The Fryderyk Chopin Monument (Pomnik Fryderyka Chopina) was sculpted by Wacaw Szymanowski, and unvealed in 1928. Like many other Warsaw monuments and historic buildings, Pomnik Fryderyka Chopina was destroyed in the World War II.

The Fryderyk Chopin Monument you see today is a replica of the original, dating 1958.

"Chopin, Fryderyk; third year student. Outstanding abilities; musical genius."

So read the official verdict on the pianist's final exams at the Warsaw Conservatory, back in 1829. 200 years after his birth, and the tag of genius remains indelible. "It's often said that there are three composers who never wrote a bad piece of music - Bach, Chopin and Debussy," notes biographer Adam Zamoyski, yet Chopin was also a revolutionary, profoundly altering the course of music.

Although he only lived to the meagre age of 39, chroniclers didn't waste much time in weaving a romantic whirl around the composer's past. According to some, he was hauling himself out of his cot in the middle of the night and tinkling away on the ivories in the moonlight. Later, his striking good looks and dapper style provided plenty of grist to the mill for gossips. His enduring relationship with cross-dressing lady of letters George Sand still keeps tongues wagging, and biographers have cited strings of other affairs, most of them fictitious.