List of cultural icons of Poland

This list of cultural icons of Poland includes objects commonly considered to be cultural icons, symbols characteristic of Poland at various times.

In addition to the national symbols of Poland, the following items are symbolic of Poland.

• Adam Mickiewicz: "<...>Mickiewicz is to the Poles what Shakespeare is to the British, and is as much a cultural icon as a historical and creative figure."[1]
• Black Madonna of Częstochowa (Polish: Matka Boska Częstochowska, Our Lady of Czestochowa): "The image of Our Lady of Częstochowa is the most famous and the most venerated holy image in Poland. In contemporary Poland the image is a kind of a cultural icon, instantly recognizable and connected with popular symbolic and mythological meanings."[2]
• Ignacy Jan Paderewski: "After a series of successful concerts in Vienna, Paris, and England, as well as in Cracow and Lwow in late 1880s, the next decade brought Padarewski repeatedly to America, making his name a household word and symbol of Poland abroad" [3]
• Polonaise:
  • Michał Kleofas Ogiński, Polonaise No.13 in A minor, Farewell to the Fatherland (Pożegnanie Ojczyzny): one of the best known Polish polonaises
  • The twin Polonaises Op. 40 of the Polonaise in A major, Op. 40, No. 1 and the Polonaise in C minor, Op. 40, No. 2 by Frédéric Chopin: Anton Rubinstein remarked that the Polonaise in A major is the symbol of Polish glory, whilst the Polonaise in C minor is the symbol of Polish tragedy.[4]
• Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków, "a symbol of Poland's long struggle for statehood"[5]

References

1. Mark Baker, Marc Di Duca, Tim Richards, Poland, a travel guide by Lonely Planet, 2012, ISBN 1743211406
2. Anna Niedzwiedz, The Image and the Figure. Our Lady of Czestochowa in Polish Culture and Popular Religion, 2010, ISBN 978-83-233-2900-8
3. p. 165
4. Huneker, James. Chopin: The Man and His Music, Dover Publications, Inc., 1966.