Casimir Pulaski Monument

01 / The story of this place

Make time for these

This bronze statue honors Casimir Pulaski, the Polish cavalry commander who gave his life at Savannah, Georgia, in October 1779 in the cause of American independence. It stands in the median of Washington Boulevard just south of Michigan Avenue, across from the statue of Alexander Macomb. The Central Citizens Committee gave it to the city on behalf of the 400,000 Americans of Polish descent then living in metro Detroit, and it was dedicated on September 4, 1966, the day the community celebrated the millennium of Christianity in Poland. The sculptor was Ferenc Varga, born in Székesfehérvár in 1906, who left Hungary in 1948 and, after Belgium and a studio in Windsor, Ontario, settled across the river in Detroit. There he created many works for the city's Polish and Catholic communities; Hungarian reference works also credit him with a life-size bust of Franz Liszt in Detroit. The general stands in uniform, saber in hand, on a granite pedestal whose bronze tablet carries a long dedication to faith, freedom and a thousand years of Polish history. Varga moved his studio to Florida in 1970.

1. Bronze statue by Hungarian sculptor Ferenc Varga
2. Dedicated September 4, 1966
3. Gift of the Central Citizens Committee for 400,000 Polish Americans
4. Stands across from the Alexander Macomb statue on Washington Boulevard