Monument to the sister cities of Murmansk description and photos - Russia - North-West: Murmansk (Topic)

Monument to the sister cities of Murmansk description and photos - Russia - North-West: Murmansk. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

In the central part of the city of Murmansk, on the opposite side from the local history museum, there is a very original monument that has a difficult fate. The memorial sign is erected in honor of the twin cities of the city of Murmansk.

One of the characteristic signs of the 60-80s of the 20th century was the movement for the establishment of friendly ties between cities of different countries. During this period of time, the World Federation of Twin Cities was active. In the Soviet Union at that time, there was a rapid development of interaction between cities of the USSR and small cities of other countries. At the same time, twinning was meant as mutual assistance and mutual support. It is clear that in this case, partnerships have always taken place, but nevertheless they were very vague, although there has always been a semblance of international cooperation. It is worth noting that sister-city relations provided the opportunity to visit foreign countries in various ways, although this was not accepted. Most often, only bosses traveled abroad, although the delegation included engineers, doctors, workers, athletes and amateur artists.

For these reasons, the city of Murmansk actively sought to acquire twin cities, especially with regard to cooperation with countries Scandinavia. At this time, a form of state communication of residents of the northern regions of Norway, Finland, the USSR and Sweden was born, which was supported by an agreement on peace and mutual cooperation.

The first sister city for Murmansk was the Finnish city of Rovaniemi. Cooperation with him was concluded in 1962. In 1972, Murmansk had two more twin cities - the Norwegian city of Tromso and the Swedish city of Lulea. In 1973, the Norwegian city of Vadso became a sister city. After some time, friendly ties were reached with the American city of Jacksonville, located in the state of Florida. In 1989, the Dutch city of Groningen also became a sister city. During 1993-1994, friendly relations were established between Murmansk and the Icelandic city of Akureyri and the Polish city of Szczecin.

In 1979, a memorial sign was opened in Murmansk between Lenin Avenue and Karl Marx and Volodarsky Streets in honor of the friendly relations of the cities twin brothers. The author of the memorial monument was one of the architects of the Murmanskgrazhdanproekt Institute named Degtyarev, because it was this man's project that turned out to be the best in the art competition. It took almost two years to erect the monument, while the inhabitants of the city called the monument Cheburashka. The monolith is a three-meter reinforced concrete base, which was lined with natural stone, on which a pair of so-called "wings", made of concrete and a span of about 5 meters, were fixed. At the point of convergence of those "wings" there is a regular circle on which there is the emblem of the WFTU. It is a pair of connected rings that represent a union. The present key accurately symbolizes the city, which is portrayed in heraldic science in this way. On the white blocks, represented by the wings, certain letters were mounted, which were made of a brass alloy and which made up the names of five twin cities, which became the first for the city of Murmansk.

The memorial obelisk itself is installed on a large square flower bed, on which unpretentious flowers characteristic of this region grow in the warm season. Some part of the cozy square has plantations in the form of mountain ash and is paved with concrete slabs interspersed with fragments of cut colored stone. The adjacent green area is fenced off with a cast iron grating. In the summertime, benches are placed here, and a considerable number of people spend their holidays in this place. The monument creates the impression of a cozy place due to the fact that it is surrounded on all sides by tall trees and thus attracts the attention of all townspeople.

In the fall of 2000, the monument was disfigured - several vandals tore off 58 letters made of non-ferrous metal ... Restoration work was carried out, and a new twin city was added to the monument - Minsk.

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Topic: Monument to the sister cities of Murmansk description and photos - Russia - North-West: Murmansk.