Warsaw mayor wants 'calm' site for Smolensk monument

''It has to be in a place that is on the one hand in the very centre [of Warsaw], but also somewhat calm, as this is after all a monument to victims,'' she said.

Gronkiewicz-Waltz has stated that historic thoroughfare Krakowskie Przedmieście is not a possibility, adding that Warsaw's Conservator of Monuments has expressed a negative opinion about such a proposal.

Leader of opposition party Law and Justice Jaroslaw Kaczyński, whose brother, late president Lech Kaczyński, died in the disaster, had backed the Krakowskie Przedmieście concept, suggesting that the monument should stand outside the Presidential Palace.

That location has been controversial since the immediate aftermath of the April 2010 tragedy, when a makeshift cross was installed at the site, drawing crowds to the gates of the Presidential Palace. The cross was eventually forcibly removed in September 2010, with determined factions protesting both for against the installation.

Gronkiewicz-Waltz said this week that the aforementioned location is ill-suited, owing to road traffic, as well as regular events and happenings on the thoroughfare.

However, the town hall has suggested among other sites that Piłsudski Square (Plac Piłsudskiego), near the Monument to the Unknown Soldier.

''Emotionally, it seems to me that that would be the best place,'' the mayor said.

Likewise, Gronkiewicz-Waltz has recommended Lublin Union Square (Plac Unii Lubelskiej) and the intersection between Marszakowska and Krolewska Streets.

President Lech Kaczyński's delegation was travelling to Smolensk, western Russia, on 10 April 2010 to commemorate the 70 anniversary of the WWII Katyn Massacre. The plane crashed in thick fog. All those on board died. (nh)