And the history of the appearance of which is described in this article is one of the most beautiful monuments of the capital. Moreover, it can be called one of the world's grandiose works of art. The monument is located in the center of the capital. It was installed in the 90s. The building was not approved by all Muscovites and the monument still causes controversy.
One of the most famous Russian tsars is Peter 1. A monument to him was opened in Moscow on September 5, 1997. According to official documents, this event is timed to coincide with the tercentenary of the creation of the Russian fleet, although the anniversary was celebrated a year earlier. At the same time, another project was approved at first, but Tsereteli's version won out.
Despite the fact that the monument is still quite "young", it already has its own legend. Once in the Russian media there were reports that the monument to Peter 1 (a monument in Moscow) was remade from the statue of the discoverer of America, Columbus. Tsereteli, the creator of this structure, was unable to sell his masterpiece to the United States, and it ended up in the hands of the Russians.
Indeed, there is an undoubted similarity between the figures. Both statues stand on the ship's deck. Moreover, the right hands of the figures are raised up. The pedestal in both variants is complex in structure. But there are significant differences, which can only be seen by comparing both projects. They are on display at the Tsereteli Gallery.
The monument to Peter 1 on the Moscow River is a unique building. The supporting frame of the pedestal with bronze cladding is made of stainless steel. The pedestal, the figure of the king and the ship were assembled separately. Peter and the ship were installed last. Ship shrouds are also made of stainless steel.
All of them are securely fastened with thick cables. To reduce the weight of copper sails, they have a metal frame inside them. For the manufacture of the monument was taken bronze of the highest quality. First, it was sandblasted, then platinized. Then the bronze was covered with wax and a special varnish. They protect the source material from the weather.
The king holds a gilded scroll in his hands. St. Andrew's crosses are made in the same color. The flags on which they are located are made in the form of weather vanes. A staircase was built inside the monument, with the help of which the maintenance of the structure is carried out.
The artificial island on which "Peter 1" (a monument in Moscow) is installed is made of a reinforced concrete foundation. Around - fountains that create the feeling that the ship cuts through the waves.
It took almost a year to design and recreate Peter the Great. The layout was blown in the wind tunnel of Moscow State University. This helped to improve the characteristics of the monument. The installation was carried out by 120 specialized specialists, led by the leading surveyor V. Makhanov and foreman V. Maksimov.
The pedestal of the monument is decorated with rostra. Each is decorated with St. Andrew's flag. It turns out a contradiction that Peter the Great fought with his own fleet. The monument became the tenth in the list of the ugliest pedestals in the world. Such a rating was published on the Internet portal "Virtual Tourist" in 2008.
In July 1997, the place where the monument to Peter the Great was erected in Moscow became famous. The Revolutionary Military Council group tried to blow up the monument. According to one version, explosives have already been planted. But due to the fact that passers-by and surrounding buildings could suffer, the explosion was stopped by the group itself. According to another version, the blast broke due to an anonymous call. Since then, close access to the monument is no longer available.
According to information published in the Izvestia printed edition, at the Arch Moscow exhibition, which takes place annually, a project appeared, according to which the monument to Peter 1 (a monument in Moscow) should be enclosed in a glass “package”. And such that the masterpiece could not be seen through it.
It was in 2007. The author of the project, Boris Bernaskoni, proposed to build a monument to Peter the Great into a skyscraper. As a result, the monument would be hidden from human eyes. Even Tsereteli would be satisfied. The skyscraper would become a museum for Tsereteli's masterpiece, and Muscovites and guests of the city could enjoy the new observation deck, turning it into a place for cultural recreation.
In 2010, it got to the point that it was proposed to demolish the monument to Peter 1 altogether. This happened after the resignation of Luzhkov from the post of the capital's mayor. Monument to Peter1 in Moscow, where is it located? It is installed above the waters of the Moskva River, on Krymskaya Embankment, 10. Nearby are the Park Kultury and Oktyabrskaya metro stations.
In 2010, after the proposal to demolish "Petra", the acting mayor, Vladimir Resin, seriously thought about moving the monument from this place to another area. Information came from the Moscow City Duma commission that such a “moving” of the monument could cost the treasury 1 billion rubles.
Marat Gelman, who proposed to destroy the monument, was even going to find sponsors to carry out such a transfer. It turned out that the monument is not so bad, since many (and not only Russian) cities wanted to take it with them with pleasure: Arkhangelsk, Tiraspol, Berdyansk, etc.
