The oldest Copernicus monument in the world

A 1766 bust by the Kraków sculptor Wojciech Rojowski, funded by Prince Józef Aleksander Jabłonowski (1711-1777), one of the few polymaths of the Saxon era in the Kingdom of Poland

It is the oldest monument to Copernicus in the world.

Originally, in agreement with the Toruń Council and based on its resolution of March 10 of that year, the marble monument was to be placed in the Old Town Market Square by the well opposite the Three Crowns Inn. The monument was never publicly displayed, however, for reasons explained in 1783: "In more recent times, the Polish Prince Jabłonowski, known as the founder of the Leipzig Scientific Society, wanted to erect a monument to Copernicus in the Toruń market square with an appropriate inscription. In 1766, he sent the monument to Toruń. However, it was so poor quality (made entirely of Krakow stone), the bust of Copernicus so lacking in craftsmanship and taste, and the inscription so bizarre, that the Toruń City Council did not deem it appropriate to display it publicly. It is kept in a wooden partition in the town hall."

The mediocre artistic value, however, was a secondary reason for the monument's hiding. Above all, the Toruń Council was dissatisfied with the emphasis on Copernicus's Polishness in the monument's inscription ("To a Pole born in Prussia" and "To a Polish philosopher").
After all, ever since the overthrow of the Teutonic Knights and the voluntary surrender of Toruń and Royal Prussia to the Polish king in 1454, the distinct status of Toruń and Royal Prussia within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had been emphasized.

The monument thus remained in hiding until 1785, when Duke Ludwig of Württemberg (1756-1817) visited the Old Town Hall in Toruń. He stumbled upon the bust of Copernicus hidden there and informed Princess Izabela Czartoryska, his mother-in-law, who collected Polish national memorabilia in the Temple of the Sibyl at her residence in Puławy. However, when Princess Izabela Czartoryska attempted to purchase the monument, the Toruń authorities refused to allow it to be sold.

The matter of the Copernicus bust was revived when the Council of State of the Duchy of Warsaw left Austrian-occupied Warsaw and moved to Toruń, where it resided from April 28 to May 11, 1809. Stanisław Staszic, a referendary of the Council of State, not only requested that a worthy monument to Copernicus be erected in Toruń, but also took up the matter, suggesting its public installation in St. Johns' Church in the Chapel of St. Nicholas, below Copernicus's 16th-century epitaph, which was done. The bust has remained in this location ever since.