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A Polish town is to build the worlds first monument to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia designed to provide free information to anyone with a computer.

Costing 9,400, the tribute to the Internet website will be unveiled in a central square in Slubice, a town of 18,000 people near the German border.

The idea of the monument came from Krzysztof Wojciechowski, the director of a local college, who said he was on awe of the service Wikipedia provided and the websites scale.

Since its launch in 2001, the website has proved to be a hit in Poland, with the Polish version now boasting over a million articles, making it the 12th biggest Wikipedia site.

The statue, less than two metres tall and made of a laminated material designed to look like brass, will consist of four figures holding up the Wikipedia symbol. Its designer is Mihran Hakobjan, a 30-year-old Armenian-born artist, who graduated from a Slubice college.

Piotr Luczynski, the towns deputy mayor, said the statue could become a tourist attraction and also reflected the towns ideals and aspirations.

The monument a tribute to an entire community working selflessly for the benefit of others we found interesting and worthy of being in Slubice, he said.

Mr Luczynski added the statue fitted in with the aspirations of the town which despite being small wanted to be unique.

A spokeswoman for Wikipedia in Poland said she hoped the statue would raise awareness of the website and encourage people to contribute

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Polish town to build statue honouring Wikipedia