Samson tearing open the lion’s mouth

Samson tearing the lion’s mouth is a fairly common plot throughout history in the works of Europeans. According to the biblical story, Samson was the last and most famous judge of ancient Israel, who had enormous power, which he used against his enemies.

We digitized the sculptural complex “Samson tearing the lion’s mouth”, which decorated the oldest fountain in Kyiv. Today, the wooden figure is kept in the National Art Museum of Ukraine, and its copy now adorns the Samson fountain in Podil.

Historical reference

In the middle of the 18th century, a brick pavilion-rotunda was built above the city fountain, according to the project of the architect Ivan Hryhorovych-Barskyi. Water still came through wooden water pipes from Andriivska Gora. At that time, there was a figure of an angel with a bowl from which water flowed. Then the fountain was called “Felicial”.

In preparation for the celebration of the 100-year victory in the Battle of Poltava, the sculpture was replaced with “Samson tearing the lion’s mouth”, which was supposed to symbolize the victory over Charles XII. But the people of Kyiv never associated the fountain with this historical and political metaphor. Mostly guided by the significance of the biblical character, and therefore believed that the water enters the fountain from the Jordan River and comes from the Holy Land.

From the beginning of the 19th century, the fountain began to be called nothing else than “Samson”, from the mouth of a lion, a stream of water flowed. The fountain was the center of Podil, where various fairs took place. And during the biggest holidays, the priests consecrated the water in it.

In 1934, by order of the Soviet authorities, the structure was destroyed, but the sculpture, fortunately, was preserved and transferred to the City Museum. And only in the 80s of the 20th century, the rotunda with the fountain was rebuilt.

The significance of Samson

The over 200-year-old monument made of wood, actually human-sized and painted in oil paints, is important to the history of the city. It is the core of the life of Kyivans in the 19th century, with which many legends and superstitions are connected. For example, whoever drinks “holy Samson’s water” will live in Kyiv forever.

Samson is mentioned by Ivan Nechuy-Levytskyi in his story “The Kaidash Family”:

“Saint Samson sits on a lion and tears his jaws open. How he caught him on Podil near the Dnieper, how he tore his jaws open, and he himself became a stone, and the lion became a stone, and water flowed from the lion’s mouth.”

Now a 3D model of the figure makes it possible to explore it to the fullest extent, present it to the world and preserve it for future generations.