Results tagged “monuments”

In 1980, Toronto's Polish community—and the general public—got more than it bargained for. Six years previous, the Canadian Polish Congress held a meeting where, among other things, a decision was made to erect a monument in Beaty Boulevard Park (1575 King Street West) to the thousands who died at Katyń forest as part of the invasion of Poland. Back when public art was selected from a talented crop of international and local designers, Katyń's winning design was that of Tadeusz Janowski, a Polish émigré living in the United States. Janowski's background was in architecture, but his versatility, as evidenced by the intense, impacting silhouette created by his monument at King and Roncesvalles, speaks for itself.

This past weekend was the 91st anniversary of the end of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a four-day offensive in World War I in which the Canadian Corps, with help from the British army, seized a German stronghold on the Western Front. Marking the first time that such large numbers of Canadians fought together as a single unit, the battle has since achieved near mythical status (justified or not) as a key point in the development of Canadian identity.

It is a peculiarity of our city that its grandest monument was erected to honour a largely forgotten and misunderstood war. Yet, the life of the South African War Memorial—the tall granite column overlooking the intersection at Queen and University—reveals a great deal about how the city’s priorities and values have evolved over time. Although University Avenue terminated at Queen Street at that time, it acted as a stately boulevard connecting the new government buildings...