The stormy debate ended in 2011, when the prefect of Moscow S. Baidakov "put an end" right at a press conference. He announced that the monument would remain where it currently stands. In his opinion, everything created by the ancestors is worthy of respect. As a result, Peter 1 (a monument in Moscow) remained in the same place and still towers on the Krymskaya embankment.
The Bronze Horseman - the most famous monument to Peter I - was erected in 1782 on Senate Square in St. Petersburg by order of Catherine II. Let's remember the history of one of the most majestic monuments of the northern capital with Natalia Letnikova.
1. This is not the first monument to the great autocrat. Even during the life of the reformer tsar Bartolomeo Rastrelli created "his" Peter. But this monument took its place at the Mikhailovsky Castle only in 1800.
2. Senate Square was intended for another monument. Parliament wanted to immortalize the current empress in bronze. Catherine II observed politeness - at first a great reformer! The equestrian monument to Peter I was supposed to stand by the 100th anniversary of his accession to the throne.
Monument to Peter I at the Mikhailovsky Castle
3. The sculptor was searched together with Diderot and Voltaire. The choice fell on the Frenchman Etienne Maurice Falcone. The chief artist of the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, the creator of the Threatening Cupid and the Rococo master, he dreamed of large-scale art. The dream came true in distant Russia.
EM. Falcone "The Threatening Cupid"
4. Peter in the image of Caesar on a horse with a rod and a scepter? This is how Catherine saw him. Or Diderot's version - a fountain with allegorical figures? Falcone ventured to argue. As a result, the contract only stated that the monument should consist "mainly of an equestrian statue of colossal size."
5. The face of Peter was not given to the sculptor. Falcone sculpted three times. His apprentice Marie-Anne Collot did it overnight, using a living plaster mask taken by Rastrelli Sr. The Empress approved Collot's work, and Falcone acknowledged the co-authorship of his twenty-year-old student.
6. They searched for a horse for the autocrat in the stables of Count Orlov. Persian blood, as well as Lisetta - the favorite horse of Peter I. They chose Caprice and Diamond. From time to time, models with a guards officer in the saddle reared up, posing for the sculptor.
7. It was more difficult with the pedestal. I had to advertise in the newspaper. The peasant Semyon Vishnyakov reported about a giant boulder in the vicinity of Lakhta. The "Thunder Stone" weighing about 2,000 tons was delivered to the capital in ten months, trimmed along the way to the desired size.
"Thunder Stone"
8. The operation received the attention of all of Europe and the imperial medal “Like Daring”. To the Gulf of Finland, the boulder was moved on a log platform along the gutters with bronze balls. The further way lay through the bay on a special ship.
9. A rearing horse and a snake at the foot. The defeated snake is like Peter's victory over the opponents of his reforms and enemies on the battlefield. The work of a Russian sculptor, the son of a simple cattleman Fyodor Gordeev. The practical side of the symbol, the snake, became the third fulcrum of the 10-meter statue.
The solemn opening ceremony of the monument to Peter the Great, which is now known as the Bronze Horseman, took place on August 18, 1782. Today, this monument is an attraction, without which no tourist route can do. Literally from the moment of its discovery, it was shrouded in a mystical veil, and over the years, the truth and fantastic fictions about it completely mixed into one motley, mysterious story. the site offers to recall the most curious details from the "biography" of the Bronze Horseman.
The installation site of the monument is perhaps the only thing that was hardly discussed during its creation. Catherine ordered to place a monument on Senate Square, since the Admiralty founded by Peter I and the main legislative institution of Russia at that time, the Senate, are located nearby. True, the queen wanted to see the monument in the center of the square, but the sculptor acted in his own way and moved the pedestal closer to the Neva.
Initially, a lifetime monument to Catherine herself was to be erected on this site, but she considered it more appropriate to perpetuate the memory of the founder of St. Petersburg on the 100th anniversary of his accession to the throne.
To prepare such a grandiose event, a real master was needed, and on the recommendation of her friends Denis Diderot and Voltaire, Catherine summoned to Russia the sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconet, the author of The Threatening Cupid, which is now kept in the Louvre, and other famous sculptures. By that time, the artist was already 50 years old, he had a rich track record, but he had not yet completed such monumental orders.
Falcone felt that this work of his should go down in history, and did not hesitate to argue with the empress. For example, she demanded that Peter sit on a horse with a rod or scepter in his hand, like a Roman emperor. The project manager and Ekaterina's right hand, Ivan Betskoy, advised putting a full-length figure on the pedestal with a commander's baton in his hand. And Denis Diderot even proposed a monument in the form of a fountain with allegorical figures. It got to such subtleties that "Peter's right eye should be directed to the Admiralty, and the left - to the building of the Twelve Colleges." But Falcone stood his ground. The contract he signed stated that the monument was to consist "principally of an equestrian statue of colossal size".
