"History of the Bronze Horseman"

Charity wall newspaper for schoolchildren, parents and teachers "Briefly and clearly about the most interesting." Issue 98, August 2016.

Catherine II, Denis Diderot, Dmitry Golitsyn, Etienne Falcone, Yuri Felten, Ivan Buckmeister, Alexander Radishchev, Ludwig Nicolai, Lewis Carroll and many others: quotes from correspondence and memoirs.

Charity wall newspapers educational project"Briefly and clearly about the most interesting" (site site) are intended for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg. They ship for free to most educational institutions, as well as to a number of hospitals, orphanages and other institutions of the city. The publications of the project do not contain any advertising (only logos of the founders), politically and religiously neutral, written in easy language, well illustrated. They are conceived as an information "slowdown" of students, the awakening of cognitive activity and the desire to read. Authors and publishers, without claiming to be academically complete in the presentation of the material, publish interesting facts, illustrations, interviews with famous figures of science and culture, and thereby hope to increase the interest of schoolchildren in the educational process..ru. We thank the Department of Education Administration Kirovsky district Petersburg and all those who selflessly help in the distribution of our wall newspapers. Special thanks to Nadezhda Nikolaevna Efremova, Deputy Director for scientific work for providing materials and advice.

2016 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of the French sculptor Etienne Maurice Falcone. His only monumental work is the world-famous monument to Peter I on Senate Square, known to everyone as the Bronze Horseman. In our wall newspaper - the main stages in the creation of this, perhaps, the brightest symbol of St. Petersburg. In order to feel the atmosphere of the enlightened Catherine's era together with the reader, we tried to give the floor to the direct participants and eyewitnesses of the events described. The secrets of the Bronze Horseman, revealed during the restoration, as well as fascinating story its pedestal - "Thunder-stone" - we plan to discuss in our next issues.

"Astonishing"

Senate square. Drawing by an unknown author.

“The monument to Peter the Great in Leningrad is an outstanding work of Russian and world plastic art. Erected on the banks of the Neva almost two hundred years ago, it became a prime example the triumph of educational ideas, - this is how the doctor of art history, professor Avraam Kaganovich begins his fundamental book "The Bronze Horseman" (1975). - Time turned out to have no power over the monument, it only further confirmed its enduring historical meaning and aesthetic value. The monument not only glorifies a hero, an outstanding statesman, - in a vivid figurative form, it captures the changes that took place in Russia in the first quarter XVIII century, at the time of state reforms that radically changed the life of the country ... Big interest represents not only the content of the monument, its plastic qualities, but also the history of its creation.

In the same enthusiastic tone (and emphasizing a special interest in the history of the creation of the monument), earlier authors spoke out. So, the librarian of the Imperial public library, writer and theologian Anton Ivanovsky in the book “Conversations about Peter the Great and his collaborators” (1872) exclaimed: “Which of us, passing through Petrovsky Square, did not stop at the monument to Peter I ... which, in beauty, majesty and lofty idea has no equal at all the globe… how much work and incredible efforts had to be used to build this marvelous monument, which amazes not only us, but also foreigners? The history of the construction of this monument is so entertaining and at the same time instructive ... ”Entire volumes have been written about the creation of the Bronze Horseman (the most interesting books listed at the end of the wall newspaper), so we will very briefly note here the key points of this "entertaining and instructive story", trying to adhere to the memoirs of contemporaries and the assessments of recognized experts.

"Not made by art like this"

Why did Catherine not like the statue by Rastrelli?

Monument to Peter I by B.K. Rastrelli in front of the Mikhailovsky Castle.

In 1762, Catherine II began to reign. The Senate immediately obsequiously suggested that a monument be erected to her. The young empress reasoned that she would act more wisely, perpetuating the memory not of herself, but of Peter the Great, the reformer of Russia, thereby emphasizing the continuity of her reign.

It is noteworthy that by the time it became necessary to erect an equestrian monument to Peter I in St. Petersburg, equestrian statue Peter I in St. Petersburg ... already was. It's about sculpture Italian sculptor Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli. He made a model of the monument during the life of Peter I, after making a wax mask-cast directly from the face of the emperor and thereby achieving the greatest portrait resemblance. In 1747, the sculpture was cast in bronze, but after that, forgotten by everyone, it was kept in a barn. Catherine, having examined the monument, came to the conclusion that “it was not made by art in such a way as it should represent such a great monarch and serve to adorn the capital city of St. Petersburg.” Why?

With the death of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the Baroque era ended in Russia. It's amazing how quickly even the most beautiful creations can go out of style! Empress Catherine the Great and her associates were no longer attracted by lush “curls”, the time of classicism was coming. Art began to appreciate the simplicity and clarity of the image, the rejection of decorative details, respect for the free personality of an enlightened hero, the motives for conquering wild prejudices and ascending from deep ignorance to a bright mind. It is natural that during this period, architects appreciated the pristine beauty of natural stone. So, “the image created by Rastrelli, where the formidable emperor dominated,” Kaganovich concludes, “in many respects looked like an anachronism. The Age of Enlightenment could not accept such a limited interpretation of it. A new, deeper and more modern solution to the monument was needed.”

"Experienced and talented sculptor"

Why did you choose Falcon?

Sculptural portrait of Étienne Falcone by his student Marie-Anne Collot (1773). Museum of the city of Nancy, France.

According to Mikhail Pylyaev in his famous book"Old Petersburg. Stories from the past life of the capital”, in 1765 Catherine ordered the Russian envoy in Paris, Prince Dmitry Golitsyn, to find her “an experienced and talented sculptor”. Famous French sculptors were considered as candidates for the role of the creator of the monument to Peter the Great: Augustin Pajou, Guillaume Coustue (junior), Louis-Claude Vasse and Etienne Falcone (according to the French tradition, the emphasis is on the last syllable). The presence of Golitsyn's impeccable artistic flair is confirmed, in particular, by one of his friends, the philosopher and educator Denis Diderot: “The prince ... incredibly succeeded in the knowledge of art ... he has lofty thoughts and a beautiful soul. And a person with such a soul does not have bad taste. Diderot recommended Golitsyn (as well as Catherine herself, since they were in friendly correspondence) to opt for Falcon: “Here is a man of genius, full of all sorts of qualities inherent and unusual for a genius. It has an abyss fine taste, intelligence, delicacy, charm and grace… he crushes clay, processes marble, and at the same time reads and meditates… this man thinks and feels with grandeur.”

On August 27, 1766 (250 years ago), Falcone signed a contract for the manufacture in St. Petersburg of an "equestrian statue of colossal size." In September of the same year, accompanied by his student Marie-Anne Collot, he left Paris for St. Petersburg, where he arrived about a month later and immediately set to work. Russian Secretary historical society Alexander Polovtsov, in the preface to the “Correspondence of Empress Catherine II with Falconet” (published in 1876), pointed out: “Those who undertook such a difficult task and long journey the artist was not one of those foreigners who fled to Russia, who were not lucky at home, and who thought to find easy bread in what they thought was a barbarous country, no, Falconet was exactly fifty years old, and in these fifty years he had already managed to earn a place of honor among his fellow citizens...

On September 10, 1766, Falconet left Paris; his things were sent by sea… it turns out that only 25 boxes contained the artist’s belongings, the rest were filled with books, engravings, marble, as well as casts and photographs for the Academy of Arts.” Parting words to a friend, Diderot exclaimed: “Remember, Falcone, that you must either die at work, or create something great!”

Diderot gave me the opportunity to acquire a man who, I think, has no equal: this is Falconet; he will soon start a statue of Peter the Great, and if there are artists who are equal to him in art, then I boldly think that there are none who could be compared with him in feelings: in a word, he is Diderot's soulmate, ”says Catherine herself spoke about the sculptor who had arrived.

"Great deeds and memorable adventures"

What is "bad" in antique statues?

The statue of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in Rome is the only equestrian statue that has survived from antiquity.

One of the projects of the monument to Peter I B.K. Rastrelli "with allegorical figures". Detail of the "Plan of the capital city of St. Petersburg ..." by Mikhail Makhaev (1753).

At first, Catherine's entourage was inclined to copy the composition of one of the equestrian monuments to kings and generals, installed by that time in European countries. This is, first of all, the statue of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in Rome (160-180s); statue of the Italian condottiere (mercenary) Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice (sculptor Andrea Verrocchio, 1480s); a statue of the elector (ruler) of Brandenburg Friedrich Wilhelm in Berlin (sculptor Andreas Schlüter, 1703); statue of King Louis XIV of France in Paris (sculptor François Girardon, 1683; destroyed during French Revolution 1789-1799) and other outstanding works.

Thus, Yakob Shtelin, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a memoirist, wrote: “His Majesty’s statue on a horse will be erected, and the pedestal to it will be decorated with bas-reliefs glorifying his great deeds and his most memorable adventures.” In the corners of the pedestal, statues of vices were supposed to be, which Peter "with undaunted courage overthrew", namely: "gross ignorance, insane superstition, mendicant laziness and malicious deceit." As a spare, there was an option with statues of "heroic spirit, unremitting courage, victory and immortal glory."

The architect Johann Schumacher proposed to build in front of the Winter Palace or in front of the Kunstkamera building “in view of the courtyard, the collegium, the Admiralty, and especially the ships going along the Neva River ... a building ... of white marble, cast metal and red gilded copper and with convex work ", surrounded by allegorical figures of seas and rivers," showing the space of this state.

