Monument to Alexander III description and photo - Russia - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg (Topic)

Monument to Alexander III description and photo - Russia - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

In 1994, in St. Petersburg, at the entrance to the Marble Palace, which is a branch of the Russian Museum today and was once a museum of V.I. Lenin, on Znamenskaya Square, an equestrian statue of Emperor Alexander III was erected. This event was the return of the monument from its long "wanderings". Initially, the monument to the emperor was erected in the center of Znamenskaya Square. It was dedicated to Alexander III as the founder of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which began at the Nikolaevsky (Moskovsky) railway station located nearby.

The order of the monument was the royal family and personally Nicholas II. Of the projects presented, preference was given to the work of the sculptor from Italy P. Trubetskoy. The statue of Alexander was made of bronze by the caster E. Sperati. It was cast in parts: the figure of the autocrat in Robecca's workshops, and the horse in the steel plant. The three-meter pedestal (architect F.O.Shekhtel) is made of red granite. On it was inscribed: "To Emperor Alexander III the Sovereign Founder of the Great Siberian Way."

Work on the monument lasted from 1899 to 1909. For greater convenience, a special workshop was built on Staro-Nevsky Prospekt. During the preparatory work, the sculptor Trubetskoy created 8 small models of the monument, 4 life-size and 2 full-size copies. The brother of Alexander III, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, who saw one of these models, considered it a caricature and spoke unflattering about Trubetskoy's work. However, the Dowager Empress liked the work of the sculptor, because she saw in it a great portrait likeness.

The monument to Alexander III was different from other monuments to the autocrats. The sculptor depicted the emperor without any idealization and splendor. On a huge red marble parallelepiped, riding on a heavy draft horse, there is depicted an obese man in baggy clothes and a lamb's hat, somewhat similar to a horse policeman, who rests with one hand on his thigh.

This monument clearly shows the creative credo of Trubetskoy, who believed that a portrait should not have an exact resemblance to a person, but should reflect his characteristic features. Trubetskoy is credited with the following phrase: "I depicted one animal on another." The monument caused discontent among members of the royal family. Nicholas II even wanted to send him to Irkutsk. S.Yu. Witte, a contemporary of P. Trubetskoy, wrote that the sculptor was not invited to the grand opening. However, On May 23, 1909, in the presence of royal persons, the monument was opened and consecrated.

Reviews of the monument to Alexander in society were ambiguous and rather disapproving. The pedestal was compared to a chest of drawers, the horse - to a hippopotamus, and Alexander himself - to a goof.

After the October Revolution, the old inscription was knocked down from the pedestal of the monument and replaced with another one, the authorship of which belonged to the poet Demyan Bedny and was offensive to the autocracy, reflecting the trends of that time.

".. I am tormenting here with a cast-iron scarecrow for the country, which has forever thrown off the yoke of autocracy.
The penultimate autocrat of all Russia Alexander III. ”

During the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, he was used in decoration - cage, attached two masts next to each other with a hammer and sickle on top, a wheel and a tower.

In 1937, the monument was dismantled and removed to the storerooms. After the Great Patriotic War, 3 stones were removed from the pedestal, which were used to make busts. In 1953, the monument was moved to the courtyard of the Russian Museum, and in the 80s the statue of a horse was hidden under a special cap. Only in 1990 was the statue freed from this hiding place.

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Topic: Monument to Alexander III description and photo - Russia - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg.