Thousands of monuments and monuments adorn the squares, parks and squares of cities around the world. As a rule, all of them are dedicated to great people or the most important historical events. However, today I would like to dwell on the most unusual sculptures dedicated to heroes who, in general, did not exist at all, characters who were only a figment of the imagination of artists, poets and writers. Having met many of them in early childhood, millions of people around the world became their close friends, so the people immortalized the heroes in bronze, marble and wood as a token of their sincere love.
Monument to the Bremen Town Musicians in Bremen
For example, the memory of the characters of the fairy tale "The Bremen Town Musicians" (Grimm) lives to this day, and not only in the homeland of the authors, in the German city of Bremen, but also in many others, such as Zülpich, Leipzig, Furth, Erfurt, Kawaguchi-go (Japan), St. Petersburg, Sochi, Krasnoyarsk, Riga, Lipetsk and Khabarovsk. The very first monument to the Bremen Town Musicians was erected in the center of Bremen in 1951. Its author was a fairly successful German sculptor Gerhard Marx.
In his sculptural composition made of bronze, the artist captured an episode of a fairy tale in which all the animals climbed on their backs to each other to see in the window what a gang of robbers were doing in a forest house. At the base of the pyramid there is a strong donkey, on it is a dog, then a cat, and a proudly standing rooster crowns the composition. It is interesting that the nose of the donkey standing in Riga is often rubbed, so this part of the bronze sculpture is always lighter than the rest. And, of course, you will grab luck by the tail if you reach the rooster! The monument to the Bremen town musicians, created in Russia, even carries a certain national flavor: the Troubadour is among the fabulous musicians only in our country thanks to the cartoon that has fallen in love since childhood, because the Brothers Grimm did not have such a hero at all.
Interesting monuments to literary heroes
It would certainly be worth taking a look at other monuments of the world dedicated to fairy-tale heroes. In the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, in the port, there is a monument to the Little Mermaid - the heroine of the most beautiful and saddest fairy tale by the great Hans Christian Andersen. For more than a hundred years she has been sitting on a rock among the waves at the entrance to the harbor, waiting for her prince.
Australia, Adelaide. Stone Alice in the middle of a flower bed. There is a monument to the beloved heroine both in the UK and in the central park of New York. On the hat of a huge mushroom, Alice gathered her many friends for a strange tea party.
In 1956, the famous Emilio Greco created a sculpture of a long-nosed Pinocchio. A monument to this immortal fairy-tale hero has been erected in the small Italian village of Collodi.
Germany, Bodenwerder. The original monument-fountain to the most truthful person in the world - Baron Munchausen. Proudly riding a horse half blown off in battle, he watches in surprise as water flows from its belly.
German city of Schwalm. It is here that the Brothers Grimm recorded their version of Little Red Riding Hood and, of course, there is also a monument to Little Red Riding Hood and the Gray Wolf, to which, according to the already established tradition, girls in red hats come on holidays, and young men in wolf masks.
It's amazing - the Grimm brothers were serious scientists, but their works are not as famous as the fairy tales loved by everyone, and today all over the world you can find not only a monument to the Bremen town musicians and Little Red Riding Hood, but also many others dedicated to wonderful, beloved to all the heroes of their immortal works.
