‘Medeya’
Location: Pitsunda, Abkhazia
Completed: 1969
Sculptor: Merab Berdzenishvili
Alternative name: Daughter of Tsar Kolkhida
Genre: Soviet sculpture, former USSR
Pitsunda sits on one of the largest bays in the Eastern Black Sea region. Orders to establish the first mega-resort in the USSR came from the then General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev. Two of the Union’s top architects, Mikhail Posokhin and Ashot Mndoyants, were given the task of drawing up the blueprint and more than three thousand labourers, artisans and craftsmen etc. descended on the small town to create the resort as per their plan.
Medeya (Medea in the English spelling) was a Colchian princess who helped Jason (as in the Argonauts) steal the Golden Fleece. According to legend, Medeya and Jason were lovers and when he later rejected her, she exacted her revenge by murdering one of their children, and this is what is depicted in the sculpture. More information about Resort Pitsunda.
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