The nearly 25-ton monument was unveiled in front of the headquarters of the Podkarpackie Marshal's Office on Cieplińskiego Avenue. The ceremony was attended by, among others, the authorities of the province, Rzeszow, parliamentarians, clergy led by Rzeszow Bishop Jan Wątroba and Bishop Kazimierz Górny.

The monument was unveiled with military assistance from soldiers of the 21st Highland Rifle Brigade. The ceremony was preceded by a Mass at the Basilica of the Bernardine Fathers in Rzeszow.

- The fate of our country is complicated, our nation had to suffer many times, but Christian values allowed it to survive the greatest wars and political turmoil," Marshal Wladyslaw Ortyl said during the ceremony.

- Now we can pay homage to the great work of Mieszko without hindrance and without indoctrination, although there is no shortage of circles that want to mock, ridicule or negate the Christian heritage," he added.

Ewa Leniart, the Podkarpackie voivode, said: - I trust that anyone who passes by this boulder will be aware that each grain of sand that this boulder forms is just as each of us - citizens of the Republic - contributes to the greatness of their country.

Rzeszow's Law and Justice MP Andrzej Szlachta read out a letter from Marek Kuchcinski, Speaker of the Sejm, who wrote that Mieszko I's decision to accept baptism "influenced the entire subsequent history of our country." "It is our common heritage and at the same time the glue of our identity," wrote Speaker Kuchciński.

Adam Pęziol, chairman of the Organizing Committee for the Celebration of the 1050th Anniversary of the Baptism of Poland, said that the unveiled stone "is to symbolize what is most beautiful in our tradition." - Let it remind us of St. Adalbert, St. Stanislaus of Szczepanów, St. Andrew Bobola, the holy martyrs of the Dachau Concentration Camp," Pęzioł listed.

He, as well as Władysław Ortyl and Jerzy Cypryś, chairman of the Podkarpackie Regional Assembly, jointly unveiled the monument. A time capsule was also embedded in it, which included a letter with a message for posterity, signed by, among others, representatives of the provincial government, the provincial governor and the mayor of Rzeszow, as well as Bishop Jan Wątroba.

Inside the capsule were also a photo with images of the marshal, the voivode, the bishop and the mayor of Rzeszow, as well as regional newspapers and a flash drive with a film presenting the strengths of the Podkarpackie region. The time capsule, in turn, was made by the Mielec-based Stemar company. Its lid bears a dedication commemorating the ceremony.

The originators of the monument are members of the Organizing Committee for the Celebration of the 1050th Anniversary of the Baptism of Poland and Rev. Prof. Stanisław Nabywaniec. The author of the graphic concept engraved on the monument is Michal Rajchert, while the contractor is Kazimierz Rogala's Building Stone Treatment Plant.

text: lash

Photo: Michal Mielniczuk