Big monument with bronze statue of "ecclesiastically" dressed over life size Alexander Dukhnovich, who sits and holds book, is located on "Pushkina Vulytsia" (Pushkin street) in centre of Mukacheve. Statue is placed on stone pedestal, completed by metal plaque and by big metal sign with the name and life dates.
Oleksandr Dukhnovych was born in the village of Topola Austria-Hungary (now Eastern Slovakia). The son of a Greek Catholic priest, he went to a Hungarian school in Uzhhorod (1816 to 1821). Later Oleksandr studied philosophy at an academy in Košice (1821–1823), and theology at the Theological Seminary in Uzhhorod (1824–1827).
In (1827–1830 and 1832), Dukhnovych worked as an archivist and a teacher. Later, in 1833-1838, he worked as a Greek Catholic priest in remote villages of Carpathian Ruthenia (present day Zakarpattia oblast of Ukraine) and as a notary in Uzhhorod (1838–1844). Dukhnovych started to write poems in his early years. He wrote in the Ruthenian, Russian, and Hungarian languages. His early works are said to have been influenced by Hungarian Romanticism.
Dukhnovych supported education and cultural revival of Carpathian Ruthenians. He saw his role as a defender of Ruthenian culture against Magyarization. In 1850 Dukhnovych established the first Ruthenian cultural association, the Prešov Literary Society. The society under his guidance published a series of books. His most famous patriotic poem Ia rusyn byl, ies'm i budu (I Was, Am, and Will Be a Ruthenian) was published as part of an anthology in 1851. This poem would later become the national anthem of Carpatho-Ruthenians. Dukhnovych also published a number of pedagogical and religious books, elementary school textbook and a Grammar. His most famous scholarly works were The History of the Eparchy of Prjašev (1877), originally published in Latin and later translated in Russian and English, and a History of Carpathian Ruthenians (1853).
His last years were devoted to development of education and schooling among local Ruthenians. In an effort to forestall the Magyarization of the Ruthenian population Dukhnovych founded in Prešov together with Adolf Dobryansky the St. John the Baptist Society (1862). On March 30, 1865 Dukhnovych died in Prešov.
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