History

Statue of Immaculate Mary returns home after disappearing for 80 years 

Installed in 1699, the statue mysteriously disappeared 80 years ago. Photo:
Installed in 1699, the statue mysteriously disappeared 80 years ago. Photo: National Museum in Warsaw
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A priceless 17th-century statue of the Immaculate Mary has returned home to Wrocław, western Poland, after being lost for nearly 80 years.

The statue, which once adorned the oldest Marian column in Wrocław, was originally placed in front of the monastic church—now the Greek Catholic Cathedral of St. Vincent and St. James—in 1699.

Known as the Immaculata, the statue represents a popular Baroque iconographic motif depicting the Virgin Mary free from original sin.

Typically shown standing on a crescent moon, crushing a serpent beneath her feet, and surrounded by a halo of stars, such statues were widely placed on Marian columns across the Habsburg monarchy as symbols of religious devotion and gratitude for protection from plagues.

The Wrocław Immaculata was commissioned in the late 17th century and crafted by stonemason Joseph Getzinger.

Installed in 1699, the column and statue remained a prominent landmark until it was removed before 1945 for reasons that remain unclear.

Declared lost after World War II, a replica was placed atop the column in 2010, based on archival materials.

The breakthrough in locating the original statue came in 2018 when Piotr Oszczanowski, director of the National Museum in Wrocław, identified it in the collection of the Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture in Królikarnia, a branch of the National Museum in Warsaw.

Initially misidentified as a depiction of St. Margaret and attributed to Czech sculptor Matthias Bernhard Braun, the statue was later confirmed to be the lost Wrocław Immaculata.

In 2023, the statue underwent extensive conservation led by Professor Janusz Smaza at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

The restoration process involved cleaning the surface, repairing missing elements, and reconstructing the characteristic halo of stars.

A key intervention was replacing the secondary dragon head at the base with a version more faithful to historical photographs.

It will now be displayed at the National Museum in Wrocław as part of the exhibition “Silesian Art of the 16th-19th Century.”
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