08/09/2026
The Royale has a new side gate, and it’s not ordered online.
Wiktor Szostalo built it entirely by hand in his studio in Granite City, glass and metal, welded piece by piece over months before he installed it himself this spring. If you’ve spent any time in St. Louis, his work has probably crossed your path without you knowing it. He’s the sculptor behind the Angel of Harmony outside the New Cathedral Basilica, the stainless steel angel with over a hundred wind chimes built into its wings.
Wiktor’s story is its own kind of remarkable. He trained as an artist in Poland, studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, and along the way became one of the founding organizers of the Solidarity movement in his hometown. After the government cracked down in December 1981, he was jailed for five months for that work. He left Poland in 1982 and was granted political asylum in the US. He never stopped making things, and St. Louis has been lucky enough to be where he landed.
I’ve known Wiktor for almost 30 years. He’s a friend, a regular since day one, and now the guy whose hands are on the door of this place every single day. Swipe through to see the gate go from raw steel in his studio to standing here at The Royale.
Come see it in person, and next time you walk through it, you’re walking through something someone actually built.
