The following is a compilation of memorials to the composer Frédéric Chopin in the form of physical monuments, institutions, and other entities named after him.
Chopin's Polish residences
Saxon Palace, seen from Saxon Garden behind the Palace, 1764. Chopin and his family lived here from 1810 until 1817. The Saxon Palace was destroyed in World War II.
Fryderyk Chopin's principal Polish residences survive — most of them rebuilt from the devastations of World War II — except for the Saxon Palace, where his father Mikołaj Chopin in October 1810 (when Fryderyk was six months old) took a post teaching French at the Warsaw Lyceum, housed in the Saxon Palace. The Chopin family lived on the premises.
In 1817, the Saxon Palace was requisitioned by Warsaw's Russian governor for military use, and the Warsaw Lyceum was reestablished in the Kazimierz Palace (today the rectorate of Warsaw University).[1] Fryderyk and his family moved to an extant building (center photo, below) adjacent to the Kazimierz Palace.
In 1827, soon after the death of Chopin's youngest sister Emilia, the family moved from the Warsaw University building adjacent to the Kazimierz Palace, to lodgings just across the street from the university in the south annex of the Krasiński Palace on Krakowskie Przedmieście. Chopin lived there until he left Warsaw in 1830. The Krasiński Palace is now the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts.
Chopin's Żelazowa Wola birthplace, and the Chopin family parlor in Warsaw's Krasiński Palace, are maintained as museums open to the public.
The Germans destroyed the Saxon Palace in World War II. Plans have been put forward to rebuild it. It was in the Saxon Palace (at the time, the Polish General Staff building) that civilian mathematicians working at the General Staff's Cipher Bureau, beginning in 1932, broke Germany's Enigma machine ciphers — an achievement that would be of great importance to the outcome of World War II.[2]
Warsaw University building where Chopin's family lived, 1817–27, embellished (center) with his profile and (foreground) with a piano keyboard formed of flowers, June 2018
Chopin's heart, preserved in alcohol,[3] was sealed in 1882 within a pillar of the Holy Cross Church, behind a tablet carved by Leonard Marconi.[4] The tablet bears an inscription from Matthew VI:21: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."[5] (See photo of the Church pillar, with epitaph.)
The Holy Cross Church stands only a short distance from Chopin's last Warsaw residence, the Krasiński Palace, which bears a plaque commemorating Chopin.
There are three Chopin monuments in Żelazowa Wola: an obelisk from 1894, a bronze statue from 1969, and a sandstone bust from 1984.[6]
There is a monument to Chopin at the Szafarnia manor house where he stayed for holidays with a school friend in 1824 and 1825.
In 1897, a Chopin memorial was erected in the town of Duszniki-Zdrój, where in 1826, 16-year-old Chopin played his first concert outside of the Russian Partition of Poland. A Chopin statue was erected in 1976, and it stands in the Spa Park in front of the Fryderyk Chopin Theatre.
In 1926, a bronze statue of Chopin, designed by sculptor Wacław Szymanowski in 1907, was erected in the upper part of Warsaw's Royal Baths (Łazienki) Park.
For the 2010 bicentennial of Chopin's birth, 14 "Chopin's Warsaw" ("Warszawa Chopina") benches were placed in Warsaw near Chopin landmarks. They stand near Chopin landmarks such as the Krasiński Palace, the Carmelite Church where he played the organ as a boy, and the Wessel Palace where in 1830 he boarded a stage for Vienna. Pressing a button on a bench makes it play a few bars of a Chopin composition.[9]
Plaque (placed in 2010, on Chopin's 200th birth anniversary) commemorating the 8-year-old's first public performance, in today's Presidential Palace, Warsaw, for the Warsaw Philanthropic Society, 24 February 1818
The world's oldest monographic music competition, the International Chopin Piano Competition, founded in 1927, is held every five years in Warsaw. Periodically, the Grand Prix du Disque de F. Chopin is awarded for notable Chopin recordings.
The Fryderyk Chopin Museum, established in 1954, is housed in Warsaw's Ostrogski Palace, the seat of the Fryderyk Chopin Society. The Museum was refurbished in 2010 for the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth.
Chopin's Birthplace in Żelazowa Wola is operated as a museum by the Fryderyk Chopin Museum.[26]
The Museum also maintains the Chopin Family Drawing Room in the Krasiński Palace, Warsaw.
^"The Influence of ULTRA in the Second World War - transcript of a lecture given by Harry Hinsley on 19 October 1993 at Cambridge University" (PDF). cdpa.co.uk. 26 November 1996. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
^ abcd"World - Baza Wiedzy en". bazawiedzy.chopin2010.pl. Archived from the original on 2011-07-13.
^"Unveiling Chopin Monument at Manchester Sept 2011".
^"Mariańskie Łaźnie. Fryderyk Chopin w czeskim kurorcie - Otwarty Przewodnik Krajoznawczy".
^"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-12-19. Retrieved 2014-11-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^"Chopin Monument in Chicago". chopinmonumentinchicago.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-05.
^Trochimczyk, Maja (26 January 2016). "Chopin Monuments Around the World III - From America to Asteroids". meakultura.pl. Retrieved 11 September 2020. bust of Chopin is placed in front of the National Theater
^"News". Poland. Polish Interpress Agency: 50. 1965. Retrieved 12 September 2020. The monument is the work of Ludwika Kraskowska-Nitschowa
^ abcd"Exploring South America". Warsaw Voice. 3 July 2003. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
^"Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina". muzeum.nifc.pl. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
^"Celda de Chopin la Celda". celdadechopin.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 December 2023.
^"Bibliothèque Polonaise à Paris". bibliotheque-polonaise-paris-shlp.fr (in French). Retrieved 29 December 2023.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Monuments and memorials to Frédéric Chopin.
Sources
Samson, Jim (1998). Chopin (New paperback ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198167037.</ref>
Chopin's Żelazowa Wola birthplace. He lived here for six months in 1810.
Warsaw University building where Chopin's family lived, 1817–27, embellished (center) with his profile and (foreground) with a piano keyboard formed of flowers, June 2018
Chopin family parlor, in Warsaw's Krasiński Palace. Chopin lived here from 1827 until 1830.
Funerary monument on a pillar in Holy Cross Church, Warsaw, enclosing Chopin's heart (just above the bouquet at the bottom)
General Dominik Dziewanowski's Szafarnia manor (with Chopin's bust in front) where Chopin vacationed in 1824 and 1825; now a Chopin Center
Chopin obelisk, Żelazowa Wola
Chopin memorial from 1897, Duszniki-Zdrój
Chopin statue, Łazienki Park, Warsaw
Bust, Chopin Park, Poznań
Obelisk, Chopin Park, Gliwice
Plaque (placed in 2010, on Chopin's 200th birth anniversary) commemorating the 8-year-old's first public performance, in today's Presidential Palace, Warsaw, for the Warsaw Philanthropic Society, 24 February 1818
"Chopin's Warsaw" bench near the Carmelite Church.
Monument, South Park, Wrocław
Plaque, Prague, Czech Republic, where Chopin lived 1829-30
Bust, Valldemossa, Majorca, where Chopin stayed 1838-39
4 St. James's Place, London, whence on 16 November 1848, Chopin went to the Guildhall to give his last public performance
Hôtel Baudard de Saint-James (12 place Vendôme), Paris, where in 1849 Chopin died
Plaque on Hôtel Baudard de Saint-James, commemorating Chopin's death there
Chopin's grave, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
Monument, Parc Monceau, Paris
Bust, Culemborg, Netherlands
