Local historians told the curious story of the monument depicted on the new 5000th banknote

Residents of Salekhard called the monument a monument to the missing sausage

Not only clergy, but also attentive local historians were surprised by the design of the new banknotes, which the Central Bank demonstrated on Monday. In particular, attention was drawn to the image on the reverse side of the “five thousandth”. Judging by the explanations of experts, it shows two monuments located on the territory of the Ural Federal District – the Tale of the Urals monument in Chelyabinsk and the 66th Parallel stele in Salekhard. It is with the last attraction, as MK found out, that a serious incident is connected.

The monument appeared in 1980. According to the initiators of its installation, it was supposed to remind of the unique geographical location of Salekhard. After all, this is the only city in the world that grew up right on the Arctic Circle.

This fact is reflected in the composition of the monument. Its most important part was the “steel rainbow” – a huge metal pipe curved in a semicircle with a radius of 13 meters. Its location and orientation in space exactly correspond to the line of the Arctic Circle.

The MK correspondent had a chance to visit Salekhard several years after the appearance of a unique monument there, in the late 1980s. Almost immediately upon arrival, local residents puzzled the rare Moscow guest with the question: “Have you already seen our “monument to the missing sausage”?”

It turned out that this was the humorous name given to the main monument of the city in everyday life. The caustic meaning is clear: in those years, real sausage turned for the residents of these (and many other) regions into something completely unreal, the existence of which can only be remembered in dreams. Well, the curved pipe of the monument is very similar to the “ring” of Krakow.

There were even some rituals associated with the “sausage monument.” It turned out, for example, that many newlyweds always come here on their wedding day. And every self-respecting resident and guest of Salekhard should take a photo, standing under the arc of the monument so that one foot is in the Arctic, and the other is on the other side of the Arctic Circle.

Over time, that Brezhnev-era monument began to lose its original ceremonial appearance. As a result, the authorities decided to build a new one. The successor appeared in 2003. At the same time, it was moved to a new location, to the Airport-Salekhard highway. As reported, this “migration” is due to the fact that, as a result of the research, it was discovered that the old monument to the Arctic Circle did not stand on the Arctic Circle, but a little to the side, and now this unfortunate mistake has been corrected.

The newcomer is no different from the previous one in its composition. However, the arc was no longer made of a round, but of a rectangular cross-section. Probably, including in order to exclude unworthy analogies with Krakow sausage. The official name was retained – “66th Parallel”. However, the Salekhard residents, no, no, will even remember such a colorful folk nickname. Although it has already lost its relevance. Why do we need a monument to sausage if it is available “live” in stores?

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