"Pyatachok" on the roundabout

In celebration of Lepel City Day on September 10, 2011, measures for improvement, asphalt paving of Lepel streets, and repair of courtyards assigned to enterprises and organizations have been approved. A pedestrian path is planned along Borisovsky Trakt Street (from Sovetskaya Street to Voikova Street), and a pedestrian path with a parking lot will be asphalted along Shkolnaya Street. Asphalt paving with the construction of a pedestrian path will also be carried out on Sovetskaya and Volodarskogo Streets. Paving with paving stones will be done along Chuikova Street (from the "Santalina" retail outlet to the "Pyatoye Kolo" auto repair shop) and along Partizanaskaya Street (from Chuikova Street to the railway crossing). All these works and courtyard repairs will be carried out by the Lepel Land Reclamation Systems Enterprise, DRBU-20, and DBU-34.

The installation of video surveillance cameras will continue. New video surveillance cameras will be installed in the central part of the city, on Svobody Square, in the city park, and on the territories of enterprises and organizations. They will appear at the district production department "Lepelraygaz," at the electromechanical plant, in the vocational lyceum, the military sanatorium, DRBU-202, at the bus station, and the city market. Such modern devices will also be installed on the buildings of the department store, the supermarket, the consumer services complex, and the polyclinic. Lepel Municipal Unitary Communal Enterprise of Housing and Communal Services "Lepel" alone will purchase and install six video surveillance cameras in various locations in the city in the near future.

How Svobody Square will change. A proposal has been made to install a large clock on the building of the district postal communication hub, above its central entrance, which Lepel residents and guests of our city could use to check the time.

A sculptural composition "Pyatachok" will be located on the territory adjacent to Branch 63 of CBF No. 211 of OJSC "ASB Belarusbank." As is known, this is how many elderly citizens still unofficially call Svobody Square. The well-known Belarusian sculptor Lev Agonov, who is the author of the monument to the Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Lev Sapieha, is currently working on the creation of this artistic work with such a peculiar name.

The sculptural composition "Pyatachok" will feature the image of Nesterka, a popular hero of folk tales and legends – a talkative, cheerful, hardworking, and enterprising person, who is supposedly heading to the local fair to sell his unique clay products, contained in a convenient and capacious bag slung over his shoulder. Lepel region has long been famous for these products, and it is no coincidence that one of the most plausible versions of the origin of our city's name is derived from the words "lepka" (molding) and "lyapits" (to mold). By the way, there is also room in the bag for gifts from the forest – mushrooms and berries. Moreover, in his right hand, raised above his head, this well-known folk favorite holds a well-known, but much larger, five-kopeck coin (the famous "pyatachok" of 1805, when Lepel was granted city status).

Under Nesterka's left arm is a cocky rooster – an ancient symbol of morning, awakening from sleep, which in ancient folk beliefs was also considered the embodiment of the spirit of cereals and a rich harvest.

And at Nesterka's feet at this time runs and cuddles a sheep – a symbol of gentleness, meekness, and village life. It is no accident, therefore, that in early Christian art, the apostles are depicted as twelve lambs.

And completing the sculptural composition is a small, amusing piglet confidently moving forward closely behind the folk folklore hero – this good-natured domestic animal was considered by our ancestors to be a symbol of fertility and prosperity.

Mikola HARBACHOU