Alexander Column ( Alexandria pillar)
It's not only worldwide famous symbol Petersburg, but the highest in the world (its total height is 47.5 m) free-standing triumphal column. That is, a column carved from a monolithic piece of granite is not fixed in any way - it is held on a pedestal exclusively under own weight, which is over 600 tons.
The foundation of the monument was built from stone granite blocks half a meter thick. It was brought out to the horizon of the square with a plank masonry. In its center was laid a bronze box with coins minted in honor of the victory of 1812.
The Alexander Column was designed by the architect Henri Louis Auguste Ricard de Montferrand, a native of France, who was called August Augustovich in Russia. Created at the turn of the epochs, Montferrand determined the paths further development Russian architecture - from classicism to eclecticism.
The finished column was installed on the square in front of the Winter Palace in 1832 by two thousand soldiers. In this case, manual labor and ropes were used.
After the “Pillar of Alexandria” stood on a pedestal, a thunderous “Hurray!” swept across the square, and the sovereign, turning to the architect, said: “Montferrand, you have immortalized yourself.”
Over the next two years, the monument was being finalized.
The column was completed with an allegorical figure of an angel trampling a snake with a cross. His light figure, flowing folds of clothing, and the strict verticality of the cross emphasize the slenderness of the column. The author of the statue is sculptor Boris Ivanovich Orlovsky.
And here's what's interesting - a monument on Palace Square, originally dedicated to victory Russia over Napoleon's Patriotic War 1812, almost immediately began to be perceived as a monument to the foundation Russian state. This happened also thanks to the pedestal.
Alexander Column
The pedestal of the monument is decorated with bronze bas-reliefs depicting allegorical figures and military armor.
On three bas-reliefs there are allegories of Peace, Justice, Wisdom, Abundance and images of military armor. The armor is reminiscent of the military glory of the Russian people and the era of the Rurikids and the era of the Romanovs. Here is the shield of the prophetic Oleg, which he nailed to the gates of Tsargrad-Constantinople, the helmet of the hero ice battle, the right-believing Prince Alexander Nevsky, and the helmet of the conqueror of Siberia Yermak, the armor of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov.
The pedestal ends with bronze garlands supported by double-headed eagles.
The base of the column is designed in the form laurel wreath. After all, it is with a wreath that, according to tradition, the winners are crowned.
On the bas-relief facing the Winter Palace, two figures are symmetrically placed - a woman and an old man. They personify the rivers - the Vistula and the Neman. These two rivers were crossed by the Russian army during the pursuit of Napoleon.
On August 30, 1834, the grand opening of the Alexander Column took place on Palace Square in St. Petersburg. August 30 was not chosen by chance. Since the time of Peter I, this day has been celebrated as the Day of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky, the heavenly defender of St. Petersburg. On this day, Peter I concluded "eternal peace with Sweden", on this day the relics of Alexander Nevsky were transferred from Vladimir to St. Petersburg. That is why the angel crowning the Alexander Column has always been perceived primarily as a protector.
The memory of this event of the poet Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky has been preserved: “No pen can describe the greatness of that moment when, by three cannon shots, suddenly from all the streets, as if from the ground, slender bulks, with drum thunder, to the sounds of the Paris March, the columns of the Russian army went ... For two hours this splendor lasted, the only spectacle in the world. In the evening, for a long time, noisy crowds roamed the streets of the illuminated city, finally, the lighting went out, the streets were empty, a majestic colossus with his sentry remained in the deserted square.
By the way, even then a legend arose that this sentry - the angel crowning the column - has a portrait resemblance to Emperor Alexander I. And it did not arise by chance. The sculptor Orlovsky had to remake the sculpture of the angel several times before Nicholas I liked it. According to Orlovsky, the emperor wanted the angel's face to resemble Alexander I, and the snake's head, trampled by the angel's cross, must certainly resemble the face of Napoleon.
Imitating her grandmother, Catherine II, who inscribed on a pedestal Bronze Horseman“To Peter I - Catherine II”, and to the father, who wrote on the monument of Peter I at the Mikhailovsky Castle “Great-grandfather - great-grandson”, Nikolai Pavlovich in official papers called the new monument “Pillar of Nicholas I - to Alexander I”. By the way, it was the monument to Peter I at the Mikhailovsky Castle, made back in the time of Elizabeth Petrovna, that was once planned to be installed in the center of Palace Square.
According to legend, after the opening of the column, the Petersburgers were very afraid that it would fall and tried not to approach it. And, they say, then the architect Montferrand made it a rule to walk every morning with his beloved dog right under the pillar, which he did almost until his death.
But still the townspeople fell in love with the monument. And, of course, around the pillar, as one of the symbols of the city, its own mythology began to take shape. And, of course, the monument began to be perceived as a natural dominant of the main square of the city and a symbol of the entire Russian Empire.
And the angel crowning the Alexander Column was primarily a protector and guardian for the townspeople. The angel seemed to guard and bless the city and its inhabitants.
But it was the angel, the guardian angel, that caused the more than amazing events that unfolded around the Alexander Column. This little-known pages. So, only chance saved the monument in 1917. Here, on Palace Square, they wanted to establish the main churchyard of the country. The column, as a monument to tsarism, was to be knocked down, and a number of memorial graves were to be arranged along the Zimny.
But it turned out that it was not so easy to collapse a 600-ton column. From further projects of turning the main square of the city and the empire into a cemetery, the government moved to Moscow in the spring of 1918 saved. The idea of creating a graveyard in the center of the capital, which did not take place in Petrograd, was implemented on the Red Square of the capital, near the Kremlin wall.
But the most incredible events unfolded in 1924 after the death of Lenin.
