The installation of the monument to the Heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812 will begin today in Polotsk

November 27, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The installation of structural elements of the monument to the Heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812 will begin today in Polotsk. Thus, the Polotsk authorities have begun the restoration of the monument-chapel destroyed in 1932, Stanislav Krassovsky, chief specialist of the Polotsk City Executive Committee for defense and mobilization issues, told a BELTA correspondent. More than 44 million Russian rubles have been allocated from the Union State budget for the recreation of the monument. OAO "Technoloit Polotsk" and the Minsk Sculpture Combine were involved in the production of the monument's parts. When working on the sketch, architects and sculptors relied not only on archival materials and photographs but also thoroughly studied and measured the monument to the Heroes of 1812 in Smolensk, which has been preserved in its original form. The monument-chapel was opened in Polotsk in 1850. The author of the project was architect Fiksen. The monument was a pyramid crowned with a dome with a gilded cross. Around it stood 8 cast-iron columns with domes, on which gilded eagles were perched. All this rested on a cylindrical pedestal. The height of the monument was 23.7 m, and the total weight reached 221 tons. Similar monuments were erected in the mid-19th century in seven settlements where the most significant battles of the Patriotic War of 1812 took place. The recreation of the monument is provided for by the Comprehensive Program for the Development of Polotsk for the period up to 2012. It is expected that the monument will appear in all its glory by the end of the current year. -0-