In the middle of the market square is a statue of Casimir the Great, erected in 1871 as a result of a patriotic revival connected with the discovery of the monarch’s remains.
The idea of building the statue in Bochnia initially came from Jan Matejko who, in 1869, created the drawings in the Wawel crypt. Influenced by a discussion with the great painter, his brother-in-law, Leonard Serafiński (Marshal of the county at that time) came up with a plan to commemorate the glorious king. His proposal was welcomed in Bochnia as, according to local tradition, one of the most prosperous eras in the town’s history was during the time of Casimir the Great’s rule. Serafiński recruited the mayor Roman Niwicki to realise the idea. On 24th October 1870 the town council passed a resolution that the statue of King Casimir the Great be erected. It was decided that the costs were to be covered by the town’s budget and citizens’ donations.
The statue is the work of a sculptor from Cracow, Walery Gadomski (1833-1911), who, after taking part in The January Uprising lived with the Kępiński family which owned Szczurowa and was a famous patron of literature and art. Matejko, who suggested that Gadomski should create the monument, prepared a couple of sketches and monitored its progress himself. It should be mentioned that Gadomski, in the years 1877-1889, was a sculpture professor at the Cracow School of Fine Arts. He was also a renowned artist with significant achievements to his name (the statues of Nicolaus Copernicus in the Cracow Akademia Umiejętności, Franciszek Karpiński in Kołomyja, Artur Grottger in Lviv, Zygmunt August and Jan III Sobieski in the Ogród Strzelecki in Cracow. The statue was sculpted in Pińczak limestone. It is over 2 metres high and represents the King holding the Wiślickie charters in his left hand. The statue is placed on a neo-Gothic column, and on the pedestal the sculptor placed stone reliefs depicting the granting of this document, the establishment of Cracow Academy, the Polish national emblem, and the inscription: “To the King of Peasants, guardian of the towns and Bochnia’s benefactor, Bochnia 1871”.
The ceremony of the monument’s unveiling was held on 29th May 1871.
The event was attended by a great number of inhabitants from Bochnia and the county, as well as numerous guests from other Galician towns. Gadomski and Matejko came from the area of the Prussian partition.
In 1933, in connection with the grand celebration of the 600th anniversary of Casimir the Great’s accession to the throne, the object was renovated. Also, the fence around it was changed (more stone posts were added and linked with a decorative forged chain). In 1964, when the market square was reconstructed, the statue was changed again. The original plinth was replaced by a style-less obelisk and stone reliefs with bronze castings. The posts and chains were removed and placed on the grave of Leonard Serafiński situated in the municipal cemetery in Oracka street. A garden square was created next to the statue. Fortunately, in 1988 when the monument underwent more changes, the plinth was reconstructed according to the original design (the original chapiter can be seen in the courtyard of the museum). During the aforementioned reconstruction, the posts and chains were also taken care of. However, some elements of the past setting were kept (for example the square) which causes a compositional disharmony.
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