The author of this, as well as all other Uzhgorod mini-sculptures is Mikhail Kolodko. It was installed almost 10 years ago on July 20, 2011. It was opened not as a tribute to friendship with the United States, but on the occasion of the so-called Uzhgorod regatta – a kind of competition of homemade watercraft on the river Uzh. The reason for the creation of this cute sculpture was the angry appeal of the Ukrrechflot about the inadmissibility of navigation on rivers without their approval. Initiated its creation, the Department of tourism of uzhnu and Sacrficed.
The official name of the sculpture is “Ungvar” lighthouse, and people just they call it “Svobodka”. The statue is a mini-beacon: the torch has a built-in led. Therefore it serves as a kind of symbolic slightly sarcastic message from Ukrrechflot communities of the city.
Since 2012, the tradition of creating this mini-sculpture has begun in different outfits depending on the holiday.
Svobodka weighs almost 4 kg and is 30 cm high. So this mini-sculpture can be considered the world’s smallest lighthouse and the smallest in the world statue of liberty. This small sculpture is placed on the railing of the pedestrian bridge on the side of the square Petefi at the address: 1 Orthodox embankment (GPS: 48.621217, 22.297856).
In his book «Ужгород – the world capital of mini-sculptures” Nadezhda Popadyuk lays out an interesting legend related to this mini-sculpture. According to this legend, the beloved daughter of Yaroslav the Wise – Anna, leaving Kiev for Hungary for the wedding of her younger sister Anastasia with the king of Hungary, saw a shining emerald on the river Bank. She ordered the carriage to stop, went to the stone, held it above her head like a crown, and the emerald shone in her hands with red-brown flowers and lit up everything around her like a torch. A local sculptor who witnessed this magical moment, struck by the beauty of the girl, created a mini-sculpture in her honor. Later, an emerald found on the banks of the river Uzh decorated the crown of the Queen of France – Anna Yaroslavna.
Uzhgorod regatta 
Svobodka mini-sculpture 
Mini sculpture Svobodka in winter 
Mini sculpture Svobodka in vyshyvanka