On November 11, 1924, the Leningrad authorities decide “On the reconstruction of the so-called Alexander Column, built by the architect Montferrand and standing in the middle of Uritsky Square, and erecting on it, instead of the now standing figure of an angel with a cross, the statue of the Great Leader of the Proletariat Comrade. Lenin ... ". Uritsky Square is the renamed Palace Square. Only People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky managed to convincingly prove to the city authorities the absurdity of the idea of placing Lenin on the Alexander Column.
The angel remained standing on the largest in the world (among such monuments) "Pillar of Alexandria", as A.S. called the column. Pushkin. Last time he was assassinated in 1952. There was a series of mass Stalinist renaming: Stalinsky district appeared in the city, Moskovsky Prospekt became Stalinsky. On this wave, the idea arose to install a bust of Joseph Stalin in our column. But - they didn't.
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From the book 200 years of St. Petersburg. Historical outline author Avseenko Vasily GrigorievichIV. Buildings of the time of Nicholas I. - Isakievsky Cathedral. - The fire and the renewal of the Winter Palace. - Alexander Column. - Equestrian groups on the Anichkov bridge. - Nikolaevsky bridge. During the thirty-year reign of Emperor Nicholas I, Petersburg was enriched by many
He also developed a project for the improvement of the entire territory adjacent to it. The architect planned to decorate the center of Palace Square with a large obelisk. This project was also not implemented.
Approximately in the same years, during the reign of Alexander I, the idea arose to erect a monument in St. Petersburg in honor of Russia's victory over Napoleon. The Senate proposed to create a monument that would glorify the Russian emperor, who led the country at the same time. From the Senate resolution:
"Establish in the throne city a monument with the inscription: Alexander the Blessed, Emperor of All Russia, Great Powers, Restorer from grateful Russia" [Cit. according to: 1, p. 150].
Alexander I did not support this idea:
"Expressing my complete gratitude, I urge the state estates to leave it without any execution. May a monument be erected to me in my feelings for you! May my people bless me in their hearts, as I bless them in my heart! May Russia prosper, and may it be necessary me and God's blessing upon her" [Ibid.].
The project of the monument was accepted only under the next tsar, Nicholas I. In 1829, the work on its creation was entrusted to Auguste Montferrand. It is interesting that by this time Montferrand had already created a project for an obelisk monument dedicated to those killed in the battle of Leipzig. It is possible that Nicholas I took this fact into account, as well as the fact that the Frenchman already had experience working with granite monoliths during the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral. The fact that the idea of the monument belongs to the emperor is proved by the words of Montferrand:
"The main conditions for the construction of the monument were explained to me. The monument should be a granite obelisk from one piece with a total height of 111 feet from the foot" [Cit. according to: 4, p. 112].
Initially, Montferrand conceived the monument in the form of an obelisk 35 meters high. He created several versions that differed only in the design of the pedestal. In one of the options, it was proposed to decorate it with bas-reliefs of Fyodor Tolstoy on the theme of the war of 1812 and depict Alexander I on the front side in the form of a victorious victor riding a quadriga. In the second case, the architect proposed placing the figures of Glory and Abundance on the pedestal. Another proposal was interesting, in which the figures of elephants supported the obelisk. In 1829, Montferrand created another version of the monument - in the form of a triumphal column crowned with a cross. As a result, the latter option was adopted as a basis. This decision had a beneficial effect on the overall composition of Palace Square. It was this kind of monument that was able to connect the facades of the Winter Palace and the General Staff Building, an important motif of which is precisely the colonnades. Montferrand wrote:
“The column of Trajan appeared before me as a prototype of the most beautiful thing that a person of this kind is capable of creating. I had to try to get as close as possible to this majestic model of antiquity, as was done in Rome for the Antonin column, in Paris for the Napoleon column " [Cit. according to: 3, p. 231].
Preparation of a huge monolith and its delivery to St. Petersburg is a great challenge even now. And in the first half of the 19th century, this seemed to many to be completely impossible. A member of the Commission on the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral, engineer-general Count K.I. Opperman believed that " the granite rock, from which the architect Montferrand proposes to break out a column for the obelisk, contains various heterogeneous parts with crumbly veins, which is why different columns, broken out from the same rock for St. who could not accept them; one, already in terms of loading and unloading, broke when rolling from the local pier to a shed for clean finishing, and the column intended for the obelisk is five fathoms longer and almost twice as thick as the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral, and therefore success in breaking out, in happy loading, unloading and transferring is much doubtful than similar enterprises for the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral"[Quoted in: 5, p. 162].
Montferrand had to prove his case. In the same year, 1829, he explained to the members of the Commission:
"My frequent trips to Finland for eleven years to review the breaking of 48 columns for St. Isaac's Cathedral assured me that if some columns were broken, then this was due to the greed of the people used for that, and why I dare to certify the success of this work, if the precaution will be taken to multiply the number of drills or holes, cut the mass from below along the entire thickness and, finally, firmly support it in order to separate it without shaking ...
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The means that I propose for raising the column are the same network that was used for the forty columns that have been successfully installed to this day during the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral. I will use the same machines and part of the scaffolding, which for two years will not be needed for the cathedral and will be dismantled in the coming winter.
The commission accepted the architect's explanations, and in early November of the same year the project was approved. On November 13, the plan of Palace Square with a proposed site for the Alexander Column was submitted for approval, approved by Nicholas I in early December. Montferrand assumed that with the advance manufacture of the foundation, pedestal and bronze decorations, the monument could be opened in 1831. The architect expected to spend 1,200,000 rubles for all the work.
