The Monument to the Reunification of the Polish Lands was to be built in Gdynia as a symbol of the rebirth of the Second Republic. The soaring structure was to be visible from afar and impress passengers of ships arriving in the port of Gdynia. An architectural competition was announced, but the monument could not be realised.
The competition for the design of the Monument to the United Polish Lands was announced in 1928. The then established Committee for the Construction of the Monument to the United Polish Lands was to raise funds for the project and select the winning design. This is how Minister Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski described the idea of building the monument:
It is to testify how much importance this land and sea have for a reunited Poland. It is to testify that without Kashubia and the sea there can be no united Poland, and it is to be a visible sign of the vow of the entire Polish nation that it will not give up this land and sea at any price, because they are its blood and bones. This monument is to be built by the joint efforts of all Polish citizens.
The idea of erecting a monument aroused great interest among Polish architects. The organisers received 76 concepts submitted from Poland and the USA. The competition jury did not select a winning design, but awarded two equal prizes. The best entries were prepared by architect Stanisław Marzyński and architect Jan Łukasik.
An exhibition of the designs was organised in the sculpture hall of the Warsaw University of Technology. The works were presented for a week. The exhibition featured mock-ups and plans with the functional layout of the monuments. The proposals were dominated by tall and soaring constructions that, taken together, brought to mind the skyline of New York at the time. Some of the monuments were designed in the then-popular monumental art deco style.
The Monument to the Unification of the Polish Lands, however, was not built. Although the Sea Bath Society offered to donate the land for construction free of charge, the Committee failed to raise the required amount, which was estimated at the time to be a huge one million zloty.
source: National Digital Archive
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