"Stone embroideries" of Nova Kakhovka are 180 houses, 2000 square meters of unique carved ornaments. People used to say, that the city looked like it was covered with lace.

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These decorative architectural objects were created in the 1950s during the construction of the Kakhovka HPP (Hydro Power Plant) by Hryhoriy Dovzhenko, a student of Mykhailo Boychuk, who was executed for nationalism. The works of Ukrainian monumentalists were not appreciated at the time of creation, because they were considered "architectural excess". And when the process of decommunization began in Ukraine, in the eyes of the local authorities, these ornaments were a Soviet heritage that should be disposed of. The legacy of Grigory Dovzhenko was saved and given a new life thanks to local activists from the "Nova Kakhovka Society for the Protection of Cultural Heritage". Since 2017, architects and volunteers started to research and restore the ornaments on their own. Then they came up with the term "Stone embroidery" to convey their true history and value for Ukraine.

 

On February 28, 2022, Nova Kakhovka was supposed to celebrate its anniversary - 70 years since its foundation.

Since February 24, 2022, Nova Kakhovka is under Russian occupation.

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On June 6, 2023, Nova Kakhovka and the Kherson region were flooded after the Russian military blew up the Kakhovka HPP.

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There is a significant risk that some of the stone embroidery will be lost forever.

However, "Stone embroiderers" continue to live and, moreover, they sew Ukraine together.

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Authors’ statement:

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Today, we are once again forced to fight for the cultural heritage of our city - for the occupied heritage. We learned how to conduct a tour of a city without a city and created a master class during which anyone can learn Hryhoriy Dovzhenko's technique - carving on raw clay. Many IDPs from different cities come to us. When they carve elements of stone embroidery, they share their stories of leaving and their dreams of returning home and rebuilding. We meet with the residents of Nova Kakhovka, and "Stone embroideries" unite our townspeople once again, even thousands of kilometers away from their hometown. It's especially nice when people who previously didn't know anything about Nova Kakhovka get excited about visiting it after the deoccupation. And the fact that today we can reproduce the technology of carving "Stone embroideries", for us, is a guarantee that Hryhoriy Dovzhenko's legacy will live on in the works of our contemporaries. Moreover, perhaps someone will want to come and help with the restoration of local panels, restoring our unique historical and cultural landscape, after the liberation of Nova Kakhovka.

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In Oleśnica - the Polish sister city of Nova Kakhovka, a woman came over to us after the master class and said: "I'm from the Donetsk region, my house is completely destroyed. But I will return, rebuild it and make stone embroideries on it." Such stories give an understanding that the work and legacy of Dovzhenko, the Ukrainian monumentalist, will continue to live despite all the circumstances. It really bares the code of the nation, which is capable of self-renewal.

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