titles and presents all people in the same way.
The site is accessible at all times and maintained under round-the-clock police watch. Visitors can lay flowers and light candles, which is possible at any time of day.
The underground part of the structure references through its design the mass graves of Katyń and thus connects two events in Polish history. The architecture creates a deliberate link between the occurrences of 1940 and 2010.
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