Hello there!
The other day, Sonja found the next bronze mini-sculpture - Golden Gates. It is located in less than 200 m from the landmark itself, on the wall of our favorite bakery Boulangerie. By the way, do you know that Baguette can be called only the bread that was baked where it is sold?
Actually, Sonja often passed it by and never noticed.
Golden Gates
Rub me and all doors will open for you.
Ages ago, Golden Gates was the central gate of the Upper Town. Now it may sound strange as nowadays they are in the very heart of the city. According to the chronicle, it was built in 1037 by Prince Yaroslav the Wise. There is a version that the prince named them so for reminiscent of the Golden Gate of Constantinople and Jerusalem. In fact the gate was built of stone, but the wooden gates were covered with sheets of red copper. Only the bathhouse of the Church of the Annunciation was gilded. It all shone in the sun like gold.
Just down the same street, Sonja found another interesting and quite unexpected mini-sculpture dedicated to the Small Computing Electronic Machine.
Kyiv Computer
Rub me and it will be good internet.
They say it was the first electronic computer in continental Europe! The development of the Computer was started in 1948, and the first launch was performed on November 6th, 1950.
From the web page of the mini-sculpture:
"It supported commands: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, binary shifts, comparison taking sign into account, comparison of absolute values, transfer of control, transfer of numbers from a magnetic drum, addition of commands, stop."
"From 1952 to 1956, MEOM was running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All these years, it solved the tasks from various applications: thermonuclear processes, space flights, missile technologies, mechanics, statistical quality control, supersonic aviation, and more."
Now, our smartphone can perform much more impressive operations. Here, I'd like to quote Bjarne Stroustrup, inventor of C++:
"I always wished that my computer was as easy to use as my telephone. I finally got my wish. I no longer know how to use my telephone."