Murarka

Murarka (the Bricklayer) is a concrete sculpture of a woman in work clothes, with a model of a residential building in one hand and a trowel in the other. It stands on Osiedle A in Tychy, on Andersa Street, next to St Anne's Square.

What the sculpture shows

The figure wears a plain dress and an apron. In her left hand she holds a miniature of a residential house, in her right a trowel, a symbol of manual labour. The sculpture was created as part of Osiedle A, built in 1951-1956, and is an example of Socialist Realist art, which showed the model woman worker, the shock worker.

The author is Stanisław Marcinów, a graduate of art schools in Lviv and Kraków, who worked in Upper Silesia from 1945. The sculpture was made of concrete with additives imitating stone, originally covered with a metallic, brown patina that has faded over time. Sources give different dates of creation: 1955 or 1951.

A reference to sacred tradition

The sculpture transforms older religious iconography and refers to the figure of St Hedwig of Silesia. Instead of a church, the figure holds an apartment block, which was meant to signify the new, socialist society and the fruits of shared labour. A copy of the sculpture, titled “Copy of a Shock Worker”, was made of epoxy resin by the artist Łukasz Surowiec.

Practical information

• Place: Osiedle A in Tychy, seen from Andersa Street, with St Anne's Square in the background.
• The sculpture stands in a public space and can be viewed at any time.
• Nearby is the Tychy City Museum, and not far away also the Tyskie Browarium.