According to one of the Petersburg legends, this column was supposed to be used specifically for the construction of the temple. But having received a monolith longer than necessary, it was decided to use it on Palace Square. In fact, this column was carved by special order for the monument.
The installation point of the column from the side looks like the exact center of the Palace Square. But in fact, it is located 100 meters from the Winter Palace and almost 140 meters from the arch of the General Staff building.
The contract for the construction of the foundation was given to the merchant Vasily Yakovlev. Until the end of 1829, the workers managed to dig a foundation pit. While strengthening the foundation for the Alexander Column, the workers stumbled upon piles, which had been used to strengthen the soil back in the 1760s. It turned out that Montferrand repeated after Rastrelli the decision on the place for the monument, hitting the same point. For three months, new six-meter pine piles were hammered here by peasants Grigory Kesarinov and Pavel Bykov. In total, 1,101 piles were needed. Granite blocks half a meter thick were placed on them. It was very cold when the foundation was laid. Montferrand added vodka to the cement mortar for better setting.
In the center of the foundation was placed a mortgage block of granite with dimensions of 52x52 centimeters. A bronze box with 105 coins minted in honor of the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812 was built into it. A platinum medal minted according to the Montferrand project with the image of the Alexander Column and the date "1830", as well as a mortgage plaque, were also placed there. For her, Montferrand offered the following text:
"This stone was laid in the summer of the Nativity of Christ in the 1830s, the reign of Emperor Nicholas the First in the 5th summer, during the construction of a monument of blessed memory to Emperor Alexander I. During the construction of the Commission, the highest approved meeting was: Actual Privy Councilor Lanskoy, engineer- General Count Opperman, Actual Privy Councilor Olenin, Lieutenant-General Engineer Carbonier. Senators: Count Kutaisov, Gladkov, Vasilchikov and Bezrodny. The building was managed by the architect Montferrand." [Cit. according to: 5, p. 169]
Olenin, in turn, proposed a similar text, which was adopted with minor adjustments. The inscription on the board engraved " St. Petersburg tradesman Vasily Danilovich Berilov". According to the architect Adamini, the foundation work was completed by the end of July 1830.
The granite block of the pedestal of 25,000 pounds was made from a block mined in the Letsaarma region. He was brought to St. Petersburg on November 4, 1831. It was supposed to be unloaded in two days, and then completely processed on the spot in four or five days. Before the installation of the pedestal in early November, Nicholas I allowed the second bronze mortgage plate to be placed at the base of the Alexander Column, while commanding " put, moreover, a newly knocked out medal for the storming of Warsaw". Then he approved the text of the second mortgage board, made by the bronze craftsman A. Guerin:
"In the summer of the Nativity of Christ 1831, the construction of a monument erected to Emperor Alexander by grateful Russia began on a granite foundation, laid on the 19th day of November 1830. In St. Petersburg, during the construction of this monument, Count Y. Litta presided. The meeting was: Prince P Volkonsky, A. Olenin, Count P. Kutaisov, I. Gladkov, L. Carbonier, A. Vasilchikov. The construction was carried out according to the design of the same architect Augustine de Montferand". [Cit. according to: 5, p. 170]
The second mortgage plaque and the medal for the capture of Warsaw were placed at the base of the Alexander Column on February 13, 1832 at 2 pm in the presence of all members of the Commission.
"For breaking, trimming and polishing this column, as well as for the construction of a pier and delivery to the building site, except for loading, unloading and transportation through water"The merchant of the 1st guild Arkhip Shikhin requested 420,000 rubles. On December 9, 1829, Samson Sukhanov offered to undertake the same work, requesting 300,000 rubles. The next day, the self-taught technician merchant Vasily Yakovlev announced the same price. When conducting new auctions, the price were reduced to 220,000 rubles, and after the re-bidding on March 19, 1830, Arkhip Shikhin undertook to fulfill the contract for 150,000. However, the order for the same price went to 20-year-old Yakovlev. He committed himself in case of failure with the first, " gratuitously beat off and deliver to St. Petersburg the second, third, and so on until the required stone takes its place on Palace Square".
The monolith was carved in 1830-1831, without a break for the winter. Montferrand personally went to the quarries on May 8 and September 7, 1831. " Granite was overturned at 7 minutes on September 19 at 6 pm in the presence of the chief architect sent there by the Commission for the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral ... a huge rock, shaking at its base, slowly and without noise fell on the bed prepared for it". [Quoted in: 5, p. 165]
It took half a year to trim the monolith. 250 people worked on this daily. The stone master Eugene Pascal was appointed the head of the work of Montferrand. In mid-March 1832, two-thirds of the column were ready, after which the number of participants in the process was increased to 275 people. On April 1, Vasily Yakovlev reported on the complete completion of the work.
In June, the transportation of the column began. At the same time, an accident occurred - the weight of the column could not withstand the bars along which it was supposed to roll onto the ship, and it almost collapsed into the water. The monolith was loaded by 600 soldiers, who made a march 36 miles long from a neighboring fortress in four hours. Before St. Petersburg, the flat boat "St. Nicholas" with a column was towed by two steamers. She arrived in the city on July 1, 1832. For the operation of transporting the column, the chairman of the Commission, Count Yu. P. Litta, received the Order of St. Vladimir.
On July 12, in the presence of Nicholas I and his wife, representatives of the imperial family, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and a large audience, the column was unloaded ashore. Spectators were located on the scaffolding for lifting the column and on the ships on the Neva. This operation was performed by 640 workers.
The date of raising the column to the pedestal (August 30 - the name day of Alexander I) was approved on March 2, 1832, as well as a new estimate for the construction of the monument for a total of 2,364,442 rubles, which almost doubled the original one.