Baron Bilinstein suggested erecting a monument on the banks of the Neva - so much so that Peter looked with his right eye at the Admiralty and towards the entire Empire, and with his left eye at Vasilyevsky Island and Ingermanland conquered by him. Falcone retorted that this is only possible with strabismus. “The right and left eyes of Peter the Great made me laugh a lot; this is more than stupid, ”Catherine echoed him. “You seem to think, sir,” Falcone wrote to the baron, “that the sculptor is deprived of the ability to think, and that his hands can only act with the help of someone else’s head, and not his own. So find out that the artist is the creator of his work ... Give him advice, he listens to them because there is always enough room in the smartest head to place a delusion. But if you act as an official distributor of ideas, then you will only be ridiculous.

Even Diderot recommended a convoluted solution to Falcone: “Show them your hero… chasing barbarism before him… with his hair half loose, half braided, his body covered with wild skin, throwing a ferocious menacing look at your hero, fearing him and preparing to be trampled by hooves. his horse; so that I see, on the one hand, the love of the people, stretching out their hands to their legislator, seeing him off with their eyes and blessing him, so that on the other hand, I see the symbol of the nation, spread out on the ground and calmly enjoying peace, rest and carelessness.
Ivan Betskoy, president of the Academy of Arts, head of the Stone Construction Commission (as well as the official appointed by Catherine to be responsible for everything related to the erection of the monument to Peter), insisted that Falcone take the statue of Marcus Aurelius as a model. Their dispute went so far that Falcone was forced to write an entire treatise, Observations on the Statue of Marcus Aurelius. Along with a deep analysis of ancient sculpture, Falcone ironically notes that in such a position the horse will not be able to take a single step, since the movements of all its legs do not correspond to each other.

Catherine, as best she could, supported Falcone: “Listen, throw ... a statue of Marcus Aurelius and bad reasoning people who do not understand any sense, go your own way, you will do a hundred times better, obeying your stubbornness ... "

“The ancients were not so superior to us, they didn’t do everything so well that we didn’t have to do something,” the sculptor believed. It required unsurpassed courage and self-confidence to move away from the age-old traditions of depicting rulers in military armor sitting calmly in the same poses on measuredly walking horses surrounded by allegorical figures.
The place for the monument was determined on May 5, 1768, when Betskoy announced to the Senate: “Her Imperial Majesty verbally ordered to deign to erect a monument on the square between the Neva River, from the Admiralty and the house, in which the Governing Senate is present.”

"Hero on the emblematic rock"

How was Falcone's idea born?

Engraving "Equestrian statue of Peter the Great" from the album "Costume of the Russian Empire" (London, 1811).

The snake under the horse's hooves is a symbol of defeated envy.

Even in Paris, Falcone thought over the project of the future monument and made the first sketches of it. “On the day when I sketched on the corner of your table a hero and his horse jumping over an emblematic rock, and you were so pleased with my idea,” he later wrote to Diderot. - The monument will be simple. Barbarism, people's love, and the symbol of the nation will not be there. Peter the Great is his own plot and attribute: all that remains is to show him. I do not imagine the hero as a great commander and conqueror, although he was, of course, both. It is necessary to show humanity a more beautiful spectacle, the creator, legislator, benefactor of his country ... My king does not hold a rod in his hand, he stretches out his beneficent hand over the country over which he flies, he rises to this rock that serves as his foundation - the emblem of difficulties which he has overcome. So, this paternal hand, this jump on a steep rock - this is the plot that Peter the Great gives me.

Serious thoughts were caused by the clothes of the future rider. As options, a European costume fashionable at that time, and a Roman toga, and military armor, and an old Russian attire were offered. Ivan Bakmeister, a librarian of the Academy of Sciences, who personally knew Falcone, categorically spoke about modern clothing in his remarkable work “Historical News of the Sculpted Equestrian Image of Peter the Great” (1783): “ french clothes to the heroic sculpted image is completely obscene, upright and bloated. Antique and knightly clothing “is a masquerade when worn on a person who was not a Roman, and especially when he is not portrayed as a warrior ... If this is an old Moscow caftan, then it does not suit the one who declared war on beards and caftans. If you dress Peter in the clothes that he wore, then it will not make it possible to convey movement and lightness in a large sculpture, especially in an equestrian monument. Therefore, the costume of Peter is the clothing of all peoples, all people, of all times - in a word, a heroic costume, ”summed up Falcone.

The snake, as an important element of the composition, also appeared as a result of long reflections. “This allegory gives the subject all the power inherent in it, which it did not have before ... Envy opposed Peter the Great, this is undoubtedly; he courageously overcame her ... such is the fate of any great man, urged Catherine Falcone. “If I ever made a statue of Your Majesty, and if the composition allowed it, then I would throw envy at the bottom of the pedestal.” The empress answered evasively: “I neither like the allegorical snake nor do I like it. I wanted to find out all kinds of objections against the snake ... ”And there were many objections: someone thought that the snake was too“ even ”and it would be better“ made with greater curvatures ”, someone - that it was too big or too small. And Betskoy, in conversations with Catherine, represented the snake only as a manifestation of the whim of the sculptor. It soon became clear that the wise Falcone conceived the snake not only as a vivid artistic image, but also as part of the supporting structure: “People ... perhaps too sensitive to a slightly bold, but simple trick of my inspiration, believe that the snake should be removed ... But these they don't know, like me, that without this happy episode the support of the statue would be quite unreliable. They did not calculate with me the forces I needed. They do not know that, if they follow their advice, the monument would be unstable. The fate of the snake was decided by the following words of Catherine: “there is one old song that says: if necessary, so necessary, here is my answer regarding the snake.”

As Kaganovich figuratively put it, “with his passionate energy, the swiftness of his impulse, the rider crushed a deadly obstacle, a bunch of envy, deceit and betrayal that hindered the free movement of progress.”

Let us finally quote the significant remark of Lewis Carroll (author of Alice in Wonderland) from his Diary of a Journey to Russia (1867): “If this monument stood in Berlin, Peter would undoubtedly be busy killing this monster directly, but here he doesn’t even look at him: obviously, the “killer” principle is not recognized here.

"Done his main job!"

How was the work on the model?

Adolphe Charlemagne. M.-A. Kollo sculpts the head of Peter I, fragment (1867). Filmstrip "The Bronze Horseman" (1981).

Drawing of a model of the monument to Peter the Great, made by the artist Anton Losenko in the workshop of Falconet (1770). Museum of the city of Nancy (France).

Falcone arrived in St. Petersburg at the end of 1766 and, already at the beginning of the next year, having agreed on the composition of the future monument, he began to manufacture its “small model”. A year later, it was ready and received the highest approval. On February 1, 1768, a "large model" was started - a life-size bronze statue of the future.

The selfless and thoughtful work of the master on every detail is emphasized by such memories of him: “... when I had the idea to convey in sculpture a horse in a gallop and on the rise, I turned not to my memory, and even less to my imagination, in order to complete an accurate model. I studied nature. To do this, I instructed to make a hill, which I gave the slope that my pedestal was supposed to have. I made the rider gallop: the first - not once, but more than a hundred; the second is in different time; the third - on different horses. For the eye can grasp the effects of such rapid movements only by means of a multitude of repeated impressions. Having studied the movement of the horse chosen by me as a whole, I proceeded to study the details. I examined, sculpted, drew each part - from below, from above, in front, behind, on both sides, because there is no other means to get an accurate knowledge of the subject; only after these studies did I believe that I saw and was able to convey a horse rising up in a gallop, to convey the true shape of muscles and ligaments ... ”(Note that the camera was invented only 60 years later).

In the contract, Falcone specifically stipulated the possibility of his free choice of horses and sitters. The sculptor chose the best stallions of the court stable - they turned out to be handsome Diamond and Caprice. The name of one of the riders is known - Afanasy Telezhnikov. According to legend, Colonel Peter Melissino also posed for Falcone, "with a face and physique very similar to the emperor." The sculptor was advised by a major connoisseur of horses English ambassador Lord Catcard.

A significant problem turned out to be to sculpt the head of the emperor.
“In order ... to depict the facial features of the original in the model as accurately as possible, he received, by the highest order from the Academy of Sciences, a head of Peter the Great cast from plaster, he also ordered from Bologna cast from the chest image located there very much like the emperor similar image; moreover, he was allowed to look at will at the image made of wax in the Academy, taken from the face of the emperor himself, ”backmeister testified. Apparently after a few failed attempts to make a sculptural portrait of Peter, fully consistent with the plan, Falcone entrusted this task to Marie-Anne Collot, with which she, being a portrait painter, brilliantly coped.

In July 1769, a life-size clay model of the future monument was completed. Until the spring of next year, she was “transferred to plaster”. “I have done my main work! Falcone wrote to a friend. “Oh, if the monument I brought to an end was worthy of the great man he depicts, if this monument did not shame either art or my fatherland, then I could say with Horace: “Not all of me will die!”

"A fragment of the great epic poem"

What did the public say at the opening of the model?

This is how the monument to Peter the Great was remembered by the Japanese traveler Daikokuya Kodai, who visited St. Petersburg in 1791. National Museum Tokyo.

Falcone turned to the Academy of Arts and invited Russian artists to discuss the shortcomings of the model, "which may still be there, in order to correct them if possible", after which the model was exhibited "for two whole weeks for a nationwide spectacle." “Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti” wrote about this: “On May 19, from 11 am to 2 am and in the afternoon from 6 am to 8 pm, the Petru Vel model will be shown for two weeks. in a building located on the site of the former winter palace, on the Neva prospect.
“Finally, the curtain has risen,” Falcone wrote with excitement. “I am, of course, at the mercy of the public; my workshop is packed."

