Metal has been always loved and honoured in Alchevsk. The city grew from the village of the workers of the Donetsk and Yur’evsk metallurgical society plant (DYMS). It was found by the Ukrainian manufacturer, banker and the merchant of the first guild Aleksey Kirilovich Alchevskiy. At that time the plant was the only one metallurgical enterprise in Ukraine built on the domestic capital. Nowadays the Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works is one of the largest industrial enterprises in the south-east of Ukraine. Almost two thirds of the city citizens work there. A melting ladle is depicted on the city’s coat of arms and even the favourite football team of the city is called The Steel!
Since last year citizens of Alchevsk have one more thing to be proud of. There is the second in Ukraine Forged Figures Park (the first one is in Donetsk) established on Sovetskaya Square. The fact is that the Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works is the main sponsor of blacksmiths art festivals in Ukraine. And the grateful blacksmiths decided to decorate the city with their works.
The grand opening of the park took place on the 15 September. The city mayor Vladimir Chub, the secretary of the Union of blacksmiths in Ukraine, the chief editor of The Magazine of Metal Igor Rudenko and the chairman of the Alchevsk department of the Donbass blacksmiths Guild Pavel Dzina were present there.
There are only four sculptures in the park for the present. But it is planned to set there a lot of others. The Masters’ Bunch is the spiral symbolizing the development and movement upwards. The Sun is a symbol of light, beauty and flourishing. They are small copies of the sculptures installed in the centre of Donetsk and Ivano-Frankovsk. The Swarm of Butterflies symbolizing the incipient life was made and presented to Alchevsk by blacksmiths of Donetsk Gefest enterprise.
The largest sculpture was made in the Crimea at the summer festival of magicians of fire and metal. It is a ladle pouring on the land the aura of blacksmiths art that makes the world better.
Aleksandr LEGENKIY