Heraklion Yuri Gagarin Park

Location: Town

The municipal Yuri Gagarin Park opened on April 14, 2019. Minister of Tourism at that time, Elena Kountoura, along with four Russian cosmonauts, Anton Shkaplerov, Oleg Artemyev, Sergei Prokofiev, and Theodoros Yurtsichin-Grammatikopoulos, made the inauguration with an honorary ceremony. The park was created with the aim of paying respects to Yuri Gagarin as well as reinforcing the friendship between Greece and Russia.

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Before each space mission, Yuri Gagarin used to plant a tree, a tradition that will be continued in this park. Specifically, the cosmonauts from all over the world who go to Heraklion to recuperate from their mission will plant an olive tree in the Yuri Gagarin Park. The olive tree was chosen as it is the symbol of Greece. The four cosmonauts who participated in the opening ceremony already planted their olive trees in front of the special plaques with QR codes, dedicated to each one of them. This way, their contribution to science and humanity as a whole will hopefully be passed down to the next generations.

The bust of Yuri Gagarin was erected at the center of the park. Gagarin was a Soviet cosmonaut who wrote history as the first person to ever travel to outer space on April 12, 1961. There are already a few other parks dedicated to him and his legacy in several countries, including Ukraine, Russia, and France.