Kopernik Monument

Kopernik Monument

The Kopernik Monument on Torun Triangle in Philadelphia (18th St. and Benjamin Franklin Pkwy.)
"He stopped the Sun, he moved the Earth - Poland was the land of his birth"
rhyme recited by Polish schoolchildren

Dedication of the Kopernik Monument took place on August 18, 1973 during the Silver Jubilee convention of the American Council for Polish Culture (ACPC - formerly known as the American Council of Polish Cultural Clubs).
His Eminence John Cardinal Krol officially dedicated the monument which was then presented to the City of Philadelphia by Alexander Macones, Esq. the executive Director of the Kopernik Quincentennial Commemorative Committee, as a gift from the Polonia of the Delaware Valley.
The Honorable Frank L. Rizzo, Mayor, accepted the monument on behalf of the City of Philadelphia.
To finance the construction of the Kopernik Monument, the Kopernik Quincentennial Commemorative Committee was organized under the chairmanship of the Rt. Reverend Monsignor Peter J. Klekotka, pastor emeritus of St. Hedwig's Church, Chester, PA. Joseph Nowicki, of Nowicki and Polillo, was chosen as project architect.
Through the generosity of the Polish American individuals and organizations in the Delaware Valley area, a sum of fifty-thousand dollars was subscribed.
The idea for a Kopernik Monument on Philadelphia's beautiful Benjamin Franklin Parkway was first proposed by City Councilman Joseph L. Zazyczny during his tenure as president of the Polish Heritage Society of Philadelphia.
Zazyczny's successor as president of the Polish Heritage Society, Joseph S. Wnukowski, took over the formation of a Kopernik Monument Steering Committee.
As search for an artist to create an appropriate monument led to Dudley F. Talcott of Farmingdale, Connecticut, who conceived an abstract form for the presentation of Kopernik's heliocentric system - a stainless ring, sixteen feet in diameter, symbolizing the orbit of the earth; with a three dimensional disc - sun frozen in the center, disseminating a spectrum of rays moving out into infinity. The orbit of the earth and the sun disc are supported on a stainless-steel angle, symbolizing the transept and primitive instruments used by Kopernik in his studies and calculations. This twelve foot high stainless steel super structure is set on a twelve foot pedestal of granite disc and cubes.
The model of Talcott's concept, when presented to Philadelphia's Art Commission by the Kopernik Committee, won immediate approval. Councilman Zazyczny was responsible for obtaining the Fairmount Park Commission's approval for emplacement of the monument on its property at Eighteenth Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, opposite the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul.
Source: Joseph S. Wnukowski, Editor, A Guide and Directory of Philadelphia and Its Polonia 1976, published by Polish American Bicentennial Committee of Philadelphia (back inside cover text).