Atom Sculpture on Grunwaldzki Square in Wrocław

Atom is an outdoor sculpture on Fryderyka Joliot-Curie Street in the Plac Grunwaldzki estate in Wrocław, surrounded by buildings of the University of Wrocław. The work was made by Roman Pawelski in 1974 and unveiled a year later.

A white sphere with a bore

The sculpture takes the form of a white reinforced-concrete sphere about two and a half metres in diameter. Through a characteristic hole bored through the solid, from the right spot you can see the cathedral tower on nearby Ostrów Tumski, resembling a telescope's eyepiece aimed at the city.

The author and the context of the site

Roman Pawelski, a graduate of the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, later lectured at the Faculty of Architecture of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology. The sculpture was placed next to the Faculty of Chemistry and the Faculty of Biotechnology of the University of Wrocław, and the atom form refers directly to the exact sciences pursued in the surrounding buildings.

Practical information

• Address: Fryderyka Joliot-Curie Street, Plac Grunwaldzki estate, Wrocław
• Getting there: on foot from the Grunwaldzki Bridge or from the University of Wrocław campus by the Botanical Garden of the University of Wrocław
• What to expect: a sculpture in a public space among university buildings, accessible for viewing without restriction