“The friendship that has developed between our cities – Jelgava and Rieijmalmezon – is very stable. Just like this metal gate. We want to say that this gate symbolically opens many new joint opportunities and projects in the future. Let us have even more exchange programs, even closer cooperation in various fields. It is a real pleasure for us to watch how the city has developed over the years, how it has changed, and now we have also left our mark in all of it by donating the gates,” says the former French minister, the mayor of the sister city of Rieijmalmesson, the president of the Greater Paris Metropolis and the 2024 Paris Olympic and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Paralympic Organizing Committee, Patrick Ollier. Opening the gate, P. Olje also symbolically presented the key to the Jelgava City Council.
The design of the large gate of the fence was developed based on the study of historical photographs of the gate and matching it with the existing small gate to form a unified architectural ensemble. The recommendations and suggestions of the National Cultural Heritage Board are taken into account in the work process.
The large fence gate is made of filled metal and weighs about 450 kilograms, its highest point reaches three meters, and the width of the gate is 2.5 meters. Symbolically valuing the friendship of the two cities, the great coat of arms of Jelgava is embedded in the gate on one side, and the coat of arms of Rieijmalmezon on the other. This exclusive gift to Jelgava was created by Rieijmalmezon metalworking masters in the workshop of the city municipality. The main author of the gate is the blacksmith Antonio Dias, under whose direction many, including exquisite, metal gates at Rieijmalmezon have been designed, made and installed. A. Dias inherited the trade of a blacksmith from his father and continues this profession with great responsibility and care even today. He says that four masters worked in France on making the tower gate of the Holy Trinity Church in Jelgava, and a total of about 400 hours were spent on the work. “This was a challenging and at the same time creative project that we worked on intermittently for a year. The most challenging part was definitely the process of coordinating the sketches so that our ideas would match the appearance of the historical gate – the tower of Jelgava’s Holy Trinity Church is a monument of cultural history, and it imposes its own conditions. The most interesting thing was to make all the bent parts, which are completely handmade by the blacksmith and prove his craftsmanship. I wish that in the future the friendship between our two cities will be as stable and long-lasting as this metal gate,” the author of the gate, A. Diass. It should be noted that the goal was made in France and delivered to Jelgava this week. A. Dias, together with the head of workshops of Rieijmalmezon municipality, Eric Dupuy, also installed the gate.
When passing through the gates, residents are invited to close them so that the coats of arms of the two cities can be seen clearly from both sides.
It should be noted that the twinning agreement between Jelgava and Rieijmalmezon, which envisages cooperation in the fields of education, science, technology, civil defense, crisis management and city infrastructure monitoring, culture, sports, health care, human resources and business, was concluded in June 2007. So far, the cooperation between the two cities has developed most closely in the field of education, with educators and students going on exchange trips, learning new skills, methods and getting to know a different approach to the implementation of the educational process. The longest cooperation is directly between Jelgava Amat Secondary School and Rieijmalmezon Training Center in metalworking and construction. During these years, more than 140 young people have been in practice in France, and more than 100 have been accepted in our city. There is also a successful cooperation between the art schools of the two cities.
Tags: Jelgava receives exclusive gift sister city Rieijmalmezon
