page_title: Mariupol
section_title: Monuments
hierarchical_section_title: Mariupol / Tourism and attractions / Monuments
caption_attribution_description: photo
context_page_description: Mariupol is a city of regional significance in south eastern Ukraine, situated on the north coast of the Sea of Azov at the mouth of the Kalmius river, in the Pryazovia region. It is the tenth-largest city in Ukraine, and the second largest in the Donetsk Oblast with a population of 449,498. The city is largely and traditionally Russophone, while ethnically the population is divided about evenly between Ukrainians and Russians. There is also a significant ethnic Greek minority in the city. Mariupol was founded on the site of a former Cossack encampment named Kalmius and granted city rights in 1778. It has been a centre for the grain trade, metallurgy, and heavy engineering, including the Illich Steel & Iron Works and Azovstal. Mariupol has played a key role in the industrialization of Ukraine.
  Due to the Soviet authorities frequently renaming cities after Communist leaders, the city was known as Zhdanov, after the Soviet functionary Andrei Zhdanov, between 1948 and 1989. Today, Mariupol remains a centre for industry, as well as higher education and business.
context_section_description: Mariupol has monuments to Taras Shevchenko, Vladimir Vysotsky, Arkhip Kuindzhi, and many other famous persons. Monuments in honour of the liberation of Donbass, the metallurgists, and others can also be found in the city.
  There are also monuments to Makar Maza, Hryhoriy Yuriyovych Horban, K.P. Apatov, and Tolya Balabukha, to seamen–commandos, to pilots V.G. Semenyshyn and N.E. Lavytsky, to soldiers of the Soviet 9th Aviation Division, to victims of political repressions of 1930–1950, etc. During the Soviet period the central square of the city featured a monument to Andrei Zhdanov, after whom the city was named from 1948–1990. The artists V. Konstantynov and L. Kuzminkov are the sculptors of some of the monuments, including the monument to Metropolitan Ignatiy, the founder of Mariupol.
caption: Statue of Taras Shevchenko
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