Since the lifting of a 600-ton monolith was carried out for the first time in the world, Montferrand developed detailed instructions. Special scaffolding was built on Palace Square, which occupied it almost completely. For the ascent, 60 gates were used, arranged in two rows around the scaffolding. Each gate was set in motion by 29 people: " 16 soldiers at the levers, 8 in reserve, 4 sailors for pulling back and cleaning the rope as the column is raised, 1 non-commissioned officer ... To achieve the correct movement of the gate, so that the ropes are pulled as equivalent as possible, 10 foremen will be placed"[Quoted from: 5, p. 171]. The blocks were monitored by 120 people at the top of the scaffolding and 60 at the bottom "to look after the pulleys. 2 tenants with 30 carpenters will be placed in large scaffolding at different heights for the position of log supports, on which the column will lie, in case the lifting of it needed to be suspended. 40 workers will be placed near the column , on the right and left sides, for cleaning the skating rinks from under the sled and for hauling them back into place. 30 workers will be placed under the platform with ropes holding the gates. 6 masons will be used to add lime mortar between the column and the base. 15 carpenters and 1 foreman will be on standby in case of an unforeseen ... The doctor, who is at the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral, will be at the production site during the entire time the column is raised"[Ibid.].
It took only 40 minutes to raise the Alexander Column. 1,995 soldiers were employed in the operation of the column, and 2,090 together with commanders and guards.
More than 10,000 people watched the installation of the column, foreign guests specially came. On the platform, Montferrand placed 4,000 seats for spectators. On August 23, that is, a week before the event described, Nicholas I ordered to transfer " so that by the day of the raising of the columns for the monument to Emperor Alexander I, places were arranged at the top of the stage: 1st for the imperial family; 2nd for the Supreme Court; 3rd for the retinue of His Majesty; 4th for the diplomatic corps; 5th for State Council; 6th for the Senate; 7th for guard generals; 8th for cadets who will be dressed up from the corps; adding to the fact that on the day of the raising of the column, a guard from a company of guards grenadiers will also be placed at the top of the stage and that His Majesty wishes that, in addition to the guard and the persons for whom places will be arranged, no one from third parties will be allowed on the stage"[Quoted in: 4, pp. 122, 123].
minister imperial court Pyotr Mikhailovich Volkonsky expanded this list. He reported to the Chairman of the Commission for the Restructuring of St. Isaac's Cathedral, which was involved in the installation of the monument:
“I have the honor to notify Your Excellency that, in addition to those persons for whom places are arranged, the Sovereign Emperor, the Highest, allows to be on the platform when the Alexander Column is raised: 1st - foreign architects who deliberately came here for this occasion; 2nd - members of the Academy of Arts professors of architecture, 3rd - to academicians preparing for architectural art, and 4th - to artists in general, both ours and foreign" [Cit. according to: 4, p. 123].
"The streets leading to the Palace Square, the Admiralty and the Senate were completely crowded with the public, attracted by the novelty of such an extraordinary spectacle. The crowd soon grew to such an extent that horses, carriages and people mixed into one whole. The houses were filled with people to the very roofs. Not not a single window, not a single protrusion remained free, so great was the interest in the monument.The semicircular building of the General Staff, which on that day resembled the amphitheater of Ancient Rome, accommodated more than 10,000 people. Nicholas I and his family settled in a special pavilion.In another, envoys of Austria , England, France, ministers commissioners, constituting the foreign diplomatic corps.Then special places for the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Arts, university professors, for foreigners, persons close to the arts, who came from Italy, Germany to attend this ceremony. .." [op. according to: 4, p. 124, 125].
It took exactly two years for the final processing of the monolith (grinding and polishing), the design of its top, and the decoration of the pedestal.
At the top of the column, Montferrand originally planned to install a cross. In the process of working on the monument, he decided to complete the column with the figure of an angel, which, in his opinion, should have been created by the sculptor I. Leppe. However, at the insistence of Olenin, a competition was announced, in which Academicians S. I. Galberg and B. I. Orlovsky took part. The second one won the competition. On November 29, 1832, Nicholas I examined the model of an angel and commanded " to give a face to the statue of the late Emperor Alexander". At the end of March 1833, Montferrand proposed to complete the Alexander Column with not one, but two angels supporting the cross. Nicholas I at first agreed with him, but after learning " that many of the artists refute the idea of staging two angels", decided to gather artists and sculptors to discuss this issue. During the negotiations, Montferrand proposed placing three angels on the column at once, but the majority voted for one figure. Nicholas I took the position of the majority. The emperor decided to put the angel facing the Winter Palace.
The figure of an angel, according to Montferrand's plan, was to be gilded. Because of the haste with the opening of the Alexander Column, they decided to make the gilding in oil, which could be done not only quickly, but also cheaply. However, the low reliability of this method was pointed out by Olenin, who turned to the Minister of the Imperial Court, Volkonsky:
"... judging by the gilded statues in Peterhof, the effect of a gold-covered statue of an angel will be very mediocre and not very attractive, because gilding on oil always has the appearance of gold leaf, and moreover, it probably will not even stand up to our grandchildren, being exposed to our cruel climate under the impossibility of temporarily resuming the gilding due to the large costs of building scaffolding for this work each time" [Cit. according to: 5, p. 181].
As a result, Olenin's proposal was accepted not to gild the angel at all.
