Cultural Gardens Part III (5/22/2016)

Sunday, May 22, 2016
We parked on Parkgate Avenue off East Boulevard, and Kent and Brynne with Gus led us off to see the last of the Cultural Gardens in Rockefeller Park.

Italian Cultural Garden (opened 1930 on the 2000th
anniversary of Virgil's death; dedicated 1941)

Apparently this garden was also designed by B. Ashburton Tripp. Click here to see the original plan.

Bust of Virgil, poet (2008 replacement of 1930)
atop a column from the Roman Forum,
a gift from the Mussolini government

Chunk of Monte Grappa in memory of the Ohio's
332nd Regiment of Infantry that fought in WWI

Dante, poet & philiosopher (2012 by Sandro Bonaiuto)
with a base featuring excerpts from each of the 3 volumes
of The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) 

Renaissance plaza and parapet with a marble fountain,
a replica from the Villa Medici in Rome

Later a peek off the parapet to see
Miss Teen Ohio Latina at a photo shoot

Lower level shell fountain with relief medallions;
the Italian Cultural Garden was built largely from WPA funds and labor

Arts and Science medallions of Giuseppe Verdi (operatic composer),
Leonardo da Vinci (artist and inventor), and Guglielmo Marconi
(inventor in radio technology, Nobel Prize in Physics)

Arts and Letters medallions of Giotto di Bondone (artist),
Michelangelo (artist, poet), and Petrarca/Petrarch (poet and scholar)

Panorama of lower level of the Italian Cultural Garden

Slovak Cultural Garden (1932, re-dedicated 1934 and 1939)

As seen across a meadow of Erigeron sp/Fleabane flowers

Stefan Furdek, Catholic priest, poet and writer;
the bust was re-installed in 2010 after
having been stolen in 2007 and recovered

General Milan R Stefanik Memorial to Slovakia's
greatest national hero; philosopher, scholar,
WWI pilot, supporter of independent
Czechoslovakia and its 1st Minister of Defense;
first located in Wade Park in 1924 then
moved here in 2013

Jan Kollar, Lutheran minister, poet and
defender of the Slovak language;
the 1957 replacement bust was re-installed
in 2010 after having been stolen
in 2007 and recovered

Nature taking over a bench

Lower Rusin Cultural Garden (1939), with base of
missing 1952 bust of Alexander Duchnovich

Alexander Duchnovich  (2012 replacement),
Catholic priest, poet, patriot, author of the
Rusin National Anthem

Rusin Cultural Garden sign; a woman working in the garden
gave us a brochure on the Carpatho-Rusins, a nationality
rather than a nation who live in the Carpathian Mountains
spread across Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania

Czech Cultural Garden,
the Eagle Pillar (1935 by Frank Jirouch) with
eagles holding the Czech shield

Czech Cultural Garden (1935, designed by
B Ashburton Tripp and Maurice Cornell)

Frantisek Palacky (1935 by Frank Jirouch),
Bohemian historian and politician

Frank L Jirouch created sculptures and busts in many of the cultural gardens, but especially in the Czech garden as he was of Czech descent.

Jindrich Simon Baar (1935 by Jirouch),
Catholic priest and novelist in the
"country-prose" style

Tomas G Masaryk (1961 by Jirouch),
philosopher and sociologist, founder and
first president of Czechoslovakia

Garden Wall (1935 by Jirouch) with a frieze depicting the
history of the migration of Czechs to the United States

First section of the frieze

Bedrich Smetana (1935 by Jirouch),
composer

Middle section of the frieze by Jirouch

Bozena Nemcova (2010, by Paul Burik to replace
the missing 1935 bust by Jirouch), writer

Last section of the frieze, and the Slovak
National Anthem is inscribed on the wall
(even though the Slovaks had their own
Cultural Garden dedicated in 1932)

Jan Amos Komensky (1935 by Jirouch), educator
and writer, early proponent of universal education
and father of modern education;
note the solar panel which powers the only
night lighting in any of the cultural gardens)

One of two Tilia sp/Linden trees planted
by Czechoslovakian President Eduard Benes in 1939

Antonin Leopold Dvorak (1935 by Jirouch),
Bohemian composer

Karel Havlicek Borovsky (1935? by Jirouch),
Czech writer, journalist, politician

Lion Pillar (1935 by Jirouch) with the
Czech version of inscription on the Eagle Pillar

Slovenian Cultural Garden (1938
as the Yugoslav Cultural Garden,
re-dedicated in 1991 as the Slovenian Garden)

Circular fountain in a large paved court

Ivan Cankar (2010 by Teodor Stroie,

replacement of missing 1944 bas relief),

Slovene writer and political activist

He looks so tired...

