Gregory's Toe...

Big thanks to Richard this evening, who popped up on the Stand By Your Statue Facebook group with this fine looking statue in Split, Croatia. Even more thanks to Richard as he did a far better research than I ever could, and found out some vital details about said statue…

He is a Mr Grgur Ninski, or a Mr Gregory of Nin to you and me, and was a 10th century bishop who fought the Pope for the right to use Croatian language in the religious services. The statue itself only dates back to 1929 apparently. To simplify, Gregory fought the pope to say mass in the local lingo.

You may also be interested to know that the bronze on Grgur’s toe is worn down since the local legend says it that you have to touch his toe each time you pass by if you want your wishes to come true. Standing By Gregory is Sheena, Richard’s girlfriend. I am not sure whether anyone walked by her at this moment and touched her toe.

Some of you are probably aware that we have a Stand By Your Statue mantra, in which we are attempting to publish a statue from every country in this beautiful world on the site. The countries featured so far are listed just on right-hand side over there…. I am (over) excited to add Croatia to that list this eve, meaning we now have covered 44 countries out of a possible 192. That’s 23%, nearly a quarter. Big pats on the backs all round statue brethren, especially Richard and Sheena for tonight’s episode.