AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): A plan to install a statue of Jan III Sobieski, the Polish king who broke the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683, has turned into a diplomatic dispute between Austria and Poland. Vienna city authorities definitively rejected the project at the end of 2024, citing concerns that it could create conditions for stirring xenophobic, Islamophobic, or anti-Turkish sentiment.
The statue was to be placed on Kahlenberg Hill, the site of Sobieski’s historic victory. The proposal was first raised in 2013 and formally approved in 2018, but its implementation was delayed for years. Vienna’s city council said it did not want the site to become “a stage for political exploitation and hate-mongering.”
The decision prompted a strong reaction from Poland. Zenon Kosiniak-Kamysz, Poland’s ambassador to Austria, said Vienna had previously promised to install the statue and that the monument has already been produced and is currently being kept in Poland. He stressed that the intention remains to place it at the historic Kahlenberg location.
Criticizing Vienna’s cultural policy, the Polish ambassador pointed to memorials for figures such as Che Guevara and even a plaque linked to Stalin, asking why a king known as the “savior of Vienna” should face such treatment.
Vienna officials responded by saying Sobieski has already been honored with a memorial on Kahlenberg and through the naming of streets and squares in the city. The Polish ambassador rejected this claim, saying the existing marker is merely a platform with a barely legible inscription.
Inside Austria, the decision has also drawn criticism from opposition parties. The Austrian People’s Party described the situation as “a painful spectacle,” while the right-wing Freedom Party called it “a scandal” based on ideological pretexts.
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