Monument to Hetman Ivan Mazepa (Eternal Kyiv)

Hetman Ivan Mazepa left a significant mark on the formation of Ukrainian statehood. He was a renowned and brave military leader who, after extending his authority to Right-Bank Ukraine in 1704, commanded the Zaporozhian Host on both banks of the Dnipro.

Some historians consider Mazepa a highly controversial figure because, during the Great Northern War, he broke with Tsar Peter I and went over to the side of Sweden. Yet his role should not be underestimated. Mazepa devoted vast sums to the spiritual and cultural life of the future Ukrainian state: at his expense, 26 cathedrals, churches and bell towers were built or restored, including the Church of the Ascension in Pereiaslav, the Holy Gates of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra and St. Nicholas Church in Kyiv. Throughout his time as hetman, he also pursued the idea of uniting all Ukrainian lands into a single state under his leadership, although he never managed to fully realize that plan.

So that Ukrainians would never forget the contribution of the famous Cossack hetman, a monument to Ivan Mazepa was unveiled on January 19, 2009, on the observation platform near the Kyiv Palace of Children and Youth. It was created by the well-known Israeli sculptor Frank Meisler.

Although the monument bears Mazepa's name, it does not depict the hetman himself. The sculpture is a dove taking flight from a round pedestal. The dove is made of two halves that join at the beak, symbolizing the union of Right-Bank and Left-Bank Ukraine. The pedestal from which the bird rises is carved with the churches and cathedrals that Mazepa helped to build, and the dove's tail wraps around the pedestal and the churches on it.

In this work, Frank Meisler sought to capture everything Mazepa worked so hard for and everything he left behind. We do not see the great hetman himself, but we do see his legacy. Another distinctive feature of the monument is that it rotates around its axis, so that visitors can take in all its details without moving from their spot.

The monument has another name, "Eternal Kyiv," which symbolizes peace and spirituality not only in Ukraine's capital but on Earth as a whole. After all, the dove is above all a bird of peace.

At the time of its unveiling, the monument caused a stir among some believers, who felt that a memorial to Mazepa, anathematized by the Russian church after he broke with the tsar, should not stand near the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, where Iskra and Kochubei, executed in the hetman's time, are buried.

Address (where the monument was unveiled): Kyiv, 1 Dniprovskyi Descent (walk down from Glory Square along the Alley of the Heroes of Kruty).