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Pl. Pidkovy – monument to Ivan Pidkova

ID: 130

The monument to the Cossack kosh otaman was installed here in 1982. It was made by sculptor Petro Kulyk. 

History

The idea of installing such a monument arose after an according resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR was adopted. The resolution, related to the perpetuation of memorable places connected to the history of the Cossacks, was adopted on 18 September 1965.  

Sculptor Petro Kulyk prepared a statue of Ivan Pidkova for the Republican exhibition "The Artists of Lviv" which took place on November 18, 1981 in Kyiv. After the exhibition, he gave the sculpture as a gift to the city of Lviv. At first, Rynok Square was considered as a location where it could be installed, as the otaman had been executed there in 1578.

In May 1982, after approval by the architectural and artistic council at the Lviv Architectural and Planning Department, the monument was set up on the square which had been named in honor of Ivan Pidkova from 1946. Previously, it was called the Św. Ducha (Holy Spirit) square as there was a small church and a hospital of this dedication, built in the 14th c. and dismantled in the late 18th c. In 1978, when a sewer was arranged on this square, archaeological excavations were carried out and parts of an old building's foundations were discovered; today they are partially traced and can be seen in the north-eastern part of the square.

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Architecture

The monument consists of a pedestal of two stone blocks, laid one on the other, and a cast metal portrait of the otaman. The name Ivan is assembled of metal letters, while a metal horseshoe is placed instead of the last name (in Ukrainian, "pidkova" means a horseshoe). A piece of gun barrel and several cannonballs are placed below. The inscription, engraved in stylized half-uncial Cyrillic font in the stone, was originally as follows: "Ivan Pidkova, a hero of the joint struggle of the Russian, Ukrainian, and Moldovan peoples against the Turkish oppressors, executed by the Polish gentry in Lviv on 16 June 1578." In the early 1990s the word "Russian" was covered with a metal composition consisting of a horseshoe in the center and clusters of guelder rose berries on the sides.

Personalities

Petro Kulyk (born 1993) — Ukrainian sculptor, author of the monument

Sources

Ігор Мельник, Роман Масик, Пам'ятники та меморіальні таблиці міста Львова, (Львів: Апріорі, 2012), 40-42

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