Nicolaus Copernicus Monument

The Nicolaus Copernicus Monument within the domestic town of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus turned into erected in 1853 with the aid of a "monument committee" of the town's residents. King Frederick the Great of Prussia supposed to erect a monument at Copernicus' grave in Frauenburg, but the grave couldn't be located. Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus lived in Thorn, then within the Kingdom of Poland, for many years. In the late 18th century, Poland changed into partitioned and the town of Thorn passed to Prussia.

From 1807 to 1813, the city changed into part of the Duchy of Warsaw, ruled with the aid of Frederick Augustus I of Saxony. A monument to Copernicus become then deliberate by means of the Polish scientist and philosopher Stanislaw Staszic, after he had heard that Napoleon had expressed surprise at some stage in a go to Thorn in 1807 that there was no monument there to Copernicus. Polish Roman Catholic clergy likewise supported the erection of a monument. In 1809 Napoleon commissioned Bertel Thorvaldsen and on Staszic's initiative, a cornerstone turned into laid for a monument.