page_title: Cross of Independence
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: Cross of Independence / Design
context_page_description: Cross of Independence was second highest Polish military decorations between World Wars I and II. It was awarded to individuals who had "fought heroically for the independence of Poland," and was released in three versions.
context_section_description: Both the Cross and the Medal were designed by professor Mieczysław Kotarbiński and most of the copies were made by Warsaw-based jeweller Wiktor Gontarczyk.
  The Cross of Independence had three classes:
  Cross of Independence with Swords (1818 awarded by 1938)
  Cross of Independence (7917 awarded by 1938)
  Medal of Independence (51735 awarded altogether)
  The cross was 42 by 42 mm, made of gilt bronze. The obverse had a rectangle shield with stylised eagle in bas-relief. The reverse was covered with black enamel and the motto Bojownikom Niepodległości (To the Fighters for Independence). The version with Swords had two golden swords crossed above the cross.
  Medal of Independence was round, 35 mm in diameter and made entirely of bronze. On the obverse there was a symbolic depiction of three Hydras (symbolising three partitioning Powers) stroke with two swords and surrounded by the Bojownikom Niepodległości motto. The reverse was plain with letters RP in the centre (standing for Rzeczpospolita Polska).
caption: Medal of Independence
exif: {"Image Make": "HP", "Image Model": "HP psc1310", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "185", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "136", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "144", "Thumbnail BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Thumbnail Compression": "Uncompressed", "Thumbnail PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Thumbnail StripOffsets": "1099", "Thumbnail SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Thumbnail RowsPerStrip": "144", "Thumbnail StripByteCounts": "58752", "Thumbnail XResolution": "200", "Thumbnail YResolution": "200", "Thumbnail PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:10:19 12:22:41", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "809", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "\u0002\u0002\u0002\u0002", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[3, 0, 0, 0]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "880", "EXIF Saturation": "6096", "EXIF Sharpness": "6112", "EXIF DeviceSettingDescription": "[1, 0, 19, 0, 32, 32, 32, 48, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 55, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 56, ... ]"}