Sleeping Lion (Bytom)

The Sleeping Lion is a bronze sculpture from 1873 showing a lion lying with its head resting on its front paws. It stands on the Market Square in Bytom and is entered in the register of movable heritage items. Its story includes a disappearance and a rediscovery in Warsaw.

Where the sculpture came from

The lion was cast to the order of the Bytom authorities by the Hermann Gladenbeck Foundry in Berlin, from a design by Theodor Kalide dating from 1824. The sculpture crowned a monument, several metres high, to the people of Bytom County who fell in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, unveiled in 1873. The monument consisted of a fountain basin and a stone plinth with the lion.

The lion's journey

In 1932 the monument was moved to what is now Plac Akademicki, because a petrol station was being built on the Market Square. The pedestal was destroyed in 1945, and the lion was moved to the municipal park. In February 1953 the sculpture disappeared in unexplained circumstances.

In 2006 Bytom historians recognised it in a lion that had stood, since at least 1954, by the north gate of the Zoological Garden in Warsaw. The sculpture was conserved in Gliwice, a copy was made for the Warsaw zoo, and the original returned to Bytom in May 2008. It was unveiled on the Market Square on 4 October 2008. The city holds it on deposit, however, rather than owning it.

Practical information

• Place: the Market Square in Bytom, a public space with unrestricted access.
• From the Market Square it is not far to the Szombierki Heat and Power Plant and the church in Szombierki.
• Similar lions stand in Gliwice and in Lucerne, among other places.