Monument to Prince Józef Poniatowski in Warsaw

The Jozef Poniatowski Monument in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw is an equestrian statue by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, who also created Warsaw's Copernicus monument. The commission honouring the Napoleonic marshal and Polish national hero, drowned in the river Elster after the 1813 Battle of Leipzig, was placed in 1817 and finished in 1826, but the Russian viceroy banned its display and it ended up at Viceroy Paskevich's estate in Gomel. Only in 1923 did the statue return to Warsaw. The Germans blew up the original in 1944; today's version is a Danish recasting from the original model, presented as a gift in 1952. Poniatowski is shown in Roman imperator pose, semi-nude with sword, on a horse modelled on Marcus Aurelius.