“Bremen Town Musicians” is one of those stories that each of us recognized as a child. The fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm, the basis of which is taken from folk motifs, was loved by many and won the hearts of millions of children and adults around the world. Therefore, it is not surprising that they decided to immortalize their favorite heroes and erect a monument to them. Where is the monument to the Bremen Town Musicians? In fact, he is not alone. There are many more such monuments. But it’s better to start over.
Historical homeland
Indeed, where else would you find the first monument of a world famous fairy tale? Of course, in Bremen, a small town in Northern Germany. It was here that the heroes of the fairy tale headed for the hope of becoming real musicians. The symbol of the city in the form of a monument was established in 1951. The place was chosen very well - the very center of the city, at the western wall of the city hall.
The creator of the bronze sculpture, Gerhard Marx, immortalized the moment from the tale, when the heroes climbed each other and looked out the window of the robber's house. At the base is a donkey, a dog climbed on it, a cat climbed on top, on which a cock fit. Locals are very fond of this sculpture and are proud of it. Thousands of tourists come to the city where the monument to the heroes of the "Bremen Town Musicians" is located.
One legend says that if you rub your donkey’s nose or hooves, your wish will come true , so these parts of the donkey’s sculpture are especially polished. And there is also a version that the higher the nose that you rub, the more likely it is that the desire will come true, or the more desires you can make.
Even monuments do a good deed
And in 2007 they decided to add a new twist to the monument; now there is some semblance of a sewer hatch near the bronze monument . If you insert a coin into a special hole on it, you can hear the voices of “musicians” from the ground: a donkey, a dog, a cat or a rooster. The initiative to create such a music hatch came from one of the charitable organizations. The hatch itself is guarded so that every penny money goes to charity, and not fall into the hands of thieves.
From our home to your home
The next place where the monument to the Bremen Town Musicians is located is the sister city of Bremen. This is Riga, the capital of Latvia. This creation was created by a sculptor named Krist Baumgartl in 1990. In the same year, Bremen solemnly handed it over to the twin city. The monument itself is made in the same pyramidal form as the one in Germany: a donkey from below, a dog on it, then a cat, and at the very top there is a rooster. However, there is a distinctive detail, which symbolizes the exit from behind the Iron Curtain and the end of the Cold War, a kind of political subtext.
The place where the monument to the heroes of the fairy tale “Bremen Town Musicians” is located is located in the Old Town, near St. Peter's Church and very close to Skarnyu Street. This sculpture has exactly the same legend associated with noses, therefore, in all animals, the noses are polished to a shine, even for a rooster that sits above all. Although it is difficult to reach him, but he will help to fulfill the most cherished desire. As in the case of the Bremen sculpture, many tourists from all over the world also come to Riga.
Where else?
These are perhaps the most popular monuments to the Bremen Town Musicians in Europe, but they are far from the only ones. Another option for such a pyramid is located in the German city of Zulpich. Other cities in Germany where the monument to the fairy tale “Bremen Town Musicians” is located are Erfurt, Fürth and Leipzig. There are a variety of compositions. Even a sculpture dedicated to the heroes of a fairy tale in the land of the rising sun, Japan, was noticed. Indeed, the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm is known and loved throughout the world.
Soviet "Bremen Town Musicians"
The fairy tale was filmed many times around the world in the form of films, cartoons, theatrical productions and musicals. In 1969, a Soviet musical cartoon based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Bremen Town Musicians was released. The audience was so fond of it that in 1973 the sequel “Following the Trail of the Bremen Town Musicians” was released. Unlike the original fairy tale, the main character of the Soviet animated film was Troubadour, of course, with inseparable friends: a donkey, a cat, a dog and a rooster. This musical production really became a cult in the Union, and then in the entire post-Soviet space, more than one generation of children grew up on it.
Russian creative approach
In Russia, monuments were created specifically for Soviet cartoon heroes. In 2006, the local sculptor Andrei Tkachuk presented his beloved Krasnoyarsk a stunning creation that adorns the square near the May 1 Palace of Culture. The four-meter sculpture depicts a thoughtful Troubadour and his loyal friends, and next to it is a fountain made in the form of a bridge, which complements the composition and personifies the path to creativity and art.
A distinctive feature of this masterpiece is the soundtrack: every day, morning, afternoon and evening, a rooster cries out and plays an excerpt from a cartoon song. However, Krasnoyarsk is not the only city in Russia where there is a monument to the Bremen Town Musicians. Peculiar chamber sculptures by Hakob Khalafyan are located in Lipetsk and Sochi. But Khabarovsk in 2009 also became the city where the monument to the Bremen Town Musicians is located, or rather, not a simple monument, but a whole gallery of sculptures of heroes of the Soviet animated film. In addition to the main characters in the face of a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster, there are Troubadour with the Princess, and Ataman with the robbers, and the King with the Detective.