A monument to Mykola Arkas has been erected in the centre of Mykolaiv

A monument to Mykola Arkas has been erected in Mykolaiv. Photo: NikVesti

A monument to the renowned historian, composer and public figure Mykola Arkas has been erected near the Children’s Creative Centre in the centre of Mykolaiv.

The monument was unveiled today, 15 July, according to NikVesti.

The monument was created before the full-scale invasion, as activist and soldier Illia Zelinskyi wrote back in January 2021. However, it had not been installed in its designated location until now. The sculpture was created by Oleksandr Kanibor and his father, Oleksandr Kanibor.

Work on creating the granite sculpture took around a year and a half. In an interview in 2021, Oleksandr Kanibor explained that, in order to carve the figure of Arkas from a 12-tonne block of granite, four tonnes of granite had to be chiselled away.

A monument to Mykola Arkas was erected in Mykolaiv. Photo: NikVesti

Mykola Arkas was born in 1853 in Mykolaiv, where he spent his entire life and where he was buried in 1909. He went down in history as the author of the first popular book on the history of Ukraine published in the Ukrainian language, and of the first Ukrainian opera based on Taras Shevchenko’s story «Kateryna». He founded the «Prosvita» society in the city and was involved in folklore studies and education.

A monument to Mykola Arkas was erected in Mykolaiv. Photo: NikVesti

It is worth noting that Mykolaiv is considering the possibility of erecting new monuments to prominent Ukrainian figures: Hetman Ivan Mazepa and Admiral Andrii Pokrovskyi.