Sigismund's Column in Castle Square is the most recognisable landmark in Warsaw. Erected in 1644 by King Władysław IV in honour of his father Sigismund III Vasa — who moved the Polish capital from Kraków to Warsaw in 1596 — it was one of the first secular columns erected in northern Europe in the classical tradition. The king holds a cross and a sword atop a 22-metre granite column.
The column was knocked down in 1944 during the fighting. Its original shaft was left in the square after the war as a deliberate symbol — you can still see it propped against the castle wall. A new column was erected in 1949 using the original statue. Looking at both the original shaft and the new one standing upright gives a clear sense of the losses and choices made during Warsaw's reconstruction.