Szkic o "pierwszym, świeckim pomniku w Polsce", czyli o pewnej kolumnie we wsi Chojny

The village of Chojny is one of the settlements currently within the borders of Lodz. For centuries the village was a noble property, surrounded by the church estates of the bishops of Włocławek (Łódź) and the chapter of Kraków (Pabianice, Rzgów). The most famous monument from Chojny, existing until 1939, was the so-called “Orphan Column”. Erected in 1634, the monument was associated with the semi-legendary figure of Jan Mulinovich. Reports from the mid-19th century identified him as a Chojny-born orphan taken in by the Mulinowicz family of Krakow. Surviving monuments and source accounts confirm his activity as a founder of artistic objects in Chojny between 1628 and 1647. The most famous among them remains a stone column topped with a cross, repeatedly described in scientific and local, popularizing literature. In the case of the latter, since the 1970s the Chojny monument has been juxtaposed with the Warsaw monument to King Sigismund III, over time earning the title of the oldest secular monument in Poland. In fact, the Chojny column belonged to a larger group of modern commemorative column shrines, quite popular in the 17th and 18th centuries.