Marie Curie's Tree

Marie Curie visited Poland often, sometimes alone and sometimes with her family. During one of her visits, she set up the Polish Radium Institute for the research of radiation, a sister institute to the one that she had set up in France. 

During the opening ceremony in 1932, she commemorated the event by planting a small sycamore tree next to the institute. At the time, people did not think much of it, but over the years the tree grew to be a respectable 62 feet (19 meters) high.

Sometime before that, the was officially adopted by the institute. A small sign was attached to it that says., “Souvenir tree, planted on the day of the opening of the Radium Institute on May 29, 1932, by Marie Sklodowska-Curie.” The tree is lovingly called “Maria.”