Andrzej Duda announced the decision at a ceremony in the presidential palace in Warsaw.
Andrzej Duda speaks at a ceremony in the presidential palace in Warsaw on Friday. Photo: KPRP/Przemysław Keler
The president, who was accompanied by First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda, told the audience that "remembrance of history and its connection to the present are of crucial significance to the future," and also "play an important role in shaping civic and patriotic attitudes."
‘Hidden gems’
Duda reflected that "for a country with over a thousand years of history, Poland has relatively few heritage objects," Polish state news agency PAP reported.
He said: “The many wars which swept through our land have caused terrible destruction to the substance of what we had achieved throughout Poland’s existence.”
He added: “The fact that we cultivate these gems, which are often hidden and forgotten, is enormously important for understanding the great strength that lies within us, and in our tradition, of which we have a duty to be proud.”
Gov’t spending doubled: deputy PM
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Culture and National Heritage Minister Piotr Gliński said that government spending on heritage sites "has more than doubled" since 2015, and "the number of heritage objects elevated to Monument of History status has jumped from around 60 to 123," the PAP news agency reported.
Gliński added that "the practice of awarding Monument of History status to heritage objects is part of the government’s policy of taking special care of Polish culture, identity and history.”
Nowa Huta, education ministry HQ, Collegiate Church in Tum
Among the nine new Monuments of History is Nowa Huta, an architecturally diverse district of the southern city of Kraków, selected for the way it “illustrates Poland’s tempestuous history in the latter half of the 20th century,” according to officials.
Also on the list is the headquarters of Poland’s Ministry of Education in the capital Warsaw.
Built in the inter-war period for the then Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment, the building survived World War II. Retaining a mixture of classicist architecture and art-deco furnishings, it "reflects the aspirations of interwar Poland," reporters were told.
Another new Monument of History is the sprawling Collegiate Church of St. Mary and St. Alexius in the central village of Tum.
Dating back to the mid-12th century, it is regarded as Poland’s biggest Romanesque church and one of the best-preserved buildings of the time, officials said.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, prezydent.pl