The pedestal of the Alexander Column is decorated with bas-reliefs made by artists Scotty, Solovyov, Brullo, Markov, Tverskoy, sculptors Svintsov and Leppe. On the bas-relief from the side of the General Staff Building there is a figure of Victory, which is entered in the history book memorable dates: "1812, 1813, 1814". From the side of the Winter Palace - two winged figures with the inscription: "Grateful Russia to Alexander I." On the other two sides, the bas-reliefs depict the figures of Justice, Wisdom, Mercy and Abundance. In the process of coordinating the decoration of the column, the emperor expressed a desire to replace antique military fittings on the bas-reliefs with old Russian ones.
To accommodate honored guests, Montferrand built a special tribune in front of the Winter Palace in the form of a three-span arch. It was decorated in such a way as to connect architecturally with the Winter Palace. This was also facilitated by Nicholas I, who ordered to tear off the purple cloth from the stairs and use fawn-colored fabric instead, in the color of the imperial residence at that time. For the construction of the podium with the peasant Stepan Samarin, a contract was signed on June 12, 1834, which was completed by the end of August. Decorative plaster details were made by the "stucco work of the master" Evstafiy and Poluekt Balina, Timofey Dylev, Ivan Pavlov, Alexander Ivanov.
Tribunes were built for the public in front of the Exercierhaus and on the side of Admiralteisky Boulevard. Since the facade of the amphitheater was larger than the facade of the exercierhaus, the roof was dismantled for the construction of log racks, and neighboring buildings were also demolished.
Before the opening of the Alexander Column, Montferrand tried to withdraw from the ceremony due to fatigue. But the emperor insisted on his presence, who wanted to see all the members of the Commission, including the chief architect with assistants, on the day of the opening of the monument.
At the solemn ceremony, the emperor addressed the architect in French: " Montferrand, your creation is worthy of its destiny, you erected a monument to yourself"[Quoted in: 4, p. 127].
"... The opening celebrations corresponded. Above the main gates of the Winter Palace, a magnificently decorated balcony was built with gatherings on both sides of the square ... Amphitheaters for spectators were made along all the buildings of Palace Square in several tiers. The people crowded on Admiralteisky Boulevard; all the windows around lying houses were littered with thirsty to enjoy this one spectacle ... "[op. according to: 1, p. 161, 162]
From the memoirs of the romantic poet Vasily Zhukovsky:
“And no pen can describe the greatness of that moment when, along three cannon shots, suddenly from all the streets, as if born from the earth, in slender bulks, with drum thunder, to the sounds of the Paris March, the columns of the Russian army went ...
A ceremonial march began: the Russian army passed by the Alexander Column; This magnificent, the only spectacle in the world lasted for two hours...
In the evening, noisy crowds roamed the streets of the illuminated city for a long time, finally the lighting went out, the streets were empty, and the majestic colossus alone with his sentry remained in the deserted square" [Cited in: 4, pp. 128, 129].
The impressions of a representative of the ordinary public have also been preserved. Memories of the opening of the Alexander Column were recorded by Maria Fedorovna Kamenskaya, daughter of Count Fyodor Tolstoy:
“Against the Hermitage, on the square, on the corner where the building of the State Archives currently stands, high bridges were then erected, on which places were assigned for officials of the Ministry of the Court, and therefore for the Academy of Arts. We had to get there early, because that after that no one was allowed into the square anymore. The prudent girls of the Academy, afraid of getting hungry, took with them baskets of breakfast and sat in the front row. The opening ceremony of the monument, as far as I remember, was nothing special and was very similar to ordinary May parades, with it was quite difficult to see what was happening near the column itself, because we were still sitting quite far from it. was Kokoshkin), who was especially zealous, hilariously cabrating on his big horse, rushing around the square and yelling at the top of his lungs.
So we looked, looked, got hungry, unpacked our boxes and began to destroy the provisions we had taken with us. The public, who were sitting on the sidewalks next to us, which stretched all the way to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, followed our good example, began to unfold papers and chew something. The zealous Chief of Police just noticed these disturbances during the parade, became furious, galloped to the footbridge and, forcing his horse to break and stand up, began to shout in a thunderous voice:
- Shameless, heartless people! How, on the day when the monument to the war of 1812 is erected, when all the grateful Russian hearts have gathered here to pray, you, you stone hearts, instead of remembering the holy soul of Alexander the Blessed, the liberator of Russia from the twelve tongues, and sending up to heaven the hot prayers for the health of the now prosperously reigning Emperor Nicholas I, you better not have invented anything, how to come here to eat! Down with everything from the bridges! To the church, to the Kazan Cathedral, and prostrate yourself before the throne of the Most High!
- Fool! shouted a voice from above, behind us.
- Fool, fool, fool! - they picked up, like an echo, in a gulp of unknown voices, and the embarrassed, uninvited preacher in impotent rage was forced to spur his horse to the music of the troops and the frantic laughter on the bridges, as if nothing had happened, beautifully bending, galloped somewhere further "[Cit. according to: 4, pp. 129-131].
As the historian M.N. Mikishatyev rightly noted (from whose book this quote is given), Maria Fedorovna was not mistaken with the personality of the chief police officer. It then was Sergey Aleksandrovich Kokoshkin. But she confused the building of the state archive with the building of the headquarters of the Guard.
Initially, the Alexander Column was framed by a temporary wooden fence with lamps in the form of antique tripods and plaster lion masks. The carpenter's work from the manufacture of the fence was carried out by the "carved master" Vasily Zakharov. Instead of a temporary fence at the end of 1834, it was decided to put a permanent metal one "with three-headed eagles under the lanterns", the project of which Montferrand had drawn up in advance. In her composition, it was supposed to use decorations made of gilded bronze, crystal balls on three-headed eagles mounted on captured Turkish cannons, which were accepted by the architect from the arsenal on December 17.
