This life-sized bronze sculpture depicts Tadeusz Kosciuszko as a young man seated upon a horse. He waves his hat(?) to the right in an apparent greeting or expression of gratitude.The horse has its weight resting on its hind legs, it's left front leg raised a bit. The statue is set at the top of Wawel Hill- Krakow's group of fortifications, castle and cathedral which includes Kosciuszko's burial place.
Wikipedia (
visit link) adds:
"Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kosciuszko (Andrew Thaddeus Bonaventure Kosciuszko; February 4 or 12, 1746 – October 15, 1817) was a Polish military engineer and a military leader who became a national hero in Poland, Belarus, and the United States. He fought in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's struggles against Russia and Prussia, and on the American side in the American Revolutionary War. As Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Forces, he led the 1794 Kosciuszko Uprising.
Kosciuszko was born in February 1746 in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in a village that is now in Belarus; his exact birthdate is unknown. At age 20, he graduated from the Corps of Cadets in Warsaw, Poland, but after the outbreak of a civil war involving the Bar Confederation in 1768, Kosciuszko moved to France in 1769 to pursue further studies. He returned to Poland in 1774, two years after its First Partition, and took a position as tutor in Józef Sylwester Sosnowski's household. After Kosciuszko attempted to elope with his employer's daughter and was severely beaten by the father's retainers, he returned to France. In 1776, Kosciuszko moved to North America, where he took part in the American Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Continental Army. An accomplished military architect, he designed and oversaw the construction of state-of-the-art fortifications, including those at West Point, New York. In 1783, in recognition of his services, the Continental Congress promoted him to brigadier general.
Returning to Poland in 1784, Kosciuszko was commissioned a major general in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Army in 1789. After the Polish-Russian War of 1792 had resulted in the Second Partition of Poland, he organized an uprising against Russia in March 1794, serving as its Naczelnik (commander-in-chief). Russian forces captured him at the Battle of Maciejowice in October 1794. The defeat of the Kosciuszko Uprising that November led to Poland's Third Partition in 1795, which ended the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's independent existence for 123 years. In 1796, following the death of Tsaritsa Catherine the Great, Kosciuszko was pardoned by her successor, Tsar Paul I, and he emigrated to the United States. A close friend of Thomas Jefferson, with whom he shared ideals of human rights, Kosciuszko wrote a will in 1798 dedicating his American assets to the education and freedom of U.S. slaves. He eventually returned to Europe and lived in Switzerland until his death in 1817. The execution of his will later proved difficult and the funds were never used for the purpose he had intended."
Read about the statue at (
visit link)