Description of the attraction
Francysk Skorina - a famous humanist, translator, graphic artist, pioneer printer - was born in Polotsk. One of his talents was medicine; for many years he worked as a doctor for the bishop of Vilna and at the royal court in Prague.
The most significant contribution for which he is revered in his homeland is the founding of the first printing workshop in Belarus, printing and the first translations of the Bible into Belarusian, in total he made 23 translations and reprints of this book. Some of the prefaces to the editions of the books contain rhymed prefaces by Skaryna himself, which allows him to be attributed to the founders of written poetry. Also his innovation, which was not accepted by the clergy, was the illustration of books with engravings.
According to UNESCO, 1990 was proclaimed the Year of Skaryna in honor of the 500th anniversary of his birth. Celebrations were prepared for the significant date in Polotsk, and in September a book printing museum was opened, which is the only one of its kind in Belarus. The monument to the famous compatriot was erected in 1974, the author of the project was Alexey Glebov (he did not have time to finish the project), his pupils, sculptors Igor Glebov, Andrei Zaspitsky and architect Morokin, completed the work in bronze. The figure of Francysk Skaryna is depicted in a flowing robe, with a book in his left hand. The face is expressive and thoughtful, the head rests on the right arm bent at the elbow. The total height of the monument is 12 meters.
In 2015, work was carried out to reconstruct the monument, from the base of which several slabs broke off.