“Some praised her, others blasphemed her,” Buckmeister testified. - The front of the horse's neck, according to the expert's notes, is made a quarter of an inch thicker than it should be ... a shrewd husband, perhaps not without reason, noticed that the fingers of the outstretched hand were very wide. Does it follow from this, as some have thought, that they should be joined together? Such a hand would express nothing and mean nothing. Others found that the content of the size of the head in the reasoning of the legs is wrong ... Others still thought a simple attire obscene ... "Someone Yakovlev" found the emperor's mustache terrible. The procurator of the Synod was indignant at the fact that "a man and a horse are twice as large as they usually are." An Englishman demanded a "written explanation" so that "the meaning of the rock and the position of the horse" could be understood. Ludwig von Nicolai, the future president of the Academy of Sciences, recalled: “Falconet ... had a lot of fun over the judgments of his visitors. One kind fellow exclaimed: “My God! What was this man thinking? Of course, Peter I is called the great, and he was like that. But not the same giant! Falcone met one Privy Councilor at the door, and, as usual, asked his opinion. “Oh, oh,” he began at the first glance. How could you make such a big mistake? Don't you see that one leg is much longer than the other?" - "I am grateful to you for your remark, but let's investigate that case in more detail." Falcone led him to the other side. – “Here you go! Now the other one is longer!” Two men stopped in front of the statue: “But why does Peter stretch his hand into the air like that?” “You are a fool,” objected another, “he feels whether it is raining or not.” Further, Nicolai wrote: “Falconet paid exceptional attention to the horse, and considered the image of Peter to be a matter of almost secondary importance. He felt that in creating a horse he could excel ancient sculptors, and in the image of Peter barely reach the old masters. The Russian people, who were expecting a monument to Peter, and not his horse, did not like this, especially when he instructed his student, Mademoiselle Collot, to fashion the head of the hero, the main part of the whole work.

Such criticism both amused and hurt Falcone. “Laugh at fools and go your own way. This is my rule, ”Ekaterina encouraged him. However, there were much more rave reviews.
“Today I saw the famous equestrian statue of Peter I,” wrote the French diplomat Marie Corberon, “this is the best of all those that I know of. You know all the disputes, scolding and ridicule she caused; I can assure you that she will make you forget all this.” Here is the testimony of one English traveler: "This work combines simplicity with the grandeur of the concept ... This monument is one of a kind, and it perfectly expresses the character of both the person and the nation he ruled." Falconet's teacher, Jean-Louis Lemoine (he received a small copy of the sculpture by mail) wrote: "I have always considered Falconet very talented and was firmly convinced that he would create a magnificent monument to the Russian Tsar, but what I saw exceeded all expectations" .

Diderot, who visited St. Petersburg in 1773-1774, responded, as one would expect, enthusiastically: “This work, like a true beautiful work, differs in that it seems beautiful when you see it for the first time, and the second, third, fourth time it seems even more beautiful: you leave it with regret and always return to it willingly. “The hero and the horse together make up the beautiful Centaur, whose human and thinking part is surprisingly calm in opposition to the part of a furious animal.” And again: “The truth of nature has retained all its purity; but your genius has merged with it the brilliance of an ever-increasing and amazing poetry. Your horse is not a photograph from the most beautiful of the existing horses, just as Apollo Belvedere is not a repetition of the most beautiful of people: both are the essence of the work of both the creator and the artist. He is colossal, but light, he is powerful and graceful, his head is full of intelligence and life. As far as I could judge, it was executed with extreme observation, but a deep study of the details does not harm general impression; everything is wide. You feel neither tension nor labor anywhere; think it's one day's work. Let me tell you the hard truth. I knew you as a very skillful person, but I never imagined anything like this in your head ... You managed to make in life ... an excerpt from a great epic poem.

Probably, the sculptor most of all rejoiced at the words of the empress about “that smart beast that occupies the middle of ... the workshop”: “This horse, in spite of you and between your fingers touching the clay, gallops directly to posterity, which, of course, will appreciate its perfection better than contemporaries” .

"It's like daring"

History of the Thunder Stone

The medal “It is like boldness”, minted in honor of the unique transportation of the Thunder-stone - from the Lakhtinsky swamp to the Senate Square.

"The ordinary foot, on which most of sculptures are approved, - wrote Buckmeister, - does not mean anything and is not capable of arousing a new reverent thought in the soul of the viewer ... The chosen foot to the sculptured image Russian hero there must be a wild and difficult to climb stone... A new, daring and expressive thought! The stone itself should be an adornment to remind itself of the then state of the state and of the difficulties that the creator of it, when making his intentions, had to overcome ... At a distance of almost six miles from St. surprised, and the thought of moving him to another place was horrifying.

They dug up a huge stone, hoisted it onto a platform with levers, dragged it along special rails to the shore of the Gulf of Finland, loaded it onto a specially designed barge and delivered it to St. Petersburg. The history of the Thunder Stone is so fascinating that we decided to dedicate one of the next issues of the wall newspaper to it.

Detailed description of the casting of the statue

Making a plaster mold for the subsequent casting of the statue of Louis XIV. Yverdon Encyclopedia (1777).

Wax copy of the statue of Louis XIV with a system of tubes - for pouring bronze, flowing wax and removing steam. Yverdon Encyclopedia (1777).

Form covered with iron hoops, prepared for the start of the casting of the statue of Louis XIV. Yverdon Encyclopedia (1777).
The inscription on the pedestal Latin. Can you translate it? What about the bottom line?

The technology of casting small bronze figurines was known as far back as III millennium BC. At first, they made a model of the future figurine (for example, from wood). The model was covered with a layer of clay. After hardening, this clay shell was cut into two halves, carefully separated, the model was taken out, and the halves were again connected and wrapped with wire. From above, in the form thus obtained, a hole was drilled and molten bronze was poured inside. It remained to wait until the bronze hardens, take off the mold and admire the resulting statuette.

In order to save expensive metal, they learned how to make hollow figurines. In this case, the mold was covered with a layer of soft wax from the inside and the remaining void was covered with sand. A fire was made under the mold, the wax melted and flowed out. Now the molten bronze poured from above occupied the volume in which the wax had previously been. The bronze solidified, after which the mold was dismantled, and the sand from the inside of the figurine was poured out through a hole left in advance.

Approximately according to the same principle, Falcone acted (taking into account the fact that the result should have been an eight-ton five-meter hulk, and not a small figurine). Unfortunately, neither Falcone nor anyone from his entourage made sketches (or they have not yet been discovered). Therefore, we present here drawings illustrating the casting of a monument to Louis XIV in Paris.

“First of all, the plaster mold had to be removed from the large model of the sculpted image,” says Buckmeister. This means that the model was coated on all sides with a thick layer of semi-hardened gypsum, trying to fill every crease. Previously, the model was smeared with fat so that the plaster would not stick to it. After this plaster mold had hardened, it was cut into pieces, numbered and removed from the model. A layer of molten wax was applied to the inner surface of each piece with a brush.
Falcone understood that in order to ensure stability for the statue, its center of gravity should be made as low as possible (like a tumbler doll). To do this, the walls of the statue from below must be thick, heavy, and from above - very thin, no more than 7.5 mm. With this in mind, wax was applied to the mold in different thicknesses. Then the pieces of the mold, smeared with wax from the inside, were reassembled, in right places reinforced with a steel frame. The void inside was filled with a special hardening compound of gypsum and grated brick. Now, having carefully removed the plaster mold, Falcone was able to closely examine the wax copy of the future statue in order to make final corrections. “Any remaining unnoticed error in the large model could then be corrected, every feature in the face brought to greater perfection. The maiden Kollot practiced especially in correcting the model of the rider's head she had made. Several weeks were used for this work.
Now it was necessary to lead a lot of wax rods to the most secluded corners of the future statue. In the future, melting inside the clay mass, each such wax rod will turn into a tube - a sprue. Sprues were combined into five large pipes. Special tubes were designed to drain the molten wax, as well as to release air - as the mold was filled with bronze. All these numerous tubes "fitted tightly to the model and produced the appearance of a branched tree."

With the greatest precautions, this entire structure “should still be plastered with a clay composition. With this liquefied matter they smeared the wax several times until it was half an inch thick; dry and hardened bark was alternately covered with bricks, then glue and earth until it became eight inches thick. In order to properly strengthen the clay form, they wrapped it with iron strips and rims. The last remaining work was melting the wax." A huge fire was lit around this new, downright armored, form, which burned for eight days, after which all the wax (and there were 100 pounds of it!) Flowed out, making room for subsequent pouring with bronze, and the form itself hardened and became even stronger.

“The time for casting the statue was approaching. The day before, the smelting furnace had been lit, the supervision of which was entrusted to the cannon foundry master Khailov. The next day, when the copper was already quite melted, five main pipes were opened up and copper was let in ”(it should be noted that earlier the word“ copper ”was used to refer to all metals close in composition, including bronze). “The lower parts of the mold were already filled, which promised the best success, but suddenly the copper flowed out of the clay mold and spilled over the floor, which began to burn. The astonished Falconet (and what artist would not be astonished to see his nine-year-old work destroyed in a few minutes, that his honor is perishing, and that his envious people are already triumphant) hurried from there first of all, and the danger forced others to follow him soon. Only Khailov, who indignantly looked at the flowing out copper, remained to the end ... and picked up the leaked molten copper to the last drop in the form, not fearing in the least the danger to which his life was exposed. Falconet was so touched by this bold and honest act of the foundry master that, at the end of the business, he ran up to him, kissed him heartily and showed his most sensitive gratitude with a gift of a few money from his own purse ... However, this casting can be considered as the best, which is hardly anywhere done. For neither in the rider nor in the horse is not a single shell or crack visible in the copper, but everything is cast as cleanly as wax was. As a result of this accident, the upper part of the monument was nevertheless damaged. “The head of the rider on the shoulders failed so well that I broke this ugly piece of bronze. The upper half of the horse's head is in the same position along a horizontal line, ”Falconet lamented. In 1777, he topped up - this time flawlessly.

