Last Sunday of May, when Kyiv City Day is traditionally celebrated, this year fell on the 26th. Our city turns 1️542 years old.
On the occasion of Kyiv Day, the “Shukai!” project unveiled a miniature monument to Princess Olga on the facade of DAU.
Yulia Bevzenko, author of the project:
We opened a new mini-sculpture that reveals the main secret of the monument to Princess Olga on Mykhailivska Square.
In 1911, the sculptor Ivan Kavaleridze created a monument to Olga on the order of the Kyiv branch of the Military Historical Society. In the original version, the princess appeared as a decisive ruler with a sword in her hands. However, this image agitated Flavian, the Metropolitan of Kyiv and Galicia, and the author was ordered to soothe the woman – to remove a sword and put a cross into her hand.
The sculptor apparently fulfilled the wishes of the customers: he removed the sword and added a cross.
But, as a creative person, he found a way to preserve his original plan: he did not to take Olga’s sword away, having hidden it under Olha’s cloak. It is evidenced by Olha’s hand tightly squeezing it – the author alludes to this in his memoirs. For this audacity, he was not invited to the opening of the monument.
Our mini-sculpture returns the princess her lawful weapon… “There is a sword under Olha’s cloak!” is a message for every Ukrainian man and woman, for every friend of ours, and especially for our enemy.
Here is a map of all minisculptures of the “Shukai!” project.
Photo: Daria Kryvonis (DAU)
