Ivan Kotliarevsky's Grave, Poltava
A granite obelisk of 1898 over the grave of the author of the "Eneida".
Ivan Kotliarevsky died in Poltava on 29 October (10 November) 1838; in accordance with his will, the author of the “Eneida” was buried on the edge of the city cemetery under a poplar by the Kobeliaky road. In 1839 Pavlo Steblin-Kaminsky built the first brick tombstone over the grave at his own expense. In 1893 the Poltava Provincial Zemstvo Assembly allocated 1,000 roubles for a new monument, and donations began to be collected at the same time; the granite obelisk was unveiled in 1898. It bears a bas-relief of the writer's face in a laurel wreath, cast by pupils of the zemstvo crafts school, and lines by Taras Shevchenko: “You shall reign, father, as long as people live.” The cemetery was abolished in 1937, but the grave survived; the following year, 1938, the cross on the obelisk was replaced by a four-sided cone-shaped block. In 1969 granite approaches were laid to the monument and it was restored; today the grave is in Kotliarevsky Park.
The grave is in Kotliarevsky Park, at the intersection of Ivan Mazepa and Raisa Kyrychenko streets. On the night of 25.09.2026 russian drones damaged three private houses in Poltava (Suspilne Poltava, 25.09.2026).