York's latest mystery was played out on the pavement outside the South Transept of the Minster today.

Curious pedestrians on their way to work stopped to watch the drama unfolding before the great Rose Window, as this giant statue wrapped in white sheeting was winched by a crane on to its stone plinth.

The city will have to wait until tomorrow to see it unveiled - but the Evening Press today gives a sneak preview of what it will probably look like.

In April we carried an earlier picture of sculptor Philip Jackson at work on the statue of Constantine the Great - who was proclaimed Emperor of Rome in York in 306.

Mr Jackson was on hand to guide the completed one tonne bronze statue, worth £80,000, into place today.

It will be officially unveiled tomorrow at 5.15pm by Lord Coggan, former Archbishop of York. The Terry Trust is paying £50,000 towards the cost of the statue with York Civic Trust paying the rest. It is only the second statue in York to be put up this century. The first was William Etty, which stands in Exhibition Square.

Constantine was proclaimed emperor at York in 306 AD. After defeating his rival Maxentius at the battle of Milvian Bridge, the Christian emperor issued the Edict of Milan, which promoted religious toleration throughout the empire.

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