The Samson Fountain is located on Kontraktova Square. The architect of the rotunda of the fountain is Ivan Hryhorovych-Barskyi. On the roof of the fountain stands a sculpture of St. Andrew, and on the sides of the fountain are sundials designed by the French scientist Bruillon. Brulion’s other sundial is in the courtyard of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. The sculpture of Samson is not original. This is a plaster copy. In the National Art Museum, you can see another copy of Samson, from which this copy was made, but the original itself has been lost. The statue of Samson was placed in 1809, before there was the sculpture of the Angel.
Sculptures of St. Andrew (1777) and Samson in the National Art Museum
Our Kyiv Samson is not at all similar to the legendary biblical Samson. As one guide said, it is more likely that it is not Samson who tears the lion’s mouth, but the lion at the dentist’s appointment, and Samson gently looks into his mouth.
On the night of September 4, 2019, Samson was painted pink, but then everything was restored.
In the summer of 2020, Samson and the rotunda were renewed. Now the fountain looks like this:
In June 2023, I first saw the fountain in working condition with water
