National Independance Day in Poland

The National Independence Day in Poland is celebrated on 11 November to commemorate the anniversary of the restoration of Poland's sovereignty as the Second Polish Republic in 1918, after 123 years of partition by the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Habsburg Empire. It is a non-working day in Poland.

In Gorzów it started with a festival service at the St. Mary's Cathedral. Afterwards the celebration area changed to the little park Skwer Wolnosci direktly in front of my hotel. I worked till 12:00 and moved than to the hotel, where the celebrations were in full progress. Heavy military vehicles on the road and in the park, military music and parades, information stalls and tents.

The centre of the celebrations was the statue of Józef Klemens Piłsudski. He was a Polish statesman; he was Chief of State (1918–22), "First Marshal of Poland" (from 1920), and de facto leader (1926–35) of the Second Polish Republic, Minister of Military Affairs. From mid-World War I he had a major influence in Poland's politics, and was an important figure on the European political scene. He was the person most responsible for the creation of the Second Republic of Poland in 1918.

All photos taken with a Hasselblad 503FCC, the last flagship of the V-Series cameras. Lens is a Carl Zeiss Distagon FLE 4.0/40 and I used the digital back CFV50c.