Statues forge emotional bonds between cities and their inhabitants. Whether in squares, on the façades of buildings or in museums, they are the product of that city's collective power of imagination and creativity. Since antiquity urban dwellers have not only enjoyed works of art inside their own houses, but shared emotions by placing them in public places as a form of communication and source of urban memories. Usually they are located near a building of suitable magnificence, and make sitting at a café looking out onto a square adorned with statues a pleasurable interlude. Perhaps a city's inhabitants feel themselves more secure in the shadow of one of their heroes or a powerful animal carved in stone or cast in bronze.

Legends and stories about statues generated over the ages are probably the consequence of this emotional approach

Some are supposed to have spoken, others to cure diseases. Such stories show how statues and other works of art are linked directly to human and city life. One of the most romantic of such stories took place on the coast of Turkey in ancient times, when the Dorians migrated eastwards to the islands of the Aegean and Asia Minor, where they established large cities. Every city competed to construct more splendid temples and other buildings, and the great masters of the age were invited to create works of art to adorn them. The city of Cos asked the sculptor Praxiteles to carve a statue for their temple dedicated to Aphrodite, and shortly afterwards the city of Knidos commissioned a statue of the same goddess. Praxiteles carved two statues, one depicting her clothed and the other naked.

When towards the end of the 3rd century BC economic decline set in, Knidos ran up large debts to nearby countries. The wealthy King Nicomedes of Bithynia then proposed to cancel all the city's debts in return for Praxiteles' statue of Aphrodite. But the people of Knidos rejected the offer, preferring to struggle against all their adversities rather than give up their famous statue. The period 450-400 BC was the golden age of sculpture in ancient Greece. On both shores of the Aegean artists produced works of unequalled beauty. Human figures were portrayed in a powerfully realistic style. Although we find these statues beautiful as they are today, at the time they were usually painted in bright colours. In later centuries Ýtalian sculptors produced statues in a realistic, vivid and natural style that reflected a love of life.

Almost all of them cast their sculptures in bronze. Auguste Rodin indelibly marked sculpture during and after his lifetime (1840-1917). The rejection of traditional styles by Rodin and other artists led to a completely new approach to style and form in the 20th century. The Romanian sculptor Costantin Brancusi who settled in Paris, and his contemporaries not only led to a new concept of form with their uncluttered lines and geometric shapes, but also influenced urban architecture. So, as in the ancient world, sculpture continues to be a source of pride for city dwellers and to be the silent witness to changes in our cities.

* Ali Konyali is a researcher of culture and art and a photographer.