“A lot of work was still required in order to finish the cast so that it could be exhibited to the public. The composition filling the inside of the mold ... and the excess iron device had to be removed; it was necessary to saw off the pipes located on the entire surface of the statue, which served for the outflow of wax, for the exhalation of air and for the pouring of molten copper; soak the bark, which came from mixing copper with clay, and beat it off with special tools; fill cracks and crevices with copper; give unevenly or thickly cast parts a proportionate thickness and generally try to polish the entire sculpture in the most perfect way ... Finally, Falconet enjoyed the pleasure of seeing his creation completely finished. In memory of these events, the sculptor left an inscription on the fold of Peter I's cloak: "Etienne Falcone, a Parisian of 1778, sculpted and cast."
Alas, at this stage, Falcone's relationship with Catherine's entourage, primarily with Betsky, so deteriorated that the master was forced to leave St. Petersburg forever, without waiting for the opening of his main creation. Buckmeister wrote bitterly: “A combination of various circumstances ... made his further stay in Petersburg unpleasant for him, despite all the respect that his art and learning deserved. His departure was given to his will, and after a twelve-year stay here, he set off in the month of September 1778 ... "

The completion of the unfinished work was entrusted to Yuri Felten, an academician, the chief architect of the Office of Her Imperial Majesty's Houses and Gardens, who had been working with Falcone for several years. I wonder what was left to do? “Under the direction of Felten,” reports Kaganovich, “two stones were placed in front and behind the rocks, slightly lengthening the pedestal and giving it the shape that it retains to this day. Mounting the statue on a pedestal was no doubt a great challenge. However, in this case, Felten did not encounter excessive difficulties, since it is known that the calculations during the casting turned out to be so accurate, and the casting itself was performed with such skill that the rider, installed vertically and not yet strengthened in any way, maintained reliable stability. Felten also had to, according to his “report” to the Office of Buildings, “... make a model of the parts of the snake, pour it out and strengthen it on a stone. Pave the area around the monument with large pieces of wild stone and surround it with a lattice with decent decorations, ”as well as“ strengthen the inscription on both sides of the pedestal. By the way, Falcone was against the fence: “There will be no lattice around Peter the Great - why put him in a cage?”

The inscription on the pedestal also has its own curious history. Diderot suggested this option: “Catherine II dedicated a monument to Peter the Great. The resurrected valor brought this huge rock with a colossal effort and threw it under the feet of the hero. Falcone, in a letter to Catherine, insisted on more short inscription: “Peter the Great was erected by Catherine the Second” and clarified: “I would very much like that ... they didn’t guess to write anything more ... thanks to the latest bad rationalists, they began to make endless inscriptions in which chatter is squandered when one well-aimed word would be enough. " Catherine, removing the word “erected” with a royal flourish, gave her descendants a laconic and profound motto in St. Petersburg: “To Peter the Great, Catherine the Second.”

“This simple, noble and lofty inscription expresses everything that only the reader should think about it,” Buckmeister sums up.

"The image of the monarch appeared in the highest perfection"

Description of the opening of the monument

Opening of the monument to Peter I on the Senate Square in St. Petersburg. Engraving by A. K. Melnikov from a drawing by A. P. Davydov (1782). State Hermitage.

View of the St. Isaac's Bridge. Colorized lithograph (1830s). The impression of the monument to Peter the Great was further enhanced by the fact that a floating bridge across the Neva was built right in front of it (it existed intermittently in 1727-1916).
“After him everywhere the Bronze Horseman galloped with a heavy stomp ...” Illustration by A.N. Benois (1903) for the poem “The Bronze Horseman” by A.S. Pushkin.

Many descriptions of this spectacular festival have survived; The most valuable thing for us is the memories of eyewitnesses. Let's listen to Ivan Backmeister: “... Everyone was waiting with pleasure for the day on which this monument was to be opened to the public. Her Imperial Majesty deigned to determine the 7th day of August 1782 for this festival ... The opening of this monument followed exactly one hundred years after the accession to the All-Russian throne of the hero, to whom it was erected in honor. Before the solemn opening of the statue ... a linen fence was placed near it, on which stones and mountainous countries were depicted in various colors. The weather was... cloudy and rainy at first; but, despite this, people flocked from all parts of the city ... by the thousands. Finally, as the sky began to shine, the spectators began to gather in great crowds in specially made for the occasion of this gallery. The Admiralty Wall and all the windows near the lying houses were filled with spectators, even the very roofs of the houses were covered with them. At noon, the regiments determined for this celebration, led by their generals, set off from their places and took the places shown to them ... The number of troops extended to 15,000 people ... At the fourth hour, Her Imperial Majesty deigned to arrive on a boat. Soon after this, the monarch appeared on the balcony of the Senate. Her auspicious appearance attracted the eyes of countless people, filled with reverent wonder. The signal followed - at that very moment the fence fell without visible benefits to the ground, and the sculpted image of the Great Monarch appeared in the highest perfection. What a disgrace!” (Did you pay attention, dear reader, to this word? A linguistic gift straight from the 18th century! You can conduct your own little research - why the author wrote this way). “Great Catherine, full of feeling for the exploits undertaken by her ancestor for the bliss and glory of Russia, bows her head before him. Her eyes are filled with tears! .. Then there were national exclamations. All regiments congratulated the sculpted image of the hero by beating drums and saluting, bowing the banners and proclaiming three times congratulations, with which the thunder of cannons copulated from the fortress, from the Admiralty and from the imperial yachts, which were immediately decorated with flags and announced this joyful triumph in all parts of the city, to which it should forever be precious and holy. At the end of the day, the whole city was illuminated, and especially Petrovsky Square, with a great multitude of lights.

Alexander Radishchev, the author of the famous “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”, also impressed by the opening of the monument, wrote in a letter to a friend: “Yesterday, the dedication of the monument to Peter the Great in honor of the erected took place here with splendor ... The statue represents a powerful rider, on a greyhound horse, striving for the mountain steep, which peak he had already reached, crushing a snake lying on the way and with his sting, the quick rushing of a horse and rider to stop the encroachment ... The steepness of the mountain is the essence of the obstacles that Peter had when putting his intentions into action; a snake lying on the way - deceit and malice, looking for his death for the introduction of new customs; ancient clothes, animal skin and all the simple attire of a horse and rider are the essence of simple and rude morals and lack of enlightenment, which Peter found in the people he set out to convert; head, crowned with laurels, - for the winner was before the legislator; the appearance of a courageous and powerful and fortress converter; an outstretched hand, patronizing, as Diderot calls it, and a cheerful look - the essence of inner assurance that has reached its goal, and the outstretched hand reveals that a strong man, having overcome all the vices that resisted his aspiration, gives his cover to everyone who is called his children. Here, dear friend, is a faint image of what, looking at the image of Petrov, I feel.

Needless to say, even today Falcone's immortal creation continues to be admired. Art critic Solomon Volkov writes in his book “History of the Culture of St. Petersburg from its founding to the present day”: “Although almost everyone understood and recognized the high merits of the monument, it was hardly clear to the first viewers that they were facing one of the greatest works of sculpture of the 18th century. And of course, bypassing the statue of Peter on horseback and, as it moved, discovering more and more new aspects of his image - a wise and resolute legislator, a fearless commander, an adamant, unstoppable monarch - the crowd did not realize that before it was the most important, eternal, forever the most popular symbol their cities."

“However, no one has taken the sculptor's creation so deeply and subtly as Pushkin,” Kaganovich rightly concludes. In the Boldin autumn of 1833, the monument to Peter the Great forever became the Bronze Horseman for us. Impressed by Pushkin's poem, the composer Reinhold Gliere created a ballet of the same name, a fragment of which became the official anthem of St. Petersburg.

"Protect Stone and Bronze"

How to behave with monuments?

Employee State Museum urban sculpture applies a special restoration agent to the statue.

Bronze Horseman today.

Since 1932, the study, protection and restoration of the Bronze Horseman (along with other monuments of monumental art in our city) has been the responsibility of the State Museum of Urban Sculpture. Nadezhda Nikolaevna Efremova, deputy director of the Museum for scientific work, told us about the culture of handling monuments.

“Monuments are the most accessible form of fine art. To see, for example, a picture or theatrical production you need to put in some effort. And the monuments are always in front of us - on the squares of the city. It is difficult for monuments to live in the modern world. Negative influences that the author could not even foresee are intensifying. For example, vibration. After all, the monuments were created at a time when heavy transport did not yet walk the streets. Another problem is the blocking of groundwater flows as a result of economic activity. As a result, water flows under a heavy pedestal, setting in motion the stone blocks that make it up. At the same time, the gaps between them increase and the seams that we process with the help of special mastic are destroyed. Monuments, although they are made of metal and stone, in general, are defenseless in front of a person. I saw how on holidays people climbed on the neck of a horse, grabbing its front legs, not realizing that the thickness of the metal here is negligible. Pushing bronze even with the soles of boots is as easy as shelling pears. From such an unusual stress, invisible cracks appear in the metal. In our climate - from the temperature difference, from the water that got inside - any microcrack grows rapidly. It is also very important not to break the patina - the thinnest film that covers the bronze. Coloristic features of patina - business card every monument. And if someone (it is not clear why) scratches or polishes some part of the statue to a shine, he not only makes the bronze unprotected, but also destroys the unique shade of patina, which is extremely difficult to reproduce. Falcone from the very beginning refused to install a fence: "If it is necessary to protect stone and bronze from madmen and children, then there are sentries in the Russian Empire." Without relying on the “sentinels”, it would be good for us to realize that any contact with the monument (except visual) is harmful to it.”

