Archangel for a Palm

At their last session, Kyiv’s city fathers made a decision to present Donetsk with the statue of Archangel Michael. The statue, popularly nicknamed Batman, faced Kyiv’s main post office on the Independence Square from 1996 until it was taken down in the recent major reconstruction. Now it is to be presented to the populace of Donetsk as an expression of gratitude for their heraldic symbol, Mertsalov’s Palm, which was presented to the Mayor of Kyiv. It has been mounted in the City Administration hall, reports Interfax-Ukraine.

The exotic work of art was first made in 1895 by Oleksiy Mertsalov, a Yuzivka Metallurgical Plant blacksmith (now the Donetsk Metallurgical plant) for the occasion of an all-Russian industrial art exhibition held in 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod. The Palm tree was awarded first prize and in 1900 was displayed at the Paris exposition. The original Mertsalov’s Palm is currently on display in St. Petersburg’s museum of Gorny (Mountain) University.