🕒 Date of last update of the article: 10.02.2024 at 11:01 p.m | 🖋 Author: Viktor Shatrov
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🕒 Date of last update of the article: 10.02.2024 at 11:01 p.m | 🖋 Author: Viktor Shatrov
John Douglas Lord (1941-2012) was a world-famous British rock musician, founder of the legendary rock band Deep Purple.
A mini-sculpture of this famous musician was installed in Uzhgorod 27 November 2014. It is located on Nezalezhnist embankment opposite the Linguistic Gymnasium (GPS: 48.622475, 22.296944). Coincidentally, at the unveiling of this sculpture, the Uzh River was covered in fog, as if reflecting the band’s most famous song: “Smoke on the water”. Rock music fans were invited to the unveiling and enjoyed the melodies of the legendary Deep Purple.
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| 🗺 Location | N48°37′22″ E22°17′48″ |
| 🗽 Opening date | 11/27/2014 |
| 🧑 Sculptor | Mykhailo Kolodko |
| 🧭 Distance from the center of Uzhgorod | Near |
| 🚙 Road for | Car, on foot |
| 🏕 Stop with a tent | No |
| 🏡 Housing nearby | Uzhgorod |
| ☕ Cafes and shops | Uzhgorod |
The idea to create this mini-sculpture appeared in 2012 after the death of the rock legend. At the same time, a fundraising campaign was launched at the Pid Zamkom coffee shop. A total of 584 UAH (16 kg) was raised in coins to create the sculpture.
Initially, we had an original idea to cast the sculpture from coins, but to make John Lord look good and of high quality, we decided to use bronze. John Lord is depicted in the image of a classic rocker of those times: drop glasses, a vest, high-heeled shoes, a cigarette in his hand.
According to Mykhailo Kolodko, the author of the sculpture: “John Lord’s glasses reflect the whole era when only Soviet pop music was played on TV, and Transcarpathians could quietly listen to the legendary Deep Purple on the waves of the banned Hungarian radio.” It is from Transcarpathia, where, thanks to the proximity of the border, it was possible to listen to Western rock hits on the radio and record them, songs by Deep Puple and other Western rock bands spread throughout the USSR.
An interesting legend related to the famous musician was written by Nadiya Popadiuk in her book Uzhgorod – the World Capital of Mini-Sculptures. According to this legend, the founder of the rock band Deep Purple, John Lord, wrote the famous hit song Smoke on the Water not in the Swiss city of Montreux, but in 1970 in Uzhgorod. As fate would have it, the young John Lord fell in love with a very beautiful stranger whom he accidentally saw on the embankment of the Uzh River. Looking into her charming blue eyes, he lost his sense of reality and followed her as if spellbound. He followed the girl along the riverbank until five o’clock in the morning and only then realised that he could not remember anything except the deep fog and smoke over the water. He couldn’t forget the girl’s face for a long time, and until his last breath, he couldn’t understand whether she was real or just a mirage.
In 2012, after the death of John Lord, a thick fog rose over Uzhgorod, and the river was covered with pitch black smoke, the city was grieving. It was only the next sunny morning that Uzhgorod residents saw a mini-sculpture of the musician, which settled on the railing of the embankment over the Uzh River in the hope of seeing those incredible blue eyes again.
They say that to find your true love, you should wipe the glasses of Uzhgorod’s John Lord.
| 🔰 Start | From the mini-sculpture “Kukots” |
| 🚶 Distance on foot (through Fentsyk Square) | 290 m |
| 🕒 Approximate time | 4 minutes |
| ⬆ Rise | Mostly without ups and downs |
Author of the article: Viktor Shatrov
Number of articles: 1100+
Knowledge of languages:: Ukrainian, English
Favourite quote: “Travelling – the only thing that makes you richer“
He was born and lived all his life in Uzhhorod. He graduated with a gold medal from Uzhhorod School No. 1 named after Taras Shevchenko (now Uzhhorod Lyceum named after Taras Shevchenko). He studied at the History Department of UzhNU, graduating with honours in 2009. He worked as a senior researcher at the Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, a lecturer at the East European Slavic University.