In one of the next issues, we will continue talking about the secrets of the Bronze Horseman, revealed during his latest restoration.

What to read about the Bronze Horseman?

Kaganovich, A. L. The Bronze Horseman. The history of the creation of the monument. L .: Art, 1982. 2nd edition, corrected. and additional

Ivanov, G. I. Stone-Thunder: ist. story. (To the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg). St. Petersburg: Stroyizdat, 1994.

Arkin, D. E. The Bronze Horseman. Monument to Peter I in Leningrad. M.-L.: Art, 1958.

Creation of a model and casting of the monument to Peter I in St. Petersburg. Extract from the work of I. G. Buckmeister 1782-1786.

Opening of the monument to Peter I in St. Petersburg. August 7, 1782 Extract from the work of J. G. Buckmeister. 1786

Lewis Carroll. Diary of a trip to Russia in 1867. Translated by N. Demurova

Radishchev A.N. Letter to a friend living in Tobolsk / Communication. P.A. Efremov // Russian antiquity, 1871. - T. 4. - No. 9.

Correspondence of Empress Catherine II with Falconet. The text of the letters French, with translation into Russian. Collection of the Imperial Russian Historical Society. Volume 17. St. Petersburg, 1876. Electronic version - on the website of the Presidential Library upon request.

Shubinsky S. N. Historical essays and stories. SPb.: Type. M. Khan, 1869.

Ivanovsky, A. Conversations about Peter the Great and his collaborators. St. Petersburg: type. Houses of charity juvenile. poor, 1872.

Drawing by A.P. Losenko from the Falconet monument to Peter the Great. P. Ettinger. According to the materials of the monthly for lovers of art and antiquity "Old Years", March 1915.

Newspapers for the holidays by selecting the appropriate menu item there. We remind you that our partners in their organizations distribute our wall newspapers for free.

Yours Georgy Popov, website editor

On August 27, 2016, the premiere of the cartoon "The Bronze Horseman" was held at the "Chaika" cinema center, created by the children of the "Multchaika" studio on the idea and under the guidance of our friend Lena Pilipovskaya. In close contact with our project. Excellent educational cartoon category Mustlook!

Falcone E.M.

Monument to Peter I (" Bronze Horseman") is located in the center of Senate Square. The author of the sculpture is french sculptor Etienne Maurice Falcone.

The location of the monument to Peter I was not chosen by chance. Nearby are the Admiralty founded by the emperor, the building of the main legislative body tsarist Russia- The Senate. Catherine II insisted on placing the monument in the center of Senate Square. The author of the sculpture, Etienne-Maurice Falcone, did his own thing, setting the "Bronze Horseman" closer to the Neva.

By order of Catherine II, Falcone was invited to St. Petersburg by Prince Golitsyn. Professors of the Paris Academy of Painting Diderot and Voltaire, whose taste Catherine II trusted, were advised to turn to this particular master.

Falcone was already fifty years old. Before his trip to Russia, he was known as the author of such publicly recognized sculptural works, as "Milon of Croton tearing the mouth of a lion", eight sculptures for the church of St. Roch, "Cupid", "Bather", "Pygmalion and Galatea", "Winter". He worked at a porcelain factory, but dreamed of big and monumental art.

When an invitation was received to Russia for the construction of a new grandiose monument in its capital, Falcone signed a contract without hesitation in August 1766. Its conditions determined: the monument to Peter should consist of "mainly an equestrian statue of colossal size." The sculptor was obliged to create a sketch of the composition and make the monument in kind. At the same time, he was released from any other orders. The sculptor was offered a rather modest fee (200,000 livres), other masters asked twice as much.

Falcone went from Paris to St. Petersburg, accompanied by the sculptor-carver Fontaine and the seventeen-year-old student Marie-Anne Collot. To meet Falcone in Riga and accompany him to the capital, the captain of the Chancellery regiment from the buildings of M. de Laskari was sent. Subsequently, he constantly collaborated with the Frenchman and played important role in the creation of a monument to Peter I.

The vision of the monument to Peter I by the author of the sculpture was strikingly different from the desire of the Empress and the majority of the Russian nobility. Catherine II expected to see Peter I with a rod or scepter in his hand, sitting on a horse like a Roman emperor. State Councilor Shtelin saw the figure of Peter surrounded by allegories of Prudence, Diligence, Justice and Victory. I. I. Betskoy, who supervised the construction of the monument, represented him as a full-length figure, holding a commander's baton in his hand. Falcone was advised to direct the emperor's right eye to the Admiralty and his left to the building of the Twelve Collegia. Diderot, who visited St. Petersburg in 1773, conceived the monument in the form of a fountain, decorated with allegorical figures.

Falcone, on the other hand, had a completely different idea. In a letter to Diderot, he mentioned the origin of the idea of ​​a monument to Peter I:

"The day when on the corner of your table I sketched a hero and his steed overcoming an emblematic rock, and you were pleased with my idea, we did not guess that I would meet my hero so successfully. He would not see his statue; but if he could to see her, I believe that he, perhaps, would have found there a reflection of a feeling that would revive her" [op. according to: 2, p. 457].

Despite the pressure from the customer, the French sculptor showed stubbornness and perseverance on the way to the realization of his idea. The sculptor wrote:

“I will limit myself to the statue of this hero, whom I do not interpret as either a great commander or a winner, although he, of course, was both. people. 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 him as a pedestal - this is the emblem of the difficulties he has overcome."

Defending the right to his opinion regarding the appearance of the monument, Falcone wrote to I. I. Betsky:

"Could you imagine that the sculptor chosen to create such a significant monument would be deprived of the ability to think and that the movements of his hands were controlled by someone else's head, and not his own?"

Disputes also arose around the clothes of Peter I. The sculptor wrote to Diderot:

"You know that I will not dress him in Roman fashion, just as I would not dress Julius Caesar or Scipio in Russian."

Falcone worked on the Bronze Horseman model for three years. It was carried out in the workshop of the sculptor, who lodged in the house of Major General Albrecht (house number 8 on Malaya Morskaya Street). In the courtyard of this house, one could observe how a guards officer took off on a horse on a wooden platform and put it on its hind legs. This went on for several hours a day. Falcone sat at the window in front of the platform and carefully sketched what he saw. Horses for work on the monument were taken from the imperial stables: horses Brilliant and Caprice. The sculptor chose the Russian "Orlov" breed for the monument. Falcone described this part of the work as follows:

"When I thought of sculpting him, how he completes his gallop, rearing up, this was not in my memory, even less in my imagination, so that I could rely on him. To create an accurate model, I consulted with nature. For On this I caused a platform to be built, to which I gave the same inclination as my plinth was to have. A few inches more or less in inclination would make a considerable change in the motion of the animal. I made rider 1st gallop - not once, but more than a hundred , 2nd - by various tricks, 3rd - on different horses "[Quoted from: 2, p. 459].

In February 1767, the Office for the Construction of Houses and Gardens ordered to begin dismantling the Temporary Winter Palace on Nevsky Prospekt in order to free up space for Falcone's workshop, where he would start casting the sculpture. To create a real large model, a large workshop was built. The stone building of the former palace kitchen, which remained from the Temporary Winter Palace, was adapted for the residence of Falcone, in which the sculptor moved in November and lived until his departure to France. Next to his state-owned house, the Frenchman ordered the construction of another barn and other necessary workshops.

To assist in the work on a large model of the monument to Peter I, two more French sculptors, Simone and Vandadrisse, were sent to Falconet in St. Petersburg on the recommendation of Diderot. But the irascible master could not find common language with assistants, drove them away, and redid everything they had done with his own hands. Work on the model began on February 1, 1768, and was completed in July 1769. Until the next May, it was transferred to plaster and trimmed.

From May 19, for two weeks, the model of the monument to Peter I was open to the public. A crowd of people poured into Falcone's workshop. A variety of opinions were expressed about the model. Painfully reacting to criticism of Falkton, Catherine II advised: "Laugh at fools and go your own way." But there were many more positive reviews. Among those who highly appreciated the work of the sculptor were the French envoy de Corberon, the English traveler N. Rexel, the teacher of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich A. Nikolai, the teacher Falcone, the sculptor J.-B. Lemoine, to whom the student sent a small model of the monument.

Falcone's student Marie-Anne Collot sculpted the head of the Bronze Horseman. The sculptor himself undertook this work three times, but each time Catherine II advised to remake the model. A scandal was brewing, but Marie herself offered her sketch, which was accepted by the Empress. For her work, the girl was accepted as a member Russian Academy arts, Catherine II appointed her a lifetime pension of 10,000 livres.

According to the sculptor's idea, the base of the monument is a natural rock in the form of a wave. The waveform serves as a reminder that it was Peter I who brought Russia to the sea. The Academy of Arts began searching for the monolithic stone when the model of the monument was not even ready. A stone was needed, the height of which would be 11.2 meters.

Initially, Falcone did not even dream of a monolith, intending to create a pedestal from several parts. But the granite monolith was nevertheless found in the Lakhta region, twelve versts from St. Petersburg. At the beginning of September 1768, the peasant Semyon Grigorievich Vishnyakov informed the Office of the Building about the find. To test the suitability of the stone, de Lascaris went to him together with Vishnyakov, who discovered a huge rock that had sunk deep into the ground. From its crevice, almost half a meter wide, filled with earth, five birches grew up to seven meters high. According to local legend, lightning once hit the rock. Among the locals, she was nicknamed "Thunder-Stone". For the find, the Office of the Building awarded Vishnyakova a 100 prize of 100 rubles.

