Our town

ПАЛМЕНГРАД В МАНАУАТУ

Palmengrad of the Manawatu

There are few settlers here in rural Manawatu who travelled the vast distances from the former Soviet republics. It is nice to think though, that should any come more than halfway round the world to make a new home there will be something to remind them of the homelands and the regimes that have been consigned to history.

In fact here in Palmengrad, the cold war continues to be celebrated by sharing and developing its interest in Stalinist architecture here in the free (south) West.

Look how this, the city council building thrusts itself forward a symbol of unabashed relentless progress to a glorious future. Who could not get caught up in its dream of technological development for all humankind?

Behold this concrete beauty. Like the most beautiful of Slavic woman, this face needs no adornment. No cosmetic could enhance its symmetry.

How we could wax lyrical to this hymn of progress. Its modernist forms belie a lightness that contradicts its material presence.



Here her gracious presence dominates the native flora, symbolising to all who come to her, that the future is a place for everyman and everywoman, no matter how humble or how primitive an origin.

But lest dear wanderer you should think the citizens of Palmengrad were too enamoured of the ways of the godless communists, let your eyes fall upon that eternal symbol of redemption. Built to rival the Christ in Rio and funded by public conscription, the cross of Palmengrad, while maintaining the glorious simplicity of the town hall aesthetic spreads its message of peace, love, and above and Christian domination to all in the town.

Wanderer rest here awhile in our humble town. I guarantee more of its grandeur and its heroic citizens will be displayed here so that you may understand the wonders, the marvels, and the sheer humanity that is Palmengrad of the Manawatu ...

actually I really like the seats in the square ...