Serbia's Rocky Statue

Everybody know that Philadelphia has a Rocky Balboa statue—it is a part of Atlas Obscura and one of the more popular sights in the City of Brotherly Love. There was another, a replica, in San Diego that was bought at auction by a private collector in 2017—who turned out to be Sylvester Stallone himself. And then there’s a third one—in Žitište, Serbia. Not a copy of the A. Thomas Schomberg original, it was made by Croatian sculptor Boris Staparac in 2007 as a symbol of hope and perseverance for the small, hard-luck town, which has no “Rocky Steps” of its own.

In 2009, Canadian director Barry Avrich made a documentary film about the statue called Amerika Idol, which even features Stallone himself, and shows the events that preceded its creation, as well as the ceremony of its installation. Several sources, including Lonely Planet and The Culture Trip, have referred to it as one of the most “bizarre” monuments on Earth. But the installation brought a lot of attention to the village and really does seem inspiring for the way it champions the underdog. “We are all Rocky,” one resident says in the film.