The metal fence was produced at the Byrd factory. In February 1835, he proposed to bring gas lighting to the crystal balls. The glass balls were made at the Imperial Glass Factory. They were illuminated not by gas, but by oil, which leaked and left soot. On December 25, 1835, one of the balloons burst and fell apart. October 11, 1836 "followed by the highest command to arrange at the monument of Emperor Alexander I cast-iron candelabra with lanterns according to approved drawings for gas lighting"[Quoted from: 5, p. 184]. The laying of gas pipes was completed in August 1837, and the candelabra was installed in October.
Mikhail Nikolaevich Mikishatiev in the book "Walks along Central District. From the Palace to the Fontanka" debunks the myth that in the poem "Monument" A.S. Pushkin mentions the Alexander Column, calling it the "Pillar of Alexandria". city of Alexandria. So it was called the Pillar of Alexandria. But due to the political nature of the poem, the latter became a direct allusion to the monument to Alexander I. Only a hint, although the descendants equated them to each other.
The column is not dug into the ground and is not fixed on the foundation. It holds only due to the exact calculation and its weight. It is the tallest triumphal column in the world. Its weight is 704 tons. The height of the monument is 47.5 meters, the granite monolith is 25.88 meters. It is slightly taller than the Vendôme Column, erected in 1810 in honor of Napoleon's victories in Paris.
There are often stories that at first after the installation of the Alexander Column, many ladies were afraid to be near it. They assumed that the column could fall at any moment and went around the area around the perimeter. This legend is sometimes modified: only one lady is shown to be so fearful, who ordered her coachman to stay away from the monument.
In 1841, cracks appeared on the column. By 1861 they had become so prominent that Alexander II set up a committee to study them. The committee concluded that there were cracks in the granite from the beginning, and they were sealed with mastic. In 1862, the cracks were sealed with Portland cement. Above were fragments of chains, which were used for the annual climb to the column in order to inspect it.
Stories similar to mystical ones happened with the Alexander Column. On December 15, 1889, Foreign Minister Lamsdorf reported in his diary that at nightfall, when the lanterns are lit, a luminous letter "N" appears on the monument. Rumors began to spread around St. Petersburg that this was an omen of a new reign in the new year. The next day, the count figured out the causes of the phenomenon. The name of their manufacturer was etched on the glass of the lamps: "Siemens". When the lamps were working from the side of St. Isaac's Cathedral, this letter was reflected on the column.
In 1925, it was decided that the presence of an angel figure on the main square of Leningrad was inappropriate. An attempt was made to cover him with a cap, which brought Palace Square enough a large number of passersby. hung over the column balloon. However, when he flew up to her at the required distance, the wind immediately blew and drove the ball away. By evening, attempts to hide the angel stopped. A little later, a plan appeared to replace the angel with the figure of V. I. Lenin. However, this was not implemented either.
| № | Source | Pages | date of the application |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1) | (pp. 149-162) | 02/09/2012 22:50 | |
| 2) | (p. 507) | 03/03/2012 23:33 | |
| 3) | (pp. 230-234) | February 24, 2014 6:05 pm | |
| 4) | (pp. 110-136) | May 14, 2014 5:05 pm | |
| 5) | 06/09/2014 15:20 |
In the 19th century, building technology in Europe did not differ much from that of ancient Egypt. Thousand-ton blocks were lifted manually.
Original taken from ikuv in the Raising of the Alexander Column in 1832
Leafing through an old magazine, I found an article about how our ancestors, who lived 200 years ago, without any Komatsu, Hitachi, Ivanovtsev and other caterpillars, successfully solved a difficult and today's engineering problem - they delivered the workpiece of the Alexander Column to St. Petersburg, processed it, lifted and placed vertically. And it still stands. vertically.
Prof. N. N. Luknatssky (Leningrad), magazine "Construction industry" No. 13 (September) 1936, pp. 31-34
The Alexander Column, standing on Uritsky Square (former Dvortsovaya) in Leningrad, with a total height of 47 m (154 ft) from the top of the foundation to the top point, consists of a pedestal (2.8 m) and a column rod (25.6 m).
The pedestal, as well as the core of the column, is made of red coarse-grained granite, mined in the Pitterlack quarry (Finland).
Pitterlack granite, especially polished, is very beautiful; however, due to its coarse grain, it is easily subjected to destruction under the influence of atmospheric influences.
The gray Serdobolsky fine-grained granite is more durable. Arch. Montferand wanted to make a pedestal out of this granite, but, despite intensive searches, he did not find a stone without cracks of the required dimensions.
When mining columns for St. Isaac's Cathedral in the Pitterlak quarry, Montferand found a piece of rock without cracks, up to 35 m in length and up to 7 m thick, and left it untouched just in case, and when the question arose about the supply of a monument to Alexander the first, he, having in sight of this particular stone, drafted a monument in the form of a column of whole piece granite. The extraction of stones for the pedestal and the core of the column was entrusted to the contractor Yakovlev, who already had experience in the extraction and delivery of columns for St. Isaac's Cathedral.
1. Career work
The method of extraction of both stones was approximately the same; first of all, the rock was cleaned from above from the covering layer to make sure that there were no cracks in it; then the front part of the granite mass was leveled to the required height and cuts were made at the ends of the granite mass; they were made by drilling in a row of such numerous holes that they almost connected with each other.
