VERIA, June 7 (RIA Novosti) – A monument to Paul the Apostle by controversial Georgian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli was unveiled in the Greek city of Veria on Friday in a ceremony attended by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Patriarch Kirill visited Veria on the last day of his visit to the country. The ancient city, some 500 kilometers (300 miles) northwest of the capital, Athens, is known as a place where Paul the Apostle once preached.
The 2.5-meter monument was presented to Greece by St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko.
Tsereteli, a favorite former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, has been denounced by critics as pompous and tasteless. Activists have run an online "Stop Tsereteli" campaign and at one point attempted to blow up his giant statue of Peter the Great along the Moscow River.
The Virtual Tourist website has voted the 98-meter monument, depicting the tsar in a somewhat surreal Roman getup atop a greenish frigate, the 10th worst public monument.
Tsereteli's other confections include a bronze pillar celebrating 200 years of friendship between the Russian and Georgian peoples, more commonly known as the "kebab," and a glass-and-bronze shopping mall outside the Kremlin featuring fairy tale characters capering about in fountains, dubbed "the jacuzzi."