Upon his return to St. Petersburg, de Laskari prepared a rough plan for transporting the stone to the city. He also owns the idea of ​​​​creating a pedestal from a single stone, which was confirmed by Falcone himself:

"I thought that this pedestal would be constructed from well-fitted parts, and the models of all the profiles I made remained long enough in my workshop to testify that the monolithic stone was far from my desires. But I was offered it, I admired it, and I said: bring it, the pedestal will be stronger" [Cit. according to: 2, p. 463].

The initial weight of the monolith is about 2,000 tons. Catherine II announced a reward of 7,000 rubles to whoever comes up with the most effective way to deliver the rock to Senate Square. Of the many projects, the method proposed by the same de Laskari was chosen. True, there were rumors among the people that he bought the idea from some Russian merchant. But Falcone wrote to Catherine II:

"G. Laskari alone invented the means and invented a machine for transferring the rock, which should serve as the foot of the statue, he led alone, without slightest participation anyone but him" [Quoted in: 2, p. 464].

Work to prepare the rock for relocation began on September 26, 1768. Barracks for 400 workers were built next to it, and then a clearing 40 meters wide was cut through to the shore of the Gulf of Finland. Next, they dug up a rock that went five meters deep into the earth. The part that had been broken off by a lightning strike was separated from it, which was divided into two more parts. The rock was freed from unnecessary layers, it immediately became lighter by 600 tons.

On March 12, 1769, the "thunder-stone" was hoisted onto a wooden platform with levers. Further work to strengthen the soil was carried out in the summer of 1769. With the onset of winter, when the paved road froze one and a half meters, the rock was lifted with the help of huge jacks, the platform was replaced by a special machine designed specifically for transporting such an unusual cargo. The machine was a platform supported by 30 metal balls. These balls moved along grooved wooden rails, upholstered in copper.

Initially, the balls were made of cast iron. They laughed at de Laskari, not believing in the possibility of "moving a rock with the help of eggs." And they laughed not without reason, since the cast-iron balls really crushed under the weight of the load. But the bronze parts poured after that coped with the task.

The movement of the rock began on November 15th. The passage was winding. Cargo transportation continued both in frost and in heat. Hundreds of people worked. Right on the stone was a forge, where the necessary tools were prepared.

48 masons continued to give the "thunder-stone" the necessary shape. According to Falcone's calculations, its height should have decreased by 80 centimeters, and its length by 3 meters. A little later, he ordered to chip off another layer of 80 centimeters from it. It began to seem to many that the rock, moved with such difficulty in St. Petersburg, would turn into an ordinary pedestal of the usual size. Catherine II decided to moderate the ardor of the sculptor and forbade further reduction of the stone. As a result, its length was 13.5 meters, width 6.5 meters, height - 4. The work on hewing the "thunder-stone" was carried out under the guidance of stone master Giovanni Geronimo Rusca.

Many Petersburgers came to watch the action. Some of the observers collected fragments of stone and ordered from them knobs for a cane or cufflinks. On January 20, 1770, Catherine II also came here, in whose presence the rock was moved 25 meters. In honor of the extraordinary transport operation, the Empress ordered the minting of a medal on which is written "It is like boldness. Genvara, 20. 1770."

By land, the rock was dragged until March 27. By this time, a dam had been built on the shore of the bay, going into shallow water for almost 900 meters. Only there it was possible to reload the rock onto a special flat-bottomed vessel - pram, capable of carrying cargo weighing more than 2,500 tons. At the dam, the ship was sunk to the bottom to a depth of 3.5 meters, after which the stone was loaded. When trying to raise the ship, only its bow and stern rose from the water. The middle remained lying on the bottom under the weight of the "thunder-stone". The Pram had to be flooded again, again providing fertile ground for de Lascaris' opponents. Throughout the summer, attempts to lift the load continued, ending in success only after de Laskari found another successful engineering solution to the problem. He suggested placing two thick longitudinal beams under the stone, which distributed the weight of the rock evenly throughout the ship. It was only after that that the pram finally surfaced.

Pram moved along the Gulf of Finland with the help of a force of 300 rowers. He sailed along the Malaya Neva between Vasilievsky and St. Petersburg Islands, then entered the Bolshaya Neva. On September 22, on the anniversary of the coronation of Catherine II, the pram was opposite the Winter Palace. The next day, September 23, 1770, the rock arrived at Senate Square. On October 11, the "thunder-stone" was moved 43 meters overland, turning into a pedestal for the monument to Peter I. In the summer of 1768, a foundation of 76 piles was built here.

The poet Vasily Rubin in the same year wrote:

For a long time, no one wanted to take on the casting of the statue. Foreign craftsmen demanded too much a large amount, and local craftsmen were frightened by its size and complexity of work. According to the calculations of the sculptor, in order to maintain the balance of the monument, the front walls of the monument had to be made very thin - no more than a centimeter. Even B. Ersman, a specially invited foundry worker from France, refused such work. He called Falcone crazy and said that there is no such example of casting in the world, that it will not succeed.

Catherine II recommended Falcone to start casting himself. In the end, the sculptor studied the relevant literature and accepted the proposal of the empress. As an assistant to himself, he took cannon master Yemelyan Khailov. Together with him, Falcone selected the alloy, made samples. For three years, the sculptor mastered casting to perfection. They began to cast the "Bronze Horseman" in 1774.

Before that, in March 1773, de Lascaris resigned. Falcone was very disappointed with the dismissal of de Laskari and asked Catherine II to return the talented engineer to her team. But the empress was so turned against him that the intercession of the sculptor was useless. The architect Yu. M. Felten and assessor K. Krok were appointed to replace de Laskari.

The technology was very complex. The thickness of the front walls must necessarily be less than the thickness of the rear. At the same time, the back part became heavier, which gave stability to the statue, based on only three points of support.

One filling of the statue was not enough. During the first, a pipe burst, through which red-hot bronze entered the mold. The upper part of the sculpture was damaged. I had to cut it down and prepare for the second filling for another three years.

Saint-Petersburg Vedomosti wrote about these events:

"On August 24, 1775, Falcone poured a statue of Peter the Great on a horse here. The casting succeeded, except in places two feet by two at the top. This regrettable failure occurred through an incident that was not at all possible to foresee, and therefore prevent. The aforementioned incident seemed so terrible that they feared that the whole building would not go on fire, and, consequently, the whole thing would not fail. Khailov remained motionless and spent the molten metal in the mold, without losing his courage in the least at the danger to his life. Such courage Falcone, touched at the end of the case rushed to him and kissed him wholeheartedly and gave him money from himself.

The second casting was made on July 4, 1777. The subsequent finishing of the moment continued for another year. In about these events, on one of the folds of the cloak of Peter I, the sculptor left the inscription "Sculpted and cast by Etienne Falcone, a Parisian of 1778."

The failure to cast the statue and subsequent delays in its correction spoiled the relationship between the empress and the sculptor. Falcone several times promised Catherine to complete the work in the near future, but constantly broke his promises. Watchmaker A. Sandoz was invited to help the Frenchman, who then restored the clock in the bell tower after the fire Peter and Paul Cathedral. Sandonts carefully chiselled the surface of the monument, in fact doing the work of a sculptor.

It was not possible to restore the location of the Empress Falcone. Staying in St. Petersburg weighed on him more and more. At the beginning of September 1778, he destroyed the small model of the monument and left the city together with Marie-Anne Collot. Subsequently, he did not create any more sculptures.

Under Felten's guidance, the pedestal was given its final shape. The installation of the "Bronze Horseman" on the pedestal was led by the architect F. G. Gordeev. After that, the horseman's head was attached to the sculpture, and a snake made by Gordeev was placed under the horse's legs.

By order of Catherine II, the pedestal is inscribed: "Catherine II to Peter I". Thus, the empress stressed her commitment to Peter's reforms.

The grand opening of the monument to Peter I took place on August 7, 1782 (according to the old style). The sculpture was closed from the eyes of observers by a linen fence depicting mountain landscapes. It was raining in the morning, but it did not prevent a significant number of people from gathering on Senate Square. By noon the clouds had cleared. Guards entered the square. The military parade was led by Prince A. M. Golitsyn. At four o'clock, Empress Catherine II herself arrived on a boat. She went up to the balcony of the Senate building in a crown and purple and gave the signal for the opening of the monument. The fence fell, to the drumming of the regiments moved along the Neva embankment.

On the occasion of the opening of the monument, the Empress issued a manifesto on the forgiveness of all those sentenced to death and corporal punishment, the termination of all criminal cases that had lasted more than 10 years, and the release of all those held in custody for more than 10 years for public and private debts. The tax farmer I. I. Golikov was then released from the debt prison, who made a vow to collect materials for the history of Peter the Great. So, after many years of searching, the 30-volume work "The Acts of Peter the Great" appeared.

To commemorate the opening of the monument, a silver medal with his image was issued. Three copies of this medal were made of gold. Catherine II sent one gold and one silver medal to Falcone, who received them from the hands of Prince D. A. Golitsyn in 1783.

Immediately after the appearance of the "Bronze Horseman" on the Senate Square, the square was named Petrovskaya. That is what it was called in official documents. But in words, the townspeople often continued to call the square in the old way - the Senate.

Many Petersburgers immediately accepted the monument to Peter I very positively. Prince Trubetskoy wrote to his daughter:

"The monument to Peter the Great made a great decoration for the city, and this is the third time I've been going around it and I still can't get enough of it. according to: 1, p. 36].