Pitterlax Quarry (Pyuterlaxe)
While one group of workers worked on the cuts in the ends of the massif, others were engaged in carving the stone below to prepare its fall; on the upper part of the massif, a furrow 12 cm wide and 30 cm deep was punched in its entire length, after which, from its bottom, holes were drilled through the entire thickness of the massif by hand drilling at a distance of 25–30 cm from each other; then iron wedges 45 cm long were laid in the furrow, entirely along the entire length, and between them and the edge of the stone, iron sheets for better advancement of the wedges and to protect the edge of the stone from breakage. The workers were placed so that there were two to three wedges in front of each of them; on a signal, all the workers hit them at the same time, and soon cracks became visible at the ends of the massif, which gradually, slowly increasing, separated the stone from the general rock mass; these cracks did not deviate from the direction indicated by numerous wells.
The stone was finally separated and overturned with levers and capstans on a prepared bed of branches thrown over an inclined log grillage with a layer of 3.6 m.
Overturning the array for the column bar in a quarry
In total, 10 birch levers with a length of 10.5 m and 2 iron, shorter ones were installed; ropes were fixed at their ends, for which workers pulled; in addition, 9 capstans with chain hoists were installed, the blocks of which were firmly fixed to iron pins embedded in the upper surface of the array. The stone was turned over in 7 minutes, while work on its extraction and preparation for separation from the general rock mass lasted almost two years; the weight of the stone is about 4000 tons.
2. Pedestal for the column
First, a stone for the pedestal weighing about 400 tons (24,960 pounds) was delivered; besides him, several more stones were loaded onto the ship, and the total weight of the entire loading was about 670 tons (40,181 pounds); under this weight, the ship bent somewhat, but it was decided to install it between two steamers and tow it to its destination: despite the stormy autumn weather, it arrived safely on November 3, 1831.
Delivery of blocks for the pedestal of the Alexander Column
Two hours later, the stone was already unloaded ashore with the help of 10 capstans, of which 9 were installed on the embankment, and the tenth one was fixed on the stone itself and worked through a reverse block fixed on the embankment.
Movement of the block for the pedestal of the Alexander Column from the embankment
The stone under the pedestal was placed 75 m from the foundations of the column, covered with a canopy, and until January 1832, 40 stone cutters cut it from five sides.
Future pedestal under a canopy
Of interest are the measures taken by the builders to trim the surface of the sixth lower face of the stone and install it on the prepared foundation. In order to turn the stone over with its lower unhewn face up, they arranged a long inclined wooden plane, the end of which, forming a vertical ledge, rose 4 m above ground level; under it, on the ground, they poured a layer of sand, on which the stone was supposed to lie when it fell from the end of the inclined plane; On February 3, 1832, the stone was pulled by nine capstans to the end of the inclined plane, and here, having oscillated for a few seconds in balance, fell with one edge to the sand, and then was easily turned over. After trimming the sixth face, the stone had to be laid on rollers and pulled onto the foundation, and then the rollers were removed; for this, 24 racks, about 60 cm high, were brought under the stone, then the sand was removed from under it, after which 24 carpenters, working in a very coordinated manner, simultaneously hung up the racks on small height at the lowest surface of the stone, gradually thinning them; when the thickness of the posts reached about 1/4 of the normal thickness, then a strong crack began, and the carpenters stepped aside; the remaining uncut part of the racks broke under the weight of the stone, and it fell a few centimeters; this operation was repeated several times until the stone finally sat on the rollers. To install the stone on the foundation, they again arranged a wooden inclined plane, along which it was lifted with nine capstans to a height of 90 cm, first lifting it with eight large levers (vagami) and pulling the rollers out from under it; the space formed under it made it possible to lay a layer of mortar; since the work was carried out in winter, with frost from -12 ° to -18 °, Montferand mixed cement with vodka, adding one twelfth of soap; the cement formed a thin and flowing dough, and it was easy to turn the stone on it with two capstans, slightly lifting it with eight large wagons in order to set it quite horizontally on the upper plane of the foundation; work on the precise installation of the stone lasted two hours.
Installing the pedestal on the foundation
The foundation was erected in advance. The base for it consisted of 1250 wooden piles driven from a mark 5.1 m below the level of the square and to a depth of 11.4 m; on each square meter 2 piles driven; they were hammered with a mechanical pile driver, made according to the project of the famous engineer Betancourt; Baba copra weighed 5/6 tons (50 pounds) and was lifted by a horse-drawn collar.
The heads of all the piles were cut to the same level, which was determined by the fact that before it the water was pumped out of the pit and marks were immediately made on all the piles; between the tops of the piles exposed by 60 cm, a layer of gravel was laid and compacted, and on the site leveled in this way, a foundation was erected 5 m high from 16 rows of granite stones.
3. Delivery of a monolithic column rod
At the beginning of the summer of 1832, the loading and delivery of the column monolith began; loading this monolith, which had a huge weight (670 tons), onto a barge was a more difficult operation than loading a stone for a pedestal; to transport it, a special vessel was built 45 m long, 12 m wide along the midship beam, 4 m high and with a carrying capacity of about 1100 tons (65 thousand pounds).
At the beginning of June 1832, the ship arrived at the Pitterlax quarry, and the contractor Yakovlev, with 400 workers, immediately began loading the stone; near the shore of the quarry, a pier 32 m long and 24 m wide was made in advance on piles from log cabins filled with stone, and in front of it in the sea a wooden avanmol of the same length and design as the pier; a passage (port) 13 m wide was formed between the pier and the pier; the log boxes of the pier and the pier were interconnected by long logs sheathed on top with boards that formed the bottom of the port. The road from the place of breaking the stone to the pier was cleared, and the protruding parts of the rock were blown up, then logs were laid close to each other along the entire length (about 90 m); the movement of the column was carried out by eight capstans, of which 6 dragged the stone forward, and 2 located behind, held the column during its oblique movement due to the difference in the diameters of its extremities; to align the direction of movement of the column, iron wedges were placed at a distance of 3.6 m from the lower base; after 15 days of work, the column was at the pier.
