50 Amazing Snow and Ice Sculptures From Around the World
By Hannah Lang, Stacker News
On 12/19/20 at 9:00 AM EST
Ice sculptures have a rich history, and evidence suggests people may have been carving ice as early as 600 B.C. However, as tools and technology advanced, ice sculptures did as well. In the 1600s, fishermen in the China province of Heilongjiang would freeze water inside buckets, and then remove the buckets and put a candle inside to create ice lanterns a tradition still celebrated today at the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival.
Later, in 1739, Russian empress Anna Ivanovna had an ice palace built out of ice from the Neva River to host special events. Artist Valery Ivanovich Jacobi memorialized this ice palace in an oil painting in 1878.