Monument to Catherine II description and photo - Russia - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg (Topic)

Monument to Catherine II 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

A monument to Empress Catherine II was unveiled on Ostrovsky Square in St. Petersburg in 1873 in the center of Alexandrovskaya Square. From the day he was introduced to the public, all sorts of legends circulated around the monument, and city witters in every possible way made fun of the statue of the Russian autocrat. They said that the statues of the Empress's favorites on the pedestal indicate the size of their merits with gestures, and Derzhavin just makes a helpless gesture that a treasure of enormous value is buried under the pedestal - a ring, which a certain high-ranking lady threw into the pit when laying it down. As for the first story, it is fiction. Of all Catherine's favorites on the monument, only G.A. Potemkin. But the second legend seemed to be taken seriously - under Soviet rule, excavations were going to be carried out in the Catherine Garden. True, they were never started.

Various curiosities and troubles constantly occurred with the Catherine monument. Some details - chains, orders, swords - periodically disappeared, during the restoration work, fragments of glass bottles were found in the crown on the head of the empress, a sword was pulled out of the hands of the sculpture of commander A. Suvorov several times, and the assassination attempts continue now, and once the jokers turned Catherine's outfit in a sailor's vest. Vandals were found in most cases. In the old days, chess players liked to gather in the Catherine Garden.

The idea of installing the monument arose in 1860, 100 years after the accession of Catherine II. The author of the monument is the artist M. Mikeshin. The granite pedestal is made of stone, which was delivered to the Neva embankment by water from the Karelian Isthmus. Then the granite was delivered to the site along specially laid railway tracks.

The lower part of the pedestal is made of granite from the Putsalo quarries, the base and cornice are made of gray granite from the Yanisari quarry, the pedestal is made of gray granite Snesquezalmi. The figures in the pedestal were cast by the bronze-casters of the Nichols & Plinke factory.

The cost of the work on the construction of the monument was 316 thousand rubles. The production of commemorative medallions, the reconstruction of the square and the opening ceremony cost about 456 thousand rubles. The monument was made and assembled in stages from 1862 to 1873. The consecration ceremony took place in November 1873

Under Soviet rule, in the early 30s, it was planned to dismantle the monument, and put a sculpture of Lenin in Catherine's place. Mount figures of 9 members of the Leninist Politburo into the pedestal.

Since 1988, the Catherine Garden has been taken under state protection. In the late 90's and early 2000, the park was reconstructed and the layout of 1878 was returned.

The authorship of the monument belongs to the artists M. Mikeshin, A. Opekushin, M. Chizhov, architects D. Grim, V. Shterer. The height of the sculpture of Empress Catherine II is 4.35 m. In her hands is a laurel wreath and a scepter, at her feet is the crown of the Russian Empire. On the chest of the Empress is the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. Around the pedestal there are figures of the Empress's associates: statesman Alexei Orlov-Chesmensky, poet Gabriel Derzhavin, Field Marshal Pyotr Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky, commander Alexander Suvorov, statesman Grigory Potemkin, polar explorer Vasily Chichyagov, President of the Russian Academy Ekaterina Dashkova, President of the Russian Academy of Arts Ivan Betskoy, Prince Alexander Bezborodko.

The memorial was planned to be expanded, but the Russian-Turkish war and other events the reign of Emperor Alexander II prevented this. The architect D. Grimm presented a project according to which bronze statues of prominent public and political figures of the era of her reign were to be located next to the monument to Catherine II. Among them should have been the playwright A.P. Sumarokov, writer D.I. Fonvizin, Prosecutor General of the Senate A.A. Vyazemsky, Admiral of the Fleet F.F. Ushakov.

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Topic: Monument to Catherine II description and photo - Russia - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg.