In 1971, the Peace Memorial was erected in Mierové Square in Prievidza, a work by the distinguished sculptor Fraňo Gibala.

Academic sculptor František Gibala was born on 5 April 1912 in Krajná Poľana (Svidník district). He was a sculptor whose statues and memorial plaques adorn many public spaces and buildings throughout Slovakia.

He completed civic school in 1928 in Prešov. From there he went to Bohemia, where from 1928 to 1932 he studied stone sculpture (State Industrial School of Sculpture and Stonemasonry, Hořice v Podkrkonoší). From 1933 to 1937 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague under Prof. Bohumil Kafka. Already during his studies he created a whole series of remarkable works.

In 1936 he became a member of the Association of Slovak Artists, and in 1938 he completed a scholarship stay in Paris. In 1939 he worked in Bratislava and Prešov, and in 1940 he permanently relocated to Bratislava with his mother. In 1972 he was awarded the title of “Merited Artist” and a television documentary was made about him. He died in 1987 in Bratislava.

A few examples from his extensive memorial work: the monument to General Milan Rastislav Štefánik in Trebišov (1937), a memorial with a bust of Ján Palárik in Raková (1940), in 1941 he received the J. Kupecký Prize for the relief The Road to Golgotha, for Levoča he created a monument to Ľudovít Štúr (1947), and in 1955 and 1956 he produced several striking portraits, including Ľudo Ondrejov, J. Záborský and Slovak Girl from Veľký Biel.

In 1959 he completed the memorial for the village of Tokajík — Return to the Massacred Village; in 1960 he created the statue of Janko Kráľ (located in Janko Kráľ Park in Bratislava). He also created the group sculpture of Cyril and Methodius in the village of Branč.

For Bojnice he created the Memorial to the Victims of the Slovak National Uprising — located on Hurban Square. In Bojnice there is also another charming chamber work by Fr. Gibala — a figure of a seated woman in the vestibule of the Hospital.

A rich source of information about Fr. Gibala’s work is the monograph Fraňo Gibala, authored by Viera Budská-Kačáni (1977).

Fr. Gibala died on 8 September 1987 in Bratislava.