Memory of Russia: Monuments to Prince Vladimir are open in Smolensk and Vladimir

Ancient Russian city of Smolensk decorated monument to St. Prince Vladimir. New monument installed on the Dnieper embankment, 30 August 2015 was opened by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill.

Among thousands of participants of the ceremony were representatives of regional authorities, public administration and public organizations, clergy. All speakers noted that this was the first monument to Vladimir, established in Russia on the banks of the Dnieper.

According to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, the role of Prince Vladimir in Russian history cannot be overstated. "What he did is difficult to compare with all the fractures that have been in our country for the next centuries", - he said.

Smolensky sculptor Valery Grashchenkov portrayed Prince as he was thirty. The Saint is looking at the river as inviting all to be baptized.

And on August 29 a monument to Prince Vladimir was opened in Vladimir.

Sculpture height of four meters, which rises to two-meter pedestal, is installed between the Golden Gate and Cathedral of the Assumption. In a short time near the monument will begin construction of a temple in honor of St. Equal to the Apostles. Its construction was blessed last year by Patriarch Kirill.