A. S. Pushkin called the sculpture "The Bronze Horseman" in his poem of the same name. Meanwhile, in fact, it is made of bronze. But the expression "The Bronze Horseman" became so popular that it became almost official. And the monument to Peter I itself has become one of the symbols of St. Petersburg.

The weight of the "Bronze Horseman" is 8 tons, the height is more than 5 meters.

The monument to Peter I was the site of official ceremonies associated with the anniversary of the city and its founder. On May 16, 1803, next to it, on Senate Square, a solemn ceremony was held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of St. Petersburg. A 107-year-old elder who remembered the emperor came to the monument. 20 soldiers marched past the bronze Peter. A special military post for soldiers on duty was established at the monument. He remained on the Senate Square until the time he was in the naval department. With the transfer of the post in 1866 to the city department, it was abolished.

A fence was erected around the monument. A little later, four candelabra were placed in the corners. Two of them in 1874, at the direction of the City Duma, were moved to Kazanskaya Square.

On May 30, 1872, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Peter I was solemnly celebrated at the Bronze Horseman. By decree of Alexander II, festivities were held throughout Russia. In St. Petersburg, the boat of Peter I was brought to the monument, a solemn prayer service and a military parade were held. On this occasion, benches for spectators were installed on Senate Square. There weren't enough places, the curious people used the windows of the Senate building. People even climbed onto the roof.

The first restoration of the monument was carried out in 1909. The commission created for this purpose drew up a protocol, according to which "when opening a large closed hole in the horse's croup, it turned out that in the hind legs there is a solid forged frame, carefully soldered, as a result of which water did not penetrate into it and remained in the horse's belly"[Cit. according to: 1, p. 48]. 125 buckets of water were pumped out of the horse's belly.

During the blockade of Leningrad, the "Bronze Horseman" was covered with bags of earth and sand, sheathed with logs and boards.

During the restoration of the Bronze Horseman in 1976, the sculpture was studied using gamma rays. For this, the space around the monument was fenced off with sandbags and concrete blocks. The cobalt gun was controlled from a nearby bus. Thanks to this study, it turned out that the frame of the monument can serve for many more years. A capsule was placed inside the figure with a note about the restoration and about its participants, a newspaper dated September 3, 1976.

Before the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the monument was once again restored. The sculpture was cleaned of patina, a low fence was installed around the monument.

IN Soviet time a tradition has taken root, according to which the newlyweds lay flowers at the foot of the "Bronze Horseman" - the founder of St. Petersburg. Sometimes it is observed in our time.

Etienne-Maurice Falcone conceived "The Bronze Horseman" without a fence. But it was nevertheless created, it has not survived to this day. "Thanks" to the vandals who leave their autographs on the thunder-stone and the sculpture itself, the idea of ​​restoring the fence may soon be realized.

The initiative to create a monument to Peter I belongs to Catherine II. It was on her orders that Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Golitsyn turned to the professors of the Paris Academy of Painting and Sculpture Diderot and Voltaire, whose opinion Catherine II fully trusted. Notable masters Etienne-Maurice Falconet, who at that time worked as the chief sculptor at a porcelain factory, was recommended for this work. “There is an abyss of fine taste, intelligence and delicacy in him, and at the same time he is uncouth, stern, does not believe in anything. .. He does not know self-interest,” Diderot wrote about Falcon.

Etienne-Maurice Falcone always dreamed of monumental art and, having received an offer to create an equestrian statue of a colossal size, he agreed without hesitation. On September 6, 1766, he signed a contract in which the remuneration for the work was determined in the amount of 200 thousand livres, which was a fairly modest amount - other masters asked for much more. The 50-year-old master came to Russia with 17-year-old assistant Marie-Anne Collot.

Opinions about the appearance of the future sculpture were very different. Thus, the President who led the creation of the monument Imperial Academy Arts Ivan Ivanovich Belskoy presented a sculpture of Peter I, who stood in full height with a wand in hand. Catherine II saw the emperor sitting on a horse with a rod or scepter, and there were other suggestions. So, Diderot conceived a monument in the form of a fountain with allegorical figures, and the State Councilor Shtelin sent Belsky detailed description of his project, according to which Peter I was to appear surrounded by allegorical statues of Prudence and Diligence, Justice and Victory, which prop up the vices of Ignorance and Sloth, Deception and Envy. Falcone rejected the traditional image of the victorious monarch and refused to depict allegories. “My monument will be simple. There will be no Barbarism, no Love of the peoples, no personification of the People ... I will limit myself only to the statue of this hero, whom I do not interpret as either a great commander or 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,” he wrote to Diderot.

Work on the monument to Peter I - The Bronze Horseman

Falcone created a model of sculpture on the territory of the former temporary Winter Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna from 1768 to 1770. From the imperial stables, two horses of the Oryol breed Kapriz and Brilliant were taken. Falcone made sketches, watching as a guards officer took off on a horse to the platform and put it on its hind legs. The model of the head of Peter I was remade by Falcone several times, but did not get the approval of Catherine II, and as a result, the head of the Bronze Horseman was successfully sculpted by Marie-Anne Collot. The face of Peter I turned out to be courageous and strong-willed, with wide-open eyes and illuminated by deep thought. For this work, the girl was accepted as a member of the Russian Academy of Arts and Catherine II assigned her a lifelong pension of 10,000 livres. The snake under the horse's feet was made by the Russian sculptor Fyodor Gordeev.

A plaster model of the Bronze Horseman was made by 1778 and opinions about the work were mixed. If Diderot was satisfied, Catherine II did not like the arbitrarily chosen appearance of the monument.

Casting the Bronze Horseman

The sculpture was conceived on a colossal scale and the casters did not undertake this hard work. Foreign craftsmen demanded a lot of money for casting, and some frankly said that the casting would not succeed. Finally, a caster, a cannon maker Yemelyan Khailov, was found, who took up the casting of the Bronze Horseman. Together with Falcone, they selected the composition of the alloy and made samples. The difficulty was that the sculpture had three points of support and therefore the thickness of the walls of the front of the statue had to be small - no more than one centimeter.

During the first casting, the pipe through which the bronze was poured burst. In desperation, Falcone ran out of the workshop, but master Khailov did not lose his head, took off his coat and soaked it with water, smeared it with clay and applied it as a patch to the pipe. Risking his life, he prevented the fire, although he himself received burns to his hands and partially damaged his eyesight. The upper part of the Bronze Horseman was damaged anyway, it had to be cut down. Preparations for a new casting took another three years, but this time it was successful and in honor of the successful completion of the work, the sculptor left the inscription in one of the folds of the cloak of Peter I: “Etienne Falcone, a Parisian of 1788, sculpted and cast”.

Installation of the Bronze Horseman

Falcone wanted to erect a monument on a plinth in the form of a wave, carved from a natural piece of rock. It was very difficult to find the right block with a height of 11.2 meters, and therefore an appeal was published in the St. Petersburg News newspaper to individuals who wanted to find a suitable piece of rock. And soon the peasant Semyon Vishnyakov responded, who had long noticed a suitable block near the village of Lakhta and informed the head of the prospecting work about this.

The stone, weighing about 1600 tons and called the Thunder-stone, was delivered first on a platform to the coast of the Gulf of Finland, then by water to the Senate Square. Thousands of people took part in the extraction and transportation of the stone. The stone was installed on a platform that moved along two parallel chutes, in which 30 balls made of copper alloy were placed. This operation was carried out in winter from November 15, 1769, when the ground was icy and on March 27, 1770 the stone was delivered to the coast of the Gulf of Finland. In the fall, the block was loaded onto a ship specially built by the master Grigory Korchebnikov, and on September 25, 1770, crowds of people met the Thunder-stone on the banks of the Neva near Senate Square.

In 1778, Falcone's relationship with Catherine II finally deteriorated and, together with Marie-Anne Collot, he was forced to leave for Paris.

The installation of the Bronze Horseman was led by Fyodor Gordeev, and on August 7, 1782, the grand opening of the monument took place, but its creator was never invited to this event. The military parade at the celebration was led by Prince Alexander Golitsyn, and Catherine II arrived along the Neva in a boat and climbed onto the balcony of the Senate building. The empress came out wearing a crown and purple and gave a sign to open the monument. To the sound of drumming, the linen fence from the monument fell and regiments of guards marched along the Neva embankment.

Monument Bronze Horseman

Falcone depicted the figure of Peter I in dynamics, on a rearing horse, and thereby wanted to show not a commander and winner, but, first of all, a creator and legislator. We see the emperor in simple clothes, and instead of a rich saddle - an animal skin. Only the wreath of laurel crowning the head and the sword at the belt tell us about the winner and the commander. The location of the monument on the top of the rock indicates the difficulties Peter overcame, and the snake is a symbol of evil forces. The monument is unique in that it has only three points of support. On the pedestal there is an inscription "TO PETER the first EKATERINA second summer 1782", and on the other side the same text is indicated in Latin. The weight of the Bronze Horseman is eight tons, and the height is five meters.

Bronze Horseman - title

The name of the Bronze Horseman was later given to the monument thanks to the poem of the same name by A.S. Pushkin, although in fact the monument is made of bronze.

