Its origins are legendary. For years, it was used during coronations of Polish kings. In 1795, Szczerbiec was looted by the Prussians. It was then exhibited in Paris at a world exhibition, and then the sword was seized by the Russians. It returned to free Poland for a short time. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, it was necessary to deport the items stored in the Crown Treasury on Wawel Castle, including Szczerbiec. The sword made its way across the Atlantic Ocean.
Legend says that the first king of Poland, Boleslaus the Brave, struck the Golden Gate in Kyiv with the sword in 1018 during the conquest of that city. In the process, the sword was said to have chipped and hence the name Szczerbiec. Information about this is given by medieval chroniclers writing about the history of Poland, including Gall Anonim, Wincenty Kadłubek and Jan Długosz.
Historians, however, do not trust the legend and suspect that the sword dates from the second half of the 13th century. It probably belonged to one of the Polish princes – perhaps Boleslaus the Pious was the owner of Szczerbiec. It was probably first used as a coronation insignia in 1320 during the coronation of Ladislaus Łokietek.
During Poland’s wars with its neighbours in the 17th and 18th centuries, the sword was repeatedly hidden from invaders. In 1764, Szczerbiec was used for the last time during the coronation of the last king of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski. In 1795, Prussia, Russia and Austria carried out the third partition of Poland and the country ceased to exist. Szczerbiec fell into the hands of the Prussians, who transported it to Berlin, and it was never heard from again. It returned to the arena of history thanks to a Russian prince. He was said to have bought it from an Armenian who allegedly found it in a roadside ditch. Jan Nepomucen Sadowski, a Polish archaeologist, recognised it as an authentic coronation sword of the kings of Poland.
The Russians gave Szczerbiec back to the Poles only in 1924, after losing the Polish-Bolshevik war (Poland had previously regained its independence in 1918). In 1939, when Germany invaded Poland and started the Second World War, the Poles evacuated the coronation sword and other national treasures to Canada. There, it safely survived the armed conflict and returned to Poland on 3 February 1958. Currently, it is stored in Kraków’s Wawel Castle.