Description of the attraction
The monument to Princess Olga, installed on Mikhailovskaya Square in Kiev, is a whole sculptural composition, which is a sculpture of the princess herself, as well as pedestals of the enlighteners of the Slavic peoples Cyril and Methodius, located near the monument to the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, who, according to legend, predicted the construction of Kiev on the Dnieper hills.
The idea of erecting this monument appeared back in 1909, at the same time the place where it was supposed to be located was consecrated. Several sculptors took part in the creation of the monument, although the winner of the competition was the sculptor F. Balavensky (his idea was later canceled). For example, a group of craftsmen headed by the sculptor Ivan Kavaleridze worked on the central figure of the princess, and the figure of the apostle was created by Kavaleridze's fellow student P. Snitkin. The entire composition was made of a material that was fashionable at that time - concrete. The only thing that the sculptors could not do was the planned high reliefs, which were supposed to depict the deeds of Princess Olga. The reason for the failure is simple - it was simply impossible to make them out of concrete. Therefore, we limited ourselves to the plates installed on the pedestal.
The celebration in honor of the unveiling of the monument was more than modest, since at the same time, Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin, wounded by a terrorist, was dying in a Kiev hospital.
Unfortunately, the monument did not last so long. Already in 1919, during the Civil War, the statue of Princess Olga was thrown off the pedestal, split in half and buried under the monument. However, in the country of victorious atheism, they did not stop there and in 1923 the remaining parts of the monument were dismantled, later breaking a public garden in this place in 1926. Only in the 90s was work carried out to restore the monument, this time from marble and granite.