Legends and Myths about the Bronze Horseman

• There is a legend that Peter I, being in a cheerful mood, decided to jump over the Neva on his beloved horse Lisette. He exclaimed: "All God's and mine" and jumped over the river. The second time he shouted the same words and was also on the other side. And for the third time he decided to jump over the Neva, but he made a reservation and said: “All mine and God’s” and was immediately punished - he turned to stone on Senate Square, in the place where the Bronze Horseman now stands
• They say that Peter I, who fell ill, was lying in a fever and fancied that the Swedes were advancing. He jumped on a horse and wanted to rush to the Neva against the enemy, but then a snake crawled out and wrapped around the horse's legs and stopped him, did not allow Peter I to jump into the water and die. So the Bronze Horseman stands in this place - a monument How the snake saved Peter I
• There are several myths and legends in which Peter I prophesies: "As long as I am in place, my city has nothing to fear." And indeed, the Bronze Horseman remained in his place during Patriotic War 1812 and during the Great Patriotic War. During the siege of Leningrad, it was sheathed with logs and boards, and bags of sand and earth were placed around it.
• Peter I points towards Sweden with his hand, and in the center of Stockholm there is a monument to Charles XII, Peter's opponent in the Northern War, whose left hand is directed towards Russia

Interesting facts about the Bronze Horseman monument

• The transportation of the stone-pedestal was accompanied by difficulties and unforeseen circumstances, and often there were emergency situations. All of Europe followed that operation, and in honor of the delivery of the Thunder Stone to Senate Square, a commemorative medal was issued with the inscription “It is like boldness. Genvarya, 20, 1770"
• Falcone conceived a monument without a fence, although the fence was nevertheless installed, but has not survived to this day. Now there are people who leave inscriptions on the monument and spoil the pedestal and the Bronze Horseman. It is possible that soon a fence will be installed around the Bronze Horseman
• In 1909 and 1976, the restoration of the Bronze Horseman was carried out. A recent gamma-ray survey showed that the frame of the sculpture is in good condition. Inside the monument was laid a capsule with a note on the restoration and a newspaper dated September 3, 1976

The Bronze Horseman in St. Petersburg - main symbol northern capital Newlyweds and numerous tourists come to Senate Square to admire one of the most famous sights of the city.

Plot

In August 1782, a bronze horse with a bronze emperor in the saddle reared up over the cold bank of the Neva. Mother Catherine, who wanted to unobtrusively indicate her greatness, ordered to indicate on the pedestal: "To Peter the Great - Catherine the Second." Read from student to teacher.

Catherine II timed the opening of the Bronze Horseman to coincide with two anniversaries at once

Clothing on Petra is simple and light. Instead of a rich saddle, there is a skin, which, according to the idea, symbolizes a wild nation, civilized by the sovereign. For the pedestal - a huge rock in the shape of a wave, which, on the one hand, spoke of difficulties, on the other, of naval victories. The snake under the feet of the rearing horse depicted "hostile forces." The figure of Peter should, as planned, express a combination of thought and strength, the unity of movement and rest.

Catherine expected to see Peter with a rod or scepter in his hand, riding a horse like a Roman emperor, not a legionnaire. Falcone, on the other hand, conceived something completely different: “My king does not hold any rod, he stretches out his beneficent right hand over the country he circles. He climbs to the top of the rock that serves as his pedestal."

The idea of ​​a monument to Peter was born in Catherine's head under the influence of her friend, the philosopher Denis Diderot. He also advised Etienne Falcone: “He has an abyss of fine taste, intelligence and delicacy, and at the same time he is uncouth, harsh, does not believe in anything ... He does not know self-interest.”

To create a plaster model, Falcone posed for a guards officer who reared a horse. This went on for several hours a day. Horses for work were taken from the imperial stables: horses Brilliant and Caprice.

Plaster sketch of the head of the Bronze Horseman

The plaster model was molded by the whole world: the horse and rider were Etienne Falcone himself, the head was his student Marie Ann Collot, the snake was the Russian master Fyodor Gordeev. When the model was finished and approved, the question arose about the casting. Falcone had never done anything like this before, so he insisted that experts be called from France. They called. The French caster Benoit Ersman and three apprentices came to St. Petersburg not only with their own tools, but even with their own sand and clay - you never know, all of a sudden in wild Russia there is no right raw material. But this did not help him fulfill the order.

The situation was tense, deadlines were running out, Falcone was nervous, Catherine was unhappy. Found Russian daredevils. The casting of the monument lasted almost 10 years. Falcone himself did not see the completion of the work - in 1778 he had to leave for his homeland. The sculptor was not invited to the grand opening.

Context

The pedestal is a work no less powerful, however, already made by nature. Nicknamed the thunder-stone, it was found near the village of Konnaya Lakhta (now it is a district of St. Petersburg). The pit, formed after the extraction of rock from the ground, became a pond, which still exists today.

Petrovsky pond, which arose after the removal of the thunder stone

The required sample - weighing 2 thousand tons, 13 m long, 8 m high and 6 m wide - was found by the state peasant Semyon Vishnyakov, who supplied building stone to St. Petersburg. According to legend, the rock broke away from a granite rock after a lightning strike, hence the name "thunder-stone".

The most difficult thing was to deliver the stone to the Senate Square - the future pedestal had to overcome almost 8 km. The operation was carried out throughout the winter of 1769/1770.

The stone was brought to the coast of the Gulf of Finland, where a special pier was built for its loading. A special ship, built according to unique drawings, was sunk and planted on pre-driven piles, after which the stone was moved from the shore to the ship. The same operation was repeated in reverse order on Senate Square. The whole of St. Petersburg, from young to old, watched the transportation. While the thunderstone was being transported, it was hewn, giving it a "wild" look.

The action of the machine for transporting the thunder-stone. Engraving according to the drawings of Yuri Felten. 1770

Soon after the installation, urban legends and horror stories began to multiply around the monument.

Pedestal of the Bronze Horseman - Thunder Stone

According to one of them, while the Bronze Horseman stands in his place, the city has nothing to fear. This came from a dream of a certain major during the Patriotic War of 1812. The warriors passed the nightmare to Alexander I, who had just ordered the removal of the monument to the Vologda province - to save it from the approaching French. But after such prophecies, of course, the order was cancelled.

The ghost of the Bronze Horseman was allegedly seen by Paul I during one of the evening walks. Moreover, this happened even before the installation of the monument. The future emperor himself said that on the Senate Square he saw a ghost with the face of Peter, who announced that they would soon meet again in the same place. After some time, the monument was unveiled.

For Etienne Falcone, the monument to Peter I has become the main business of life. Before him, he worked mainly on orders from Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV. By the way, she also contributed to the appointment of the sculptor as director of the Sevres Porcelain Manufactory. This was the decade of sculpting figurines depicting allegories and mythological characters.

Etienne Falcone

“Only nature, alive, spiritualized, passionate, should be embodied by the sculptor in marble, bronze or stone,” these words were Falcone's motto. French aristocrats loved him for his ability to combine baroque theatricality with antique austerity. And Diderot wrote that he values ​​​​in the work of Falcone, above all, fidelity to nature.

After a rather tense period of work under the supervision of Catherine II, Falcone was no longer invited to Russia. For the last 10 years of his life, paralyzed, he could not work and create.

Monument Bronze Horseman (Russia) - description, history, location. Exact address, phone number, website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.

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The Bronze Horseman on Senate Square is not the only monument to Peter the Great in St. Petersburg, but, undoubtedly, the most famous, which has long become a symbol of the Northern capital. Already at the end of the 18th century, many urban legends and anecdotes were associated with him, and in the 19th century, poets of that time liked to mention the Bronze Horseman in their works.

Contrary to its name, the monument is not copper, but bronze. A popular name He received the monument to Peter thanks to Pushkin's poem of the same name.

According to the idea of ​​Catherine II, who ordered the sculpture, and her consultants, Voltaire and Diderot, Peter was to appear in the solemn guise of a victorious Roman emperor with a rod and a scepter in his hands. However, the French sculptor Etienne Falcone, invited to work on the monument, dared to argue with the crowned heads and showed the world another Peter, without belittling either his military talents or his title as a wise ruler.

After 16 years of work, on August 7, 1782, according to the old style, an equestrian statue of the young king was solemnly installed on a huge pedestal. The monument was the first to be erected in the city square. Peter confidently sits on a rearing horse, covered with a bearskin. The animal personifies the rebellious, ignorant people who submitted to the emperor. Crushed by the horse's hooves huge snake, symbolizing the opponents of reforms, and also serving as an additional support for the structure. The figure of the king himself expresses strength, aspiration and steadfastness. On a granite block, by order of Catherine the Great, a dedication was carved in two languages, Russian and Latin: "To Peter I Catherine II of the summer of 1782."

On the granite block on which the monument is erected, by order of Catherine the Great, a dedication is carved in two languages, Russian and Latin: “To Peter I Catherine II of the summer of 1782”.

An interesting story is connected with the stone on which the monument was erected. It was found by a peasant Semyon Vishnyakov at a distance of about 9 km from the square. The Thunder Stone was delivered to the place of installation of the monument with the help of a device that was truly unique for that time, working on the principle of a bearing. Initially, the block weighed about 1600 tons. Then, according to the Falcone project, it was hewn and given the shape of a wave, embodying the power of Russia as a maritime power.

The history of the creation of the monument

And many more stories and tales still go around the gesture of the emperor. Peter's right hand is commandingly stretched forward, with his left he firmly holds the reins. Some say that the hand points down to the place where "the city will be laid." Others believe that Peter is looking towards Sweden - the country with which he fought for so long and stubbornly. In the 19th century, one of the most interesting versions was born. She claims that Peter's right hand is actually turned towards the Neva. With his left elbow, he points pointing towards the Senate, which in the 19th century served as the Supreme Court. The interpretation of the gesture is as follows: it is better to drown yourself in the Neva than to sue in the Senate. It was a very corrupt institution in those days.

Address: Senatskaya Square, Nevsky Prospekt, Admiralteyskaya metro station.