BRONZE
HORSEMAN
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».
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