Description of the attraction
On August 1, 2010, in the park opposite the city administration, a commemorative memorial was opened dedicated to the natives of Penza who died in the line of military duty in Afghanistan. The initiator of the construction of the memorial complex in the central part of the city was the regional organization of the disabled of the Afghan war, represented by its chairman, as well as Penza veterans and the board of the Penza charitable foundation "Veteran". The author of the granite structure "Afghan Gate" was the honored Russian sculptor Alexander Bem.
The memorial complex includes a granite stylobate decorated with eight bronze bas-reliefs (each weighing about a ton), steles with the names of the dead (128 people) and missing (6 people) natives of the city of Penza. Between the eight-meter arch and the stele, there is an eternal flame lit at the Victory Monument in the central square. The life-size images on the columns tell about the episodes of the Afghan warrior's journey: seeing off, hostilities, returning to his homeland.
The memorial complex "Afghan Gate" with a total area of three and a half thousand square meters is today the largest building in Russia dedicated to the soldiers who died in Afghanistan. Afghan fellow soldiers from all over the country regularly come to Penza to honor the memory of the victims and lay fresh flowers at the foot of the memorial.
