Bendery, March 19. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. A trolleybus guided tour of the cultural sights and significant places of the Bendery town was presented today to Pridnestrovian travel agencies.
This is the first sightseeing itinerary in Pridnestrovie, which can be driven onto a red trolleybus. Acquaintance with the Bendery town’s historical places begins from the Liberation Square and then trolleybus sets forward to the Solnechny microdistrict and returns back. The route’s total length is about 8 kilometers.
According to Evgenia Eremenko, the scientific employee of the local history museum, the most significant town’s monuments are collected on the route.
The sightseeing tour begins with a narration on the Transfiguration Cathedral and sculptural group’s construction in the central town’s historical part.
At the beginning of the 19th century, there were Uspenskaya and Nikolaevskaya churches in Bendery. In the year of 1815, it was decided to build the Transfiguration Cathedral in the town’s central part on the Turkish barracks’ ground. It has been building at the parishioners’ expense for 10 years.
The sculptural group was opened in the year of 2003 at the 595th anniversary of the Bendery town’s foundation. It’s represented as a complex of decorative forged compositions, which in chronological sequence tells us about the most significant events of the town, Evgenia Eremenko explained.
The next station of the sightseeing tour is the monument sign “City of Military Glory”, the Memorial of Memory and Mourning, monuments to the commanding officer of the 14th Russian Army, Lieutenant General Alexander Lebed as well as Russian peacekeepers, who are located at the entrance to Bendery.
The Memorial of Memory and Mourning is one of the most revered places in the town. It was established in commemoration of the Bendery’s defenders, who died protecting the town in the year of 1992 during Moldovan armed forces’ attack. The memorial complex consists of three parts.
The first one is a refurbished mechanized infantry fighting vehicle, the crew of which perished during the town street fighting.
The second part consists of an open eight-pillar chapel. It was opened for the fifth anniversary of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic’s proclamation in the year of 1995. Within a year, a memorial sign consisting of five concrete-steel constructions in the form of rays was opened at the Memorial. On the marble slabs fragments about 498 names of the Bendery’s perished defenders are indicated. In June 2012, a monument to Lieutenant General Alexander Lebed, the 14th Russian Army’s commanding officer, whose activities contributed to the Moldovan aggression’s end in the summer of 1992 was erected at that place. This is the memorial complexs third part.
Hereafter the trolleybus sightseeing tour drives on the Panin street, where the Bendery fortress, monuments to General in chief Peter Panin, 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment, soldiers who died on the First World War in 1914-1918 battlefields, participant in the Bendery fortress’s siege and assault in the year of 1770, as well as a monument to the Russian Imperial Army’s General Rodion Gerbel are located.
The monument to Peter Panin, who in the year of 1770 implemented the fortress storming, was erected contrariwise the former the Bendery fortress Tsarigrad gates.
Rodion Gerbel took part in sieging and assaulting of the Bendery fortress as part of the Russian Peter Panin’s army. Under his leadership, underground conduits were built, into which demolition explosives were laid under the fortress walls. According to Evgenia Eremenko, Gerbel for the first time in the history of the battle art applied a powder charge targeted explosion. After the explosion, an aperture was formed in the fortress wall that helped Russian soldiers went to the fortress storming.
The Triumphal arch is a unique historical monument of Pridnestrovie, which was opened in the year of 2008. This is another sightseeing itinerary’s object in the Bendery town.
“A double-headed eagle bas-relief disposes in the central part of this arch. This is a symbol of the Russian presence in our region. Decorative forged military attributes symbolize the Russian weapons’ glory. The arch, taken as a whole, is a symbol of town residents’ endurance, who became accustomed to decide their own destiny and have overcome many obstacles in their lives,” Evgenia Eremenko noted.
In the year of 1789, the headquarters of Field-Marshal-Generall Grigory Potemkin, who was commanding the Russian army in the war with Turkey, was located in Bendery.
A monument to Potemkin is erected on Ermakov Street, where a war-historical memorial complex is located. It was built at the old military cemetery location, most of which burial dumping date to the period of the Russian-Turkish wars of 1853-1856 as well as the 1877-1878 period. Totally there were installed 249 granite slabs with the names of 4,740 soldiers, who perished in battles, the cemetery’s historical sector was also restored and repaired.
Moreover on the Memorial Complex’s territory the Alley of Generals located, where ten Russian military leaders were buried. A monument in honor of the 55th Podolsk infantry regiment’s soldiers, who died in various battles was erected, the memorial plate to the soldiers, who perished in the year of 1770, during the Bendery fortress’s assaulting. The sepulchral crosses on Romanian soldiers’ graves, who participated in the intervention of 1918 in Russia have been restored. A monument to the Cossacks of Hetman Mazepa and Orlik, who arrived in Bendery together with the Swedish King Charles XII after his defeat at Poltava was also erected.
The sightseeing itinerary in Bendery is completed by the memorial sign to women who participated in the 1991 “rail-tracked war” as well as the commemorative plaque to Pridnestrovian defenders, who died on July 23, 1992 during the town defense.
According to the Pridnestrovian guides, such a trolleybus excursion is unusual and will undoubtedly arouse the interest of tourists.
“The most frequently people are travelling by bus, car, but by trolleybus – is uncharacteristically. This’s the biggest advantage. Bendery is an old town and it has a rich history. Due to the fact that the trolleybus is moving rather slowly, we can have time to explore everything. This type of transport will be a kind of curiosity for foreigners. Because trolleybuses don’t exist everywhere, especially of this type,” – the representative of the travel agency “RIO” Angela Ponomareva shared her impressions.
It’s planned to launch a trolleybus guided tours around Bendery town this year.
