Potato Monument

You can’t fry, boil, or bake this massive potato. Standing at 3.95-meters tall, this monument located in the village of Biesiekierz, Poland is an ode to Polish spud prowess. Created by Wiesław Adamski and erected in 1983, the potato sculpture sits atop a nine-meter pedestal.

Poland’s self-declared capital of potatoes, Biesiekierz, is particularly proud of the fact that its plant-breeding station developed nine new varieties of tubers. The potato monument appears on the village’s coat of arms and on local postcards, which are for sale at the Post Office across the street from the monument. 

A local poet named Zygmunt Królak once penned a poem that challenges anyone who might doubt the grandeur of this starchy masterpiece:

“Dear newcomer, welcome to the municipality, which in the world is famous for the potato. It is the potato, from the coat of arms, from the monument, that glorifies this land and the farmer. Such a colossus stands by the roadside, visible supposedly even in space. If one were to grate it, peel it from its shell, there would be enough pancakes for the entire municipality. Whoever wants to touch it, who does not believe it, let him come to Biesiekierz himself.”