The installation of the monument to the Heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812 is being completed in Polotsk

December 29, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. The installation of the monument to the Heroes of the 1812 Patriotic War is being completed in Polotsk today, Stanislav Krassovsky, chief specialist of the Polotsk City Executive Committee for defense and mobilization issues, told a BELTA correspondent. A dome with a diameter of 2.5 m will be installed on the pyramid, and after the consecration ceremony performed by local clergy, a 1.5-meter gilded cross will be erected. Then, the monument will be accepted by the members of the Republican Council for Monumental and Monumental-Decorative Art. Landscaping around the monument is planned for spring. In particular, two cannons of the 1812 model, captured from the French during the assault on Polotsk, will be installed near the monument on granite-clad pedestals. Another pedestal will be installed directly in front of the monument. A copy of a plaque (the original has been transferred to the museum) and a memorial capsule, discovered during the excavation of the foundation of the old monument, will be laid on it. The final landscaping touches will include paving 1.5 thousand sq. m of territory near the facility with decorative tiles and installing a lighting system for the monument. In total, local authorities plan to allocate over Br100 million for these purposes. The reconstruction of the monument is provided for by the Comprehensive Program for the Development of Polotsk for the period up to 2012. More than 44 million Russian rubles have been allocated from the Union State budget for its reconstruction. OAO "Tekhnoloit Polotsk" and the Minsk Sculpture Combine were involved in the manufacturing 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 chapel monument was opened in Polotsk in 1850. The author of the project was architect Fixen. The monument was a pyramid topped with a dome and a gilded cross. Around it stood eight 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 1812 Patriotic War took place. -0-