🕒 Date of last update of the article: 16.02.2024 at 7:13 p.m | 🖋 Author: Viktor Shatrov
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🕒 Date of last update of the article: 16.02.2024 at 7:13 p.m | 🖋 Author: Viktor Shatrov
This mini-sculpture is an imitation of a railing tied in a knot. Mykhailo Kolodko decided to perpetuate the memory of the Transcarpathian strongman, athlete and boxer Ivan Firtsak (Croton), also known as Ivan Syla. In 1928, he won the title of the strongest man in the world. The sculpture was created by Vasyl Kryvanych.
The knot is located on Kyivska embankment in Uzhhorod. If you are standing with your back to the Uzh River, you need to turn right from the pedestrian bridge and walk a little (GPS: 48.621492, 22.297193).
The sculpture appeared in 2014 in support of the film Ivan Syla, released the same year. In the future, the author of this creation plans to install a full-fledged figure of Ivan.
Content
| 🗺 Location | N48°37′18″ E22°17′49″ |
| 🗽 Year of opening | 2014 |
| 🧑 Sculptor | Mykhailo Kolodko |
| 🧑 Blacksmith | Vasyl Kryvanych |
| 🧭 Distance from the center of Uzhhorod | Near |
| 🚙 Road for | Car, on foot |
| 🏕 Stop with a tent | No |
| 🏡 Housing nearby | Uzhhorod |
| ☕ Cafes and shops | Uzhhorod |
Ivan Firtsak was born on 28 July 1899 in the village of Bilky, Irshava district, Transcarpathian region. He had incredible physical strength. In 1919, when he was 20 years old, Ivan went to work in Prague, where he worked as a simple loader at the railway station. He managed to complete his daily workload in just half a day. Later, he began to successfully participate in fighting tournaments and weightlifting competitions. He became the weightlifting and hand-to-hand combat champion of Czechoslovakia. Later, Firtsak began performing in the Prague circus and became Ivan Sila, a star performer.
He could break iron chains, juggled heavy objects with skill, pulled trucks with his teeth, and defeated bulls with his bare hands in bullfighting in Spain. For the first time in the United States, he performed a routine in which a car ran over his throat with its wheels. For this act, he probably later received a Ford car as a gift. For his achievements, the world community named Firtsak after the ancient hero Croton, a companion of Hercules who founded the city of the same name, where the greatest athletes of Ancient Greece lived.
Later, at the invitation of the British Queen, Firtsak took part in a fight and defeated boxing champion John Jackson.
In the 1930s, the athlete returned to his homeland. After the establishment of the Soviet regime, all his awards were confiscated, and his son was imprisoned in camps on a falsified case of involvement in the OUN. But this did not stop Ivan Sila. Ivan Firtsak became the founder of the Transcarpathian circus school and the school of martial arts, and trained many weightlifting champions. In the memory of his countrymen, he will forever remain a great Ukrainian wrestler, circus performer, and strongman
An interesting legend about this mini-sculpture is told by Nadiya Popadiuk in her book Uzhhorod – the World Capital of Mini-Sculptures. According to her, when the local authorities tried to confiscate Firtsak’s Ford in 1939, he smashed it to pieces with a sledgehammer in protest. For this, he was thrown into prison in Uzhhorod and severely beaten. When he was released from prison, he was so angry that he tied a knot in the railing on the Uzh River embankment (the modern Croton Knot).
| 🔰 Start | From the mini-sculpture “Svobodka” |
| 🚶 Distance on foot (via Kyivska naberezhna) | 100 m |
| 🕒 Approximate time | 2 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.
