Fountain of Friendship of Peoples (Moscow)
| Fountain of friendship between nations | |
|---|---|
.jpg) |
|
| place | Moscow |
| country |
 Russia
|
| use | Jewellery |
| construction time | 1951-1954 |
| architect | Constantine Topuridze |
| Architectural style | classicism |
| Technical specifications | |
| height | 7.40 m |
| Floor space | 4536 m² |
| Floors | 5 |
| Building material | Granite , steel , concrete , gilded bronze |
| Coordinates | |
| location | Coordinates: 55 ° 49 ′ 47.3 " N , 37 ° 37 ′ 54.2" E 55 ° 49 ′ 47.3 " N , 37 ° 37 ′ 54.2" E |
The People's Friendship Fountain ( Russian фонтан Дружбы народов ) in Moscow , the Russian capital is a monumental fountain on the grounds of the All-Russia Exhibition Center , the former Vdnkh VDNKh. Its narrower middle circle is titled The Golden Sheaf . Together with the reopening of the expanded exhibition on the achievements of the national economy, the fountain was inaugurated in 1954. It was designed by the artists Konstantin Topuridse and Grigori Konstantinowski.
Emergence
After the end of the Second World War , the then Soviet Union devoted itself increasingly to rebuilding its economy and also looked for ways to present the results to the residents and visitors of the capital appropriately. To this end, they planned an expansion of the exhibition that opened as an All Union agricultural exhibition in 1939 and closed in 1941.
The architect Konstantin Topuridze (1905–1977), together with a group of sculptors (Sinaida Baschenowa, Alexei Teneta , Iossif Tschaikow , Soja Rylejewa , Vladimir Gavrilow) and the engineer Vladimir Klyavin, designed an approximately circular multi-level ornamental fountain that forms the entrance area of the exhibition area should dominate. Construction lasted from 1951 to 1954 and took place on the area of a previous café and some demolished pavilions. In addition to the new landmark of the exhibition, the fountain The Stone Flower and The Golden Colossus as well as a statue of Stalin were already in the neighborhood in 1954 .
Until 2017, the water feature of the fountain system worked without computer control , 30 people were busy with its maintenance and maintaining its functionality. Every motor relay, every nozzle, every pump and every lock had to work during the entire daily opening hours of the exhibition.
After more than 60 years, the water system and the fountain figures were completely renovated and modernized in 2018; the cost is not known. The reopening took place on August 1, 2019.
description
Inside an irregular octagonal basin with the external dimensions 81 × 56 meters there is an oval cascade-shaped basin , the outer edge of which is loosened up by 16 symmetrically distributed stone plinths. The basin consists of red granite and three nested basins that rise a few centimeters towards the center of the facility. The innermost basin encloses a finely structured raised base, which consists of a multitude of interconnected, piled-up ring-shaped sheaves representing wheat , technical hemp and sunflowers . The tallest sheaves are 7.40 meters high and all are made of copper sheets. 16 female bronze sculptures covered with gold leaf stand on the granite pedestals . The female figures are a personification of the then 16 union republics of the Soviet Union and are dressed in typical national costumes.
Three of the figures represent famous people of that time are: the Estonian sculpture is an image of the actress and ballerina Virve Kiple-Parsadanjan , Turkmenistan is represented by the pianist Gosel Annamamedowa and Gruzinia was Rodam Amiredshibi, the wife of the poet Mikhail Svetlov , model.
The Russian girl is looking at the main pavilion of the exhibition with a bundle of wheat in her arms. Next to her are her Slavic sisters from Ukraine (girl with a wreath) and Belarus (girl with a shawl holding a branch with an apple in her hand). The figures were arranged in such a way that they all hold a banner with the communist motto: "Workers of all countries unite". Art experts see the similarity of the female figures as a mythological analogy to Demeter , the goddess of fertility and patron saint of agriculture. The artists have borrowed the subject from the aesthetic ideals of classicism. Critics of the fountain found the figures equipped with the cheapest clothes (“купецкая дешевка”) or they looked like 16 samovars .
Together with the surrounding open space, which is equipped with lawn, flowers, benches and rising column-like white lights, the fountain system occupies an area of 3723 square meters with a diameter of 170 meters. This square is called Platz der Völkerfreundschaft , and in the 1970s it was also called Fontänen-Platz . Before 1954 it was called Kolkhoz Square .
In the longer sides of the octagonal basin, smaller circular fountains are grouped on both sides, which emit their rays vertically at three different heights. In addition, two pairs of gilded smaller seated sculptures spray sideways (from the outside in) arc-shaped rays past these groups. Such pairs are also placed on the shorter sides of the pool. Grouped jets of water that shoot sideways are emitted from the second oval basin.
Under the large sheaf is an electric pump with an output of 575 kW , which simultaneously hurls 800 extremely fine jets of water. All fountains work periodically, that is, they are turned on every hour and a half, then there is a break.
literature
- Through Moscow . Bildstadtführer, Verlag Planeta, Moscow, 1984, pp. 159–179.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i fountain “Friendship of Nations” (Фонтан “Дружба народов”) . ENEA.
- ↑ So the fountain figures were restored. February 20, 2019, accessed July 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Natalia Pawlowa: VDNKh in Moscow presents its restored legendary fountain. August 1, 2018, accessed July 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Nikolai Rachmanow: Мoскoвские Зoри , Verlag Moskowski Rabotschi, 1972 (Russian).
- ↑ Through Moscow , ... Illustration on pages 170/171.