Don’t dare miss a visit to the art nouveau Chopin Monument next to the Botanical Garden in Łazienki Park. One of Warsaw's most iconic sculptures, it depicts Chopin sitting in Łazienki next to a willow tree, while the sculpture itself stands in the midst of a rose garden. The work of acclaimed sculptor Wacław Szymankowski, it was erected in 1926 but dynamited by Nazi busybodies on May 31, 1940. The following day an unknown patriot placed a placard on the smouldering ruin declaring: ‘I don’t know who destroyed me, but I know why; so I don’t play the funeral march for your leader.’ A plaster-cast of the original model allowed t
he statue to be rebuilt after the war and a reconstruction was unveiled in 1958. An identical replica can be found at Japan’s Hamamatsu Academy of Music.