While it has little to do with Ukraine or Ukrainian history, a monument to the biblical hero Samson who tore apart a lion with his bare hands is one of the oldest monuments in Kyiv, and a favorite meeting place for students, sweethearts and tourists.
Standing on Kontraktova Ploshcha in Podil, the low-lying district running alongside the Dnipro River, the monument is actually a fountain. Water sprinkles out of the lion’s mouth during the warm parts of the year. It stands under a cozy rotunda that also houses sundials, and atop which Apostle Andrew stands, carrying a cross.
Just as the Biblical character, Podil’s Samson has long hair, allegedly the source of his power. However, his facial expression shows no strain as he pries open a lion’s jaws with his bare hands. At first glance, the monument actually looks like a dentist helping a stubborn patient open its mouth wider.
WHAT:
The first water fountain appeared on Kontraktova Square in 1749. It was created by Ivan Hryhorovych-Barsky, a prominent Baroque architect and graduate of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, located nearby. He is famous for designing many buildings and churches around the country.
Construction of the Samson monument was commissioned later, in 1809, by a top official administering the Podil district. According to legend, it was built on a sacred spring and the locals believed that the city of Kyiv would continue to exist as long as water flowed out of it. However, it’s more likely that the water flowed from a manmade reservoir that collected water coming from the Andriyivska and Zamkova hills through a network of wooden pipes. Some of these wooden pipes were dug up by archaeologists when Kyiv’s metro tunnels were being built in Soviet days, and are believed to be a part of the city’s early urban water supply network.
Following the European fashion of decorating city squares with fountains, Hryhorovych-Barsky first topped the reservoir with a small fountain in the form of a wooden angel holding a bowl of water. In 1809, the angel was replaced with the statue of Samson fighting the lion, and the fountain was simply called Samson.
But earlier still, at the end of the 17th century, Pier Broulion, a French professor of mathematics at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, made a sundial for the top of the pavilion. However, after a major fire in 1811, the whole pavilion burnt down. It was soon restored without the sundial.
Before World War I broke out, both statues from this fountain, St. Andrew and Samson, were removed and put into storage at the city museum of antiquities and art, which is called the National Art Museum of Ukraine today. The original statues were replaced with exact copies, which later proved to be useful, since the Bolsheviks completely dismantled the fountain in 1934. There are several explanations as to why it was dismantled, but none are reliable.
In the 1970s, the authorities decided to reconstruct Podil, Kyiv’s ancient merchant and craft district. In 1977, the city council commissioned new fountains, based on old pictures, and installed new copies of St. Andrew and Samson, keeping the originals in the museum.
WHO
Samson is a famous biblical hero described in the Book of Judges. Born to a mother who conceived after seeing an angel, and who was told to abstain from alcohol, Samson was granted superhuman strength by God.
Among his greatest exploits were tearing a lion apart with his bare hands, and slaying an entire army with a single animal jawbone. His adventures inspired world-famous artists Rembrandt van Rijn, Andrea Mantegna, Tintoretto, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Paul Dore, Francesco Morone, Anthony van Dyck and Peter Rubens, who painted masterpieces based on the legends from Samson’s life.
Among the most popular artistic motifs is Samson meeting Delilah, a beautiful Philistine woman who enticed him to cut off his hair, which Samson wrongfully mistook for being the source of his strength. The Philistines, whose fields Samson set on fire, blinded and chained him. Blind, Samson’s hair and faith in God grew back again. After being summoned by the Philistines to a temple, he destroyed it by taking down its pillars. He died in the ruins, pulling many of his enemies with him.
You can read more about Samson here.
Kyiv Post staff writer Iryna Prymachyk can be reached at prymachyk@kyivpost.
