The Forged Figures Park is celebrating its 10th anniversary on the Donetsk City Day. Over the years the Park has become an excellent resting place and tourist attraction of the city. It is one of the most favourie and visited places for the city citizens and guests.

History steps

2001 – Donetsk City Council supported an idea of the Ukrainian Gefest blacksmiths enterprise’s director Victor Burduk to create the Forged Figures Park in the public garden near the Council. There were 11 figures installed in the Park.

2004 – The VI Donetsk Blacksmiths Art Festival became All-Ukrainian. In course of this festival it was decided to create the Union of Masters of Blacksmiths Art in Ukraine.

2005 – The Park started to develop not only with separate sculptures but with alleys of figures.  The first Zodiac Signs Alley appeared in the Park. The first Ukrainian blacksmiths heptathlon championship.

On the 14^th of February in spite of thirteen degrees of frost Donetsk romantics came early in the morning to watch the ‘blooming’ of the Tree of Happiness with forged hearts.
More than forty people – obviously believing in love – gathered in the Forged figures Park to witness a small miracle created by the Donbass Blacksmiths Guild and its media partner the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. After short briefing with the community and media representatives Victor Burduk and some volunteers proceeded to a sacrament. And at exactly 6 o’clock, as it had been announced, all the present could become happy owners of blacksmith’s valentines, perhaps, the very first ones presented on this Happy Valentine’s Day.

Four years ago on the St. Valentines Day – on the 14th of February – the Tree of Happiness bloomed in the Forged Figures Park for the first time.
Thus the Gefest blacksmiths enterprise and the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper congratulated all the Donetsk citizens with this wonderful holiday – St. Valentines Day. The people who didn’t miss the moment of the blooming could gather the holiday harvest – forged valentine hearts for their loved ones.
Blacksmiths from other cities of Ukraine joined this creative initiative. This year hearts will be forged in the Crimea, Dnepropetrovsk and many other regions.

September 18

The opening of the festival itself was marked with momentous events. During the opening ceremony Donetsk mayor Aleksandr Lukianchenko was awarded the Honourable Blacksmith title.

The ceremony was held by the President of the Union of Masters of Blacksmiths Art in Ukraine Victor Burduk and the President of the Union of Blacksmiths in Russia Aleksandr Romanov. The Donetsk mayor with the help of two Presidents-blacksmiths forged and drove a nail. As a representative of Russia Aleksandr Romanov noted that the city’s assistance in developing of blacksmithing is far beyond Donetsk borders. This support helps blacksmithing to develop in Ukraine as well as in Russia.

In 2007 it was the first time when the IX International Blacksmiths Art Festival Forged Figures Park took place at the last weekend of September. There were 150 masters from 10 countries participating in it.
The main project of the festival was the opening of the Arches Alley. There were 10 five-meter-wide forged arches and 16 author’s benches installed in the Alley. Forged in course of the festival works decorated the eleventh arch, that was the Arch of Friendship.

The launch of the Forged Figures Park resource is timed to the beginning of the XII International Blacksmiths Art Festival The Forged Figures Park 2010.

This mixture of craftsmanship and fantasy has been making happy Donetsk citizens and guests for a long time. The website will enable Internet users from the remotest from Donetsk parts of the world to ‘walk’ in the park easily.