The founding ceremony of the Kościuszko Mound took place on 16 October 1820. The construction was financed by donations from Poles living in all territories of Poland under foreign occupation. For three years, people of all ages and class voluntarily constructed the mound to the height of . Work was supervised by a Committee for the Construction of the Tadeusz Kościuszko Monument. At the base of the mound, the Founding Act was deposited in a glass and marble case. At the top, a granite boulder, brought from the Tatra Mountains, was placed, bearing the inscription Kościuszce (To Kościuszko). Inside the mound, urns were buried with soil from the Polish and American battlefields where Kościuszko fought. In 1860, on the 30th anniversary of the Polish November Uprising, the top of the mound was crowned with a boulder (545 kg) of granite from Tatra mountains which had engraved upon it: TO KOŚCIUSZKO.