Beetle Monuments

Beetle Monument

The monument in 2018.
50°42′41.31″N 22°58′43.83″E / 50.7114750°N 22.9788417°E / 50.7114750; 22.9788417
Location	Kościuszko Square, Szczebrzeszyn, Poland
Designer	Zygmunt Jarmuł
Type	Statue
Material	Bronze
Height	2 m
Opening date	23 July 2011

The Beetle Monuments (Polish: Pomniki chrząszcza) are two similar monuments in Szczebrzeszyn, Poland, statues of an amphomorphic beetle wearing a dinner suit and a top hat, and playing on a fiddle.^[1][2] The monuments allude to the Polish tongue twister poem Chrząszcz by Jan Brzechwa, which the town is widely associated with among the Poles. Its first line reads: W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie (translation: In Szczebrzeszyn a beetle buzzes in the reeds).^[3]

In fact, the statues present an insect from the orthoptera order (grasshopper or a cricket), rather than a beetle,^[4] a subject of a trick question at the game show Milionerzy (a Polish version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?) .^[5]

In September 2002, at Klukowskiego Street in Szczebrzeszyn, at the foot of the Castle Hill, a statue was unveiled of an amphomorphic beetle playing on a fiddle. It is made from linden wood and placed on a stone pedestal. It has a height of 3 m and width of 1 m. It was created by students of the Zamość Liceum of Arts under the supervision of professor Zygmunt Jarmuł.^[6][1] It is located near the Zygmunt Kulikowski [pl] Street by the source of a spring flowing to the nearby Wieprz river.^[7]

Since wood is a perishable material, the city of Szczebrzeszyn commissioned Zygmunt Jarmuł to create a more durable statue of a beetle. It was unveiled by the Szczebrzeszyn ratusz (town hall) at the market square (part of the Kościuszko Square) on 23 July 2011.^[1][2] It consists of a bronze statue of an anthropomorphic beetle wearing a dinner suit and a top hat, and playing on a fiddle. It has a height of about 2 m. It was 70% funded by the EU withiun the project "Z kulturalną wizytą w chrząszczowym grodzie" ("On a cultural visit to the beetle town").^[1]