all pictures courtesy of the Polyana Skazok Museum
Nowadays a top amusement park in Ukraine, it has its origins in a simple fairy tale garden, created by a self-taught artist, Pavel Bezrukov **.
Life and works
Born in 1890, Bezrukov, who lived in Mocow, had a career as an engineer in the oil industry. When in the nineteen thirties he got tuberculosis, he moved to the Crimea to seek recovery. Staying on various locations, he would finally settle in a green, mountainous area north of Yalta, where he recovered from his illness.
Bezrukov with his two daughters (?)
and the head of the giant
and the head of the giant
It is not clear when Bezrukov as a self-taught artist began making wooden sculptures. Probably it was at some moment after he returned home after the world war II, so at a time he already was in his late fifties or early sixties.
Anyway, during the nineteen fifties Bezrukov made such a number of wooden sculptures, he exposed around his house, that in the year 1960 the Fairy Tale Garden more or less officially came into being as a point of interest for the public.
The fairy tale garden soon became famous, developing into a place being visited by a lot of peope, both locals and tourists on holiday in Yalta.
Children were happy to come and learn the stories from folklore and fairies, as represented by the various sculptures.
The black and white pictures, from the collection of the current museum, give an impression of the kind of wooden sculptures Bezrukov made: Tara Bulba, Vasilisa the beautiful, and of course Baba Yaga (her hut was also present on the premises), Pinocchio.....
sculpture entitled Черный триумвират, black triumvirate
The fairy tale garden has been in existence for ten years. In 1970 it has been destroyed for reasons I couldn't fully figure out.
Public opinion, however, did not accept the disappearance of the garden and the city of Yalta could not but decide to establish a new fairy tale garden on the premises of the former one.
The new garden would have sculptures and constructs made by various professional sculptors, from the then USSR.
The new garden would have sculptures and constructs made by various professional sculptors, from the then USSR.
Pavel Bezrukov took no part in these developments. Maybe after the garden was destructed, he moved to another house in Yalta, but It is unclear to me how he continued his life and where and when he died.
screenprint of the home page of the Museum Polyana Skazok
Documentation/more pictures
* Official website of the open air museum (in Ukrainian)
* Article (in english) on website Discover Ukraine
* More pictures (2012) of the current museum on Viola weblog and on the Worldwalk website
notes
* I learned about Bezrukov through a recent post of Bruno Montpied on his weblog
** This blog has two other examples of amusement parks that grew out of activities of a self-taught artist,
Wim de Vries (Netherlands) and Frantisek Jáich (Czech Republic)
Museum Polyana Skazok
Kirova Street
Yalta, Ukraine
open all year, see website
Fairytale garden weergeven op een grotere kaart