Heydər Əliyevin heykəli, Bronze monument near Heydar Aliyev Palace, Baku, Azerbaijan.
The monument to Heydar Aliyev stands in the park in front of the Heydar Aliyev Palace in Baku. Its bronze figure is 5.2 metres tall and weighs 2.4 tonnes, set on a massive granite pedestal and obelisks assembled without concrete. With the raised hand, the figure reaches about 6 metres, and the whole complex is around 12 metres high.
The monument was made by Russian sculptors Salavat Shcherbakov and Mikhail Nogin under architect Igor Voskresensky and unveiled on 10 May 2005, the 82nd anniversary of Heydar Aliyev's birth, in the park before the Heydar Aliyev Palace. The bronze figure was cast in Moscow, while the granite pedestal and obelisks were built without concrete by Azerbaijani builders. In 2016 the pedestal was defaced with graffiti and two activists were arrested.
Since 2000, 10 May is marked in Azerbaijan as Flower Day, timed to Heydar Aliyev's birthday; the date is also when the monument was unveiled in 2005. On 10 May 2016 the pedestal was covered with graffiti reading "Qul Bayramınız Mübarək!" ("Happy Slaves' Day!"), a pun on the holiday greeting "Gül bayramınız mübarək!", alongside "Fuck the System" and anarchist symbols. Two activists, Giyas Ibrahimov and Bayram Mamedov, were detained that day and later sentenced to ten years, then released in March 2019.
The monument stands in the park in front of the Heydar Aliyev Palace, in central Baku. The figure alone is 5.2 m tall and weighs 2.4 tonnes; the whole complex reaches about 12 m, so step back across the square to take it in. The granite pedestal and obelisks were built without concrete.
The figure alone stands 5.2 metres high and weighs 2.4 tonnes, cast in bronze; the pedestal and obelisks were built from massive granite blocks laid without concrete. The total height of the complex reaches about 12 metres, with the raised arm bringing the figure to roughly 6 metres.
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