Falcone declared that there would be no scepter in Peter's hand. Photo: AiF / Ksenia Matveeva
“I will confine myself only to the statue of this hero, whom I do not interpret either as a great commander or as a winner, although he, of course, was both. The personality of the creator, legislator, benefactor of his country is much higher, and this is what people need to show. My king does not hold any wand, he stretches out his beneficent right hand over the country he travels around. He rises to the top of the rock that serves as his pedestal - this is the emblem of the difficulties he has overcome, ”Falconet wrote in one of his letters.
Usually, the pedestal is given much less attention than the monument itself. But in the case of the Bronze Horseman, it turned out almost the other way around. Its pedestal, perhaps the only one in the history of monumental sculpture, has its own name - Thunder-stone. As a metaphorical "rock" Falcone wanted to use a monolithic rock, but it was not easy to find a stone of a suitable size. Then in the newspaper "Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti" an announcement appeared, addressed to all individuals who are ready to break out a piece of rock somewhere and bring it to Petersburg.
Transportation of "Thunder-stone" in the presence of Catherine II. Engraving by I.F. Harness from a drawing by Yu.M. Felten. 1770. Photo: Public Domain
A certain peasant Semyon Vishnyakov responded, who was engaged in the supply of building stone to St. Petersburg. He had long had a block in the Lakhta region in mind, but he just didn’t have the tool to split it. Where exactly the Thunder Stone lay is not known for certain. Perhaps not far from the village of Lisiy Nos. The documents contained information that the path of the stone to the city took eight miles, that is, about 8.5 kilometers.
According to the recommendations of Ivan Betsky, a special vehicle was developed to transport the rock, thousands of people participated in the transportation. The stone weighed 2400 tons, it was transported in winter so that the soil under it would not sag. The relocation operation lasted from November 15, 1769 to March 27, 1770, after which the stone was loaded onto a ship on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and brought to Senate Square on September 26.
The monument is traditionally called the Bronze Horseman with the light hand of Pushkin, although it is cast in bronze. The workshop was set up in the former Throne Room of the wooden Winter Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna. The sculptor thought through every little thing and did a colossal job.
“When I thought of sculpting him, as he completes his gallop, rearing up, this was not in my memory, still less in my imagination, so that I could rely on him. To create an accurate model, I consulted with nature. To this end, I ordered a platform to be built, to which I gave the same slope that my pedestal was supposed to have. A few inches more or less in stoop would make a big difference in the movement of the animal. I made the rider gallop not once, but more than a hundred different tricks on different horses, ”Falconet wrote.
One of the most famous illustrations for Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman" is by Alexandre Benois. Photo: Public Domain
Work on the sculpture model lasted from 1768 to 1770. A young student of Falcone, Marie Ann Collot, worked above Peter's head, and Fyodor Gordeev fashioned a snake under the horse's hoof. Marie Ann was accepted as a member of the Russian Academy of Arts for this work, and Catherine II appointed her a lifelong pension of 10,000 livres.
The casting of the statue began in 1774 using a complex technology, which, through the distribution of weight, made it possible to keep the balance of the figure on just three points of support. But the first attempt was unsuccessful - the pipe with red-hot bronze burst, and the upper part of the sculpture was damaged. It took three years to prepare for the second attempt. Constant turmoil and missed deadlines spoiled relations between Falcone and Catherine, and in September 1778 the sculptor left the city without waiting for the completion of work on the monument. The Bronze Horseman was the last work in his life. By the way, on one of the folds of the cloak of Peter I you can find the inscription "Sculpted and cast by Etienne Falcone, a Parisian of 1778."
Opening of the monument to Peter I on the Senate Square in St. Petersburg. Paper, engraving with a cutter. Mid 19th century Photo: Public Domain / Melnikov A.K.
The installation of the Bronze Horseman on a pedestal was led by the architect Fyodor Gordeev. By Catherine's command, "Catherine II to Peter I" was written on the pedestal. The grand opening of the monument took place on August 7, 1782. In honor of this event, the empress issued a manifesto on a general amnesty, and also ordered the minting of silver and gold medals with his image. Catherine II sent one gold and one silver medal to Falcone, who received them from the hands of Prince Golitsyn in 1783.
