One of the most noticeable features of Citadel Park is the Soviet Obelisk located prominently at the top of the grand staircase as you enter the park from Aleja Armii Poznań. The giant Socialist Realism column is dedicated to the Russian soldiers killed during the 1945 siege of the fort, and it's most interesting aspect is perhaps the one you can no longer see: the large red star affixed to the top which disappeared in the dead of night after the fall of communism in Poland in 1989. Official complaints by the Russian Embassy to track down the star and its thieves were, unsurprisingly, largely ignored by police, and for years the public was left to speculate what became of the red emblem (a rumour that the star was filled with jewels proved to be one popular urban myth). In recent years, however, a local journalist looking into the mystery was able to swiftly solve it: local firemen had removed the star using their rescue ladders. They fessed up and turned it over without consequence to the city, which has plans to restore it and eventually put it on display at the Historical Museum of Poznań.
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