On 23 April, in the park of the 19th District of the Austrian capital, a monument to the Ukrainian Cossacks who participated in the liberation of Vienna from the Turkish siege in 1683 was unveiled.
The monument has been erected by a Ukrainian sponsor who lives in Austria with the personal support of the mayor of Vienna, Michael Häupl. The monument was created by well-known Ukrainian sculptors Volodymyr and Oleksii Chepelyk.
According to the website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), the ceremony of the opening was attended by the delegation of the Kyiv City State Administration and Metropolitan Fylyp (Osadchenko) of Poltava and Myrhorod who consecrated the monument to the Cossacks with the blessing of Metropolitan Volodymyr.
“This place has become the cornerstone of our common past. We remember and honor it, but at the same time we are oriented toward the future. I am convinced that Kyiv and Vienna have excellent prospects of joint development and mutually beneficial cooperation,” noted the mayor of Vienna.
Kyiv and Vienna have been declared twin cities since 1992. In November 2012, in Kyiv, Days of Vienna were held.