The Bronze Horseman "passed" through three wars without damage, although he is in a convenient place for shelling. A legend is connected with the Patriotic War of 1812, which says that Alexander I ordered the monument to be evacuated to the Vologda province when there was a threat of the capture of St. Petersburg by French troops.
The Bronze Horseman survived the blockade under sandbags. Photo: AiF / Yana Khvatova
A certain Major Baturin obtained an audience with Prince Golitsyn and told him about a dream that haunted him. Allegedly, he sees Peter on Senate Square moving down from the pedestal and jumping to the king's residence on Kamenny Island. “Young man, what have you brought my Russia to,” Peter tells him, “but as long as I am in place, my city has nothing to fear!” According to legend, Golitsyn retold the dream to the sovereign, and he canceled the order to evacuate the monument.
The First World War, as a result, also did not affect the majestic Peter, and during the Great Patriotic War the Bronze Horseman was sheathed with logs and boards, the monument was covered with sandbags and earth. They did the same with the monument to Lenin at the Finland Station and other large monuments that could not be hidden or evacuated.
The monument to Peter I, called the Bronze Horseman with the light hand of Alexander Pushkin, is one of the symbols of the Northern capital. Erected by the will of Catherine II, it has been decorating Senate Square for more than 200 years.
Today I will talk about interesting facts and the most mysterious legends associated with the Bronze Horseman.
On August 18, 1782, a monument to Peter I, the so-called "Bronze Horseman", was unveiled in St. Petersburg. This is the very first monument to Peter. There are other famous monuments to the great reformer in Russia and Europe that are worth seeing.
Senate square,
The Bronze Horseman monument is not located here by chance. Catherine II insisted on this, because the Admiralty, which was founded by the emperor, is located nearby. The monument was made by the French sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falcone, who was recommended to Catherine by Diderot and Walter. The preparation of a plaster model of the monument took twelve whole years, and the casting of the statue turned out to be so difficult that for a long time no one wanted to take on this work.
Finally, cannon maker Yemelyan Khailov took on this technologically very complex project and cast the statue in three years. And Catherine on the pedestal inscribed "Catherine II to Peter I", thereby confirming her commitment to Peter's reforms. The weight of the monument is eight tons, the height is more than five meters. Although Pushkin called it "The Bronze Horseman", it is cast in bronze. But this name has taken root so much that it has become almost official. And the monument itself is one of the symbols of St. Petersburg.
Mikhailovsky Castle, St. Petersburg
The bronze monument was made by the famous Italian sculptor Rastrelli, the model of the monument existed during the life of Peter I, but it was installed later than the Bronze Horseman, in 1800. The pedestal of the monument is lined with multi-colored marble - white, pink and greenish shades. The great-grandson of Peter I, Emperor Paul I, made the inscription “Great-grandfather - great-grandson” on the pedestal, by analogy with the Bronze Horseman, on which there is an inscription “Catherine II to Peter I”. During the Great Patriotic War, the monument was removed from its pedestal and put back in its original place only in 1945. So he was saved for posterity.
Riga,
The equestrian monument to the Tsar was erected in Riga in 1910, at the Peter's celebrations. Emperor Nicholas II and his family then arrived in Riga. The monument was built practically from the donations of ordinary citizens of Riga, the Latvians respected and loved the great reformer so much. And, apparently, it was for what. Peter I often came to the city, and always brought something with him. Peter presented more than twenty merchant ships, financed the improvement of the city, the construction of some buildings. But nowhere did the monument to Peter expect such a sad fate as in Riga. It was removed from the pedestal many times, returned, transferred from place to place. Now the monument, which is of great artistic and historical value, is located in the parking lot of a private enterprise at 223 Bribivas Street. I would like to believe that, contrary to political prejudices, it will still take its rightful place in the center of Riga.
Moscow
Perhaps the most odious and controversial monument to Peter I was opened by Zurab Tsereteli in 1997 on the occasion of the 850th anniversary. This monument is 98 meters high and is the tallest monument in Russia and one of the tallest monuments in the world. It took about a year and about twenty million dollars to design and manufacture the monument. The monument has a very complex engineering design. The frame of the monument is made of stainless steel, on which bronze cladding is attached.
In 2008, the monument entered the top ten ugliest buildings in the world, taking, however, an honorable tenth place. In Moscow, there was even a fundraiser for the demolition of this controversial monument, but in 2011 the Moscow prefecture announced that the monument would still stand in its original place. But, just in case, you should not miss the opportunity to look at it and make up your own mind about its artistic value.
