Memorial crosses in Poland: a commonplace and contested element of public roads

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to show spatial regularity of roadside memorialisation as well as public opinions on the phenomenon in Poland. Field studies covering 623 kilometres of public roads showed that out of 100 roadside memorials, the majority (98%) are memorial crosses A correlation between the distribution of roadside memorials and the road category and related accident rate was noted. Internet questionnaires, on the other hand, indicated that opinions on memorial crosses are nearly equally divided in Polish society: 52% are for leaving them along roads and 48% are for their removal. Furthermore, an analysis of web discussions has shown that memorial crosses are seen by society either as traditional components of road infrastructure, or objects of religious cult, or cross-cultural markers of death and grief.

Are Roadside Crosses in Poland a Religious or Cultural Expression?

“…Some scholars are interested in the drivers' behaviour and road safety policies (Dickinson and Hoffmann 2010;Hartig and Dunn 1998;Churchill and Tay 2008;Tay 2009;Tay et al 2011). Others are focused on social and cultural issues identified in the respondents' answers regarding the perception of roadside memorials (Everett 2002;Przybylska 2015Przybylska , 2020. This paper contributes to the latter scholarship.…”

“…It must be emphasised that the article sums up a three-year-long research project on memorial crosses in Poland. The conclusions concerning the meaning of the roadside cross, based on a survey and presented in this article, will be interpolated with the author's earlier conclusions, based on surveys (Przybylska 2020), fieldwork and interviews (Przybylska 2015(Przybylska , 2016Przybylska and Flaga 2019). The project and the article were inspired by the so far unexplored research question concerning the choice of roadside crosses as markers in Poland referred only to a distinctive modern phenomenon of placing crosses at the sites of fatal road accidents.…”

Roadside death memorials revisited: Mourning in public spaces

“…Both data gathering methods are ongoing as part of the much broader research agenda on unplanned and unanticipated uses of urban spaces. As in Przybylska (2015), elements of spatial perspective (location, distance) are combined with social perspective (beliefs) to locate this phenomenon in South Africa. Franck and Stevens (2007) popularised the concepts of "tight and loose" spaces.…”

“…The nationwide diffusion of street/roadside death memorials is both a local and an international phenomenon (Reid and Clark & Franzmann, 2006;J. K. Reid, 2001;Przybylska, 2015;Stahl, 2013;Steinert & Carvallo, 2019). There are complex motivations for roadside memorials as Przybylska (op cit).…”

“…Their proliferation could be explained in terms of poor/lack of enforcement (Przybylska, 2015), as the government is the body vested with the authority to deal with public space and public safety (Clark & Franzmann, 2006). It could also be attributed to benign official approach against informality in general.…”