Francysk Skaryna monument

The idea of erecting a monument to Francysk Skaryna in the homeland of the printing pioneer emerged in the 1920s in the wake of the rise of the Belarusian culture. The reason for its appearance was the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the beginning of Belarusian book printing, which was celebrated in 1925. Vatslaw Lastowski, a Belarusian historian and literary critic, public and political figure, was one of the masterminds of the festival. He was the one who, in the pages of his magazine “Kryvich”, published in Kaunas, proposed to count down the Belarusian book printing from 1525 Skaryna’s publication of the book “The Apostle” in Vilnius.

Among the events that were held both at the local and state level, it was planned to open commemorative plaques in Minsk and Polatsk, as well as a monument to the first printer in his hometown. It was decided to place the monument near the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom in the Upper Castle. The casting of the bronze monument was carried out by employees of the Vitsebsk Art College. The grand opening was planned for the spring of 1926. Due to the collapse of the Belarusization policy, however, the monument had never appeared.

The next time the idea of creating a monument to the Belarusian pioneer printer had come on the eve of the celebration of the 450th anniversary of Belarusian book printing, which took place in 1967 and dated back to the first Skaryna’s editions published in Prague. At the same time, a native sculptor Alyaksey Hlebaw created a model of a bronze monument specifically for installation in Polatsk. Even thoughthat he had never got a chance to cast the sculpture, his work did not die: Hlebaw’s students Igar Hlebaw and Andrey Zaspitski finished the work he had started.

In 1974, architect Valdemar Marokin helped erect  the majestic monument in the square located at the intersection of Karl Marx Avenue and Gogol Street. The first monument to Francysk Skaryna in the BSSR is installed on a 6×8 meter stylobate. A 5.5-meter-high bronze figure rises on a 6.5 meters high-pedestal. Skaryna is depicted in a scientist’s mantle, holding a book – a symbol of scholarship – in his hands, in a pensive pose, brooding about what everyone invests in one’s “thoughts”. Two years later, sculptor Alyaksey Hlebaw was posthumously awarded the State Prize of the BSSR for this work.

In 2007, by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus, the monument was included in the State List of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Belarus as historical and cultural heritage of national importance.