Frederic Baraga (2001 by Robert J Nuti,
replacement of 1935 bust),
Catholic missionary who studied  Native
American languages, wrote the first book in Ottawa,
and the first dictionary in Ojibway/Chippewa

Ivan Zorman (2012 fiberglass replacement of
1959 bust, and already needs replacing!),
Slovene poet and composer who graduated from
the Western Reserve University in Cleveland

Simon Gregorcic (replacement of 1944 bas relief),
Catholic priest, writer and poet;
along with a quote about uniting Slovenians,
and three symbols representing
Slovenia, Serbia, and Croatia

View of Slovenian Cultural Garden from Doan Brook

Neglected bench at the Polish Cultural Garden

Polish Cultural Garden (1934)

Nicolaus Copernicus (1996 replica of
1961 original by Frank Jirouch), astronomer of the
heliocentric (sun-centered) solar system theory

Maria Sklodowska Curie (2009 replacement),
Polish-French physicist and chemist, Nobel Prizes
in Physics and Chemistry

Fryderyk Chopin (2010 replacement of
original by Frank Jirouch), composer

Henryk Sienkiewicz (2001 replacement),
writer, Nobel Prize for Literature

Chopin court with added flowers

Ignacy Jan Paderewski (2011 by Michael Deming as
replacement of 1947 original by Amos Mazzoline),
composer and spokesperson for Polish indepemdence

A missing fountain from 1953 for which children of
St Casimir Parish in Cleveland collected pennies to build

Adam Mickiewicz (2013 replacement), poet

African-American Cultural Garden
(1977, still in process)

Garden laid out as an ankh symbol of life

Doorway of No Return

Fountain symbolizing the waters of the Atlantic Ocean

Granite walls symbolizing the Slave Passage

Looking down on "the future"

Ukrainian Cultural Garden (1940)

Plaza of stone and brick

Ivan Franko (1940, by Oleksander
Archipenko), poet and writer

Stone and wrought-iron gateway

Lesya Ukrainka (1961), poet and foremost
woman writer in Ukrainian literature

Her real name was Larysa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka

St Vladimir/Volodymyr the Great
(1940, by Oleksander Archipenko),
Prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988

Taras Shevchenko (1940, by Oleksander Archipenko),
poet, teacher, artist

Shevchenko court

Lithuanian Cultural Garden (1936, designed by Professor
Dubinecras in Lithuania), built on three levels to symbolize
three moments in Lithuanian history

The lowest level represents Lithuania's rebirth
after World War I with a bust of
Dr Jonas Basanavicius (1936 replica of original
by Jonas Zikaras in Lithuania), physician
and folklorist celebrating national identity

The middle level represents the unification of Lithuania with a
 replica of the Pillars of Gediminas, a symbol of Lithuania

Climbing to the top level representing Lithuania's pagan past
and conversion to Christianity

Fountain of Duchess Birutė, pagan priestess

Vincas Kudirka (1938 replica of original by
Jonas Zikaras in Lithuania), physician and
poet, author of the Lithuanian National Anthem 

Maciulis Maironis (2009 replacement of 1961
original), Catholic priest and poet

Greek Cultural Garden (1940, designed by
Maurice Cornell), with Lombardy poplars to
give the impression of cypresses

Doric columns and wall symbolizing the Parthenon in Athens

Reflecting pool

The wall is inscribed with 34 names of prominent Greek
artists, writers, philosophers, and scientists

Behind the wall is Poet's Bench flanked by urns

American Legion Peace Garden of Nations (1936)

Beneath the tablet in front is soil from twenty-eight nations to
symbolize the united effort of their people to better understanding

The woman's bust represents Peace
(1936 by Henry Herring in Tennessee marble)

There are thirty cultural gardens with room for more.