Tsar’s Children monument opened in Sverdlovsk Region

The ceremony opening the monument to the children of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II was held at the monastery in Ganina Yama near Yekaterinburg.

Photo: metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, left, during the ceremonial opening and consecration of the Tsar’s Children monument commemorating the murdered children of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II near the monastery in Ganina Yama.

The ceremonial opening and consecration of the new sculpture began with a divine liturgy.

The concept of the monument was designed by the former head of the Yekaterinburg eparchy, archbishop Vikenty. Sculptor Igor Akimov, a graduate and a teacher at the Urals State Architecture Academy, was the one to implement it.

According to the author’s idea, the tsar’s children (Alexei, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia) with crosses in their hands are descending the heaven along an inclined stone pedestal.

The 2.9-meter high sculpture weighs two tons.

The opening was held to mark up the date of birth of Olga, one of emperor’s heirs. Ganina Yama near Yekaterinburg is the pit where the remains of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II, his family and servants killed by the Bolsheviks in the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg were thrown. The remains were discovered in 1991. At present, there is the Monastery of the Holy Tsarist Passion-Bearers there.

Monuments to Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna have been already established near the monastery.

Photo: metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, left, during the ceremonial opening and consecration of the Tsar’s Children monument.