Monuments and Sculptures
Probably the most familiar symbol of St Petersburg is the equestrian statue of Peter the Great, known as the Bronze Horseman and installed in 1782 on the Senate Square. Considered the greatest masterpiece of the French-born Etienne Maurice Falconet, Aleksandr Pushkin's poem about the statue figures prominently in the Russian literature under the name of The Bronze Horseman.
The Palace Square is dominated by the Alexander Column(1830–1834), the tallest of its kind in the world and so nicely set that no attachment to the base is needed. A monument to Generalissimo Suvorov, represented as a youthful god of war, was erected in 1801 on the Field of Mars, formerly used for military parades and popular festivities. Saint Isaac's Square is graced by the Monument to Nicholas I (1856–1859), which was spared by Bolshevik authorities from destruction as the first equestrian statue in the world with merely two support points (the rear feet of the horse).
The public monuments of St Petersburg also include Mikeshin's circular statue of Catherine II on the Nevsky Avenue, fine horse statues on the Anichkov Bridge, a Rodin-like equestrian statue of Alexander III by Paolo Troubetzkoy, and the Tercentenary monument presented by France in 2003 and installed on the Sennaya Square.
Some of the most important events in the history of both the city and the Russian Empire are represented by particular monuments. The Russian victory over Napoleon, for example, was commemorated by the Narva Triumphal Gate (1827–1834), and the victory in the Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829 — by the Moscow Triumphal Gates (1834–1838). The Piskarevskoye Cemetery was opened in 1960 as a monument to the victims of the 900-Day Siege.
Read more about this topic: Landmarks Of Saint Petersburg
Famous quotes containing the word monuments:
“If the Revolution has the right to destroy bridges and art monuments whenever necessary, it will stop still less from laying its hand on any tendency in art which, no matter how great its achievement in form, threatens to disintegrate the revolutionary environment or to arouse the internal forces of the Revolution, that is, the proletariat, the peasantry and the intelligentsia, to a hostile opposition to one another. Our standard is, clearly, political, imperative and intolerant.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)