Kościuszko Mound
34 metres, Zwierzyniec. Raised by the hands of a whole nation.
After Tadeusz Kościuszko died in 1817, Kraków decided to honour him as the ancestors had honoured Krak and Wanda: with a mound. It was raised between 1820 and 1823, and people from all over partitioned Poland brought the earth, often in wheelbarrows, often with their own hands. Inside they placed soil from his battlefields: Racławice, Maciejowice, Szczekociny and Dubienka, and later also from Kościuszko's battles in America.
In the 1850s the Austrians surrounded the mound with a fort but did not demolish it. Today the fort houses a museum, and from the top you see Kraków, the Beskids and, when the air is clear, the Tatras. Access: along Washington Avenue from the Salwator tram terminus, 20 minutes uphill, or by bus 100.