BRONZE HORSEMAN IN ST PETERSBURG

The first monument in our city was erected on Senate Square. It’s a monument to Peter I, the founder of St Petersburg. This monument, commemorated by Pushkin in his poem The Bronze Horseman, is one of the best samples of the world monumental sculpture and one of St Petersburg symbols.

The French sculptor E.M. Falconet was invited to make the sketches for the monument. He came to Russia especially for that purpose. It took him three years from 1768 to 1770 to make the model of the equestrian statue. The head of Peter I was performed by Falconet's apprentice - M.A. Collot. The pedestal was performed after Felten's design.

The huge granite boulder, the so called Thunder-stone that serves as the pedestal, was discovered in 1768 on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, in the vicinity of the Lakhta village. It took nine months to deliver the enormous monolith weighting 1,600 tons to the construction site. Four hundred people, using special devices, were first moving it by land, and further by water, on a barge built especially for this purpose. Catherine II herself came to inspect the stone and the transportation device several times. In October 1770, the rock was put into its place; however, only 12 years later the monument was opened.

The casting begun in 1775 might have come to the catastrophe. Molten copper began to pour out of a crack that appeared in the mold. The caster who was in charge of the works repaired the damage with a risk to his life and completed the casting. Sculptor F. Gordeev molded the snake trampled by the horse. The opening ceremony took place on August 7, 1782. On each side of the pedestal there is an inscription done in Russian and Latin reading: «To Peter the First – Catherine the Second».