MONUMENTS
Hands of Friendship
Sculptor: J. Madera (Cuba), A. Harutyunyan
Material: White marble
Year: 1965
The unique marble monument “Hands of Friendship”, donated to Yerevan by the Italian city of Carrara, is located not far from the Yeritasardakan (Youth) metro station. The sculpture is a symbol of the brotherhood between Yerevan and the city of Carrara in Italy.
The monument has an extraordinary history. In 1961, Armenian sculptor Ara Harutyunyan took part in a biennial exhibition in Carrara. With a group of other participants, he visited a famous local stone quarry where he noticed fragments of a huge monument – a head, hands, and legs. It turned out to be an unfinished statue of Jesus Christ. The sculptor had not managed to find sponsors to finish the work. Noticing the Armenian sculptor's interest in these fragments, the owners offered them to him. Harutyunyan took this very seriously, and upon returning to Armenia, he gave an idea to the head of the executive committee of Yerevan City Grigor Hasratyan, which he really liked.
Arriving in Yerevan, the hands got a new interpretation by sculptor Ara Harutyunyan and were placed in the Yerevan Circular Park.
Two marble arms, more than two meters high, are a copy of the arms of the statue of Jesus Christ in Havana.
As a response, Yerevan presented the Carrara people a memorial fountain called "The Spring" (architect Rafo Israelyan) made of tufa stone. A similar copy of it can be seen in the public garden opposite the friendship monument.
The bilateral donation was made in 1967.
