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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
The US ambassador to Poland, Thomas Rose, has launched a planned new Polish-American Centre to be established in Kraków, Poland’s second-largest city. Rose symbolically laid a cornerstone for the new facility and announced a $150,000 (577,000 zloty) grant to restore and preserve the site.
The centre, whose website describes it as a “home for all Polish-American initiatives in Poland”, will be established alongside the famous mound in Kraków created in honour of Tadeusz Kościuszko, a hero of both the Polish and American struggles for independence in the 18th century.
Proud to announce a $150,000 AFCP grant to help restore and preserve the future site of the Kościuszko Mound’s Polish American Center — a living symbol of the friendship between our two nations. Under @POTUS, we remain committed to preserving the shared history that binds the… pic.twitter.com/5atStUIid2
— Ambassador Tom Rose (@USAmbPoland) September 29, 2026
“This is a tremendous opportunity for me, on behalf of President Donald Trump and the American people, to celebrate what I consider the most important relationship the United States has with Europe today,” said Rose at the ceremony on Monday.
“America is fortunate to have many, many good friends around the world. But we have no better friend in Europe,” he added, quoted by broadcaster RMF.
Together with Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, the speaker of Poland’s Senate, he laid a cornerstone for the new centre and announced the $150,000 grant, which comes from the Ambassadors’ Fund for Cultural Preservation, a programme run by the US State Department.
“Tadeusz Kościuszko is a symbol of the historical bond between Poland and the USA,” declared Kidawa-Błońska. “There is no better place for the Polish-American Centre than Kraków and the mound commemorating a hero of both nations.”
Tadeusz Kościuszko to symbol historycznej więzi między Polską i USA. Nie ma lepszego miejsca dla Centrum Polsko-Amerykańskiego niż Kraków i kopiec upamiętniający bohatera obu narodów. Niech powołane dziś Centrum dobrze służy naszym relacjom, które budujemy od 250 lat 🇵🇱🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/8nOkCYDLfD
— Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska (@M_K_Blonska) September 29, 2026
Kościuszko’s Mound was established in Kraków in 1823, following the pattern of two prehistoric mounds that already existed in the city. It honours Kościuszko, a military officer who had fought against Russian rule over Poland and in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
Construction of the new Polish-American Centre is being supported by the Kościuszko Mound Committee in Kraków in partnership with USA250PL, the platform for celebrations in Poland of this year’s 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence.
The Kościuszko Mound Committee has long been engaged in efforts to preserve the mound against partial collapses caused by heavy rain. Polish hydraulics manufacturer PONAR Wadowice is also listed as a partner of the new centre.
The facility says it “will serve as a living symbol of friendship, understanding, and transatlantic cooperation”, providing “a welcoming space for dialogue, creativity, and exchange”. The centre will house event spaces, conference rooms, and offices.
In June, the centre acted as a patron of a United States–Central and Eastern Europe Connection Weekend at Kraków’s Jagiellonian University. Next year it plans a commemoration of the Battle of Saratoga, where Kościuszko designed fortifications that contributed to the American victory.
Poland has long looked to the United States for support and as an example during its struggle for independence over the last two centuries, including during the period of partitions in the 19th century, the reestablishment of the Polish state after the First World War, and during the later decades of communist rule.
Since the fall of communism, the US has become Warsaw’s most important security partner – including establishing its first permanent military garrison, named Fort Kościuszko, in Poland in 2023.
The US has opened its first military garrison in Poland, and its first anywhere on NATO's eastern flank.
"This is a historic moment," says Poland's defence minister. "We have been striving for years for this word 'permanent' and it has now become fact" https://t.co/knJEcqv4MB
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 21, 2023
Last week, President Donald Trump, in a virtual address to the Polish-American Congress (an entity unrelated to the new centre in Kraków), praised his Polish counterpart Karol Nawrocki, a close Trump ally, and described himself as a “great friend of the people of Poland”.
Shortly before that, Nawrocki had expressed confidence that a planned new US military base in Poland would soon be confirmed, and suggested that it would be named Fort Trump.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska/X
Leo Greenberg is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. Based in Kyiv, he writes about global politics, Europe and America, and the war in Ukraine.