28 logs were laid on the pier and the ship, each 10.5 m long and 60 cm thick; along them it was necessary to drag the column onto the ship with ten capstans located on the avanmol; in addition to workers on capstans, 60 people were also placed in front and behind the columns. to observe the ropes going to the capstans, and those with which the ship was strengthened to the pier. At 4 o'clock in the morning on June 19, Montferand gave the signal for loading: the column moved easily along the beds and was almost already loaded, as an incident occurred that almost caused a catastrophe; due to a slight slope of the side closest to the pier, all 28 logs rose and immediately broke under the weight of the stone; the ship tilted, but did not capsize, as it rested on the bottom of the port and the wall of the pier; the stone slid down to the lowered side, but lingered against the wall of the pier.
Loading a column rod onto a barge
People managed to run away, and there were no misfortunes; contractor Yakovlev was not at a loss and immediately organized the straightening of the vessel and the lifting of the stone. A military team of 600 people was called to help the workers; having passed a forced march of 38 km, the soldiers arrived at the quarry after 4 hours; after 48 hours. continuous work without rest and sleep, the ship was straightened, the monolith was firmly strengthened on it, and by July 1, 2 steamers delivered it to the b. Palace embankment.
Portrait of the workers who delivered the column
In order to avoid a similar failure, which took place when loading the stone, Montferand paid special attention to the arrangement of devices for unloading. The bottom of the river was cleared of piles remaining from the cofferdam after the construction of the embankment wall; using a very strong wooden structure, they leveled the inclined granite wall to a vertical plane so that the ship with the column could approach the embankment quite close, without any gap; the connection of the cargo barge with the embankment was made of 35 thick logs laid close to each other; 11 of them passed under the column and leaned on the deck of another heavily loaded vessel, located on the river side of the barge and serving as a counterweight; in addition, at the ends of the barge, 6 more thicker logs were laid and strengthened, the ends of which on one side were firmly connected to the auxiliary vessel, and the opposite ones extended 2 m to the embankment; the barge was firmly pulled to the embankment with the help of 12 ropes covering it. To lower the monolith ashore, 20 capstans worked, of which 14 pulled the stone, and 6 held the barge; The descent went very well for 10 minutes.
In order to further move and raise the monolith, a solid wooden scaffold was arranged, consisting of an inclined plane, a flyover going to it at a right angle and a vast platform that occupied almost the entire area surrounding the installation site and towering 10.5 m above its level.
In the center of the platform, on a stone mass of sandstone, scaffolding was built, 47 m high, consisting of 30 four-bar racks, reinforced with 28 struts and horizontal braces; 10 central pillars were higher than others and at the top, in pairs, connected by trusses, on which lay 5 double oak beams, with pulley blocks suspended from them; Montferand made a model of scaffolding in 1/12 life size and subjected it to the examination of the most knowledgeable people: this model greatly facilitated the work of carpenters.
The lifting of the monolith on an inclined plane was carried out in the same way as moving it in a quarry, along completely laid beams with capstans.
Movement of the finished column: from the embankment to the overpass
At the start of the overpass
At the end of the overpass
On the overpass
On the overpass
Upstairs, on the overpass, he was dragged onto a special wooden cart that moved along the skating rinks. Montferand did not use cast-iron rollers, fearing that they would be pressed into the floor boards of the platform, and he also refused balls - the method used by Count Carbury to move the stone under the monument to Peter the Great, believing that preparing them and other devices would take a long time. The cart, divided into two parts with a width of 3.45 m and a length of 25 m, consisted of 9 longitudinal bars laid close to each other and reinforced with clamps and bolts with thirteen transverse bars, on which the monolith was laid. It was installed and strengthened on a flyover near an inclined plane and the array was dragged in by the same capstans that pulled it up along this plane.
4. Raising the column
The column was raised by sixty capstans, installed on scaffolds in a circle in two rows in a checkerboard pattern and reinforced with ropes to piles driven into the ground; each capstan consisted of two cast-iron drums mounted in a wooden frame and driven by four horizontal handles through a vertical shaft and horizontal gears (Fig. 4); ropes went from the capstans through the guide blocks, firmly fixed at the bottom of the scaffolding, to the chain hoists, the upper blocks of which were hung from the double oak rungs mentioned above, and the lower ones were attached to the column rod with slings and continuous rope strapping (Fig. 3); ropes consisted of 522 cables the best hemp, which withstood during the test a load of 75 kg each, and the entire rope - 38.5 tons; the total weight of the monolith with all the devices was 757 tons, which, with 60 ropes, gave about 13 tons of load for each, i.e., their safety margin was taken three times.
The raising of the stone was scheduled for August 30; to work on capstans, teams from all guards units were dressed up in the amount of 1700 privates with 75 non-commissioned officers; very responsible work on raising the stone was organized very thoughtfully, the workers were placed in the following strict order.
At each capstan, under the command of a non-commissioned officer, 16 people worked. and, in addition, 8 pers. was in reserve to change the tired; the senior in the team watched that the workers walked with an even step, slowing down or speeding it up depending on the tension of the rope; for every 6 capstans, 1 foreman is dressed up, located between the first row of capstans and the central forests; he monitored the tension of the ropes and passed orders to the seniors in the team; each 15 capstans made up one of 4 squads, led by four assistants of Montferand, who stood at each of the four corners of high scaffolding, on which there were 100 sailors who watched the blocks and ropes and straightened them; 60 dexterous and strong workers stood on the column itself between the ropes and held the blocks of polyopasts in correct position; 50 carpenters were in different places scaffolding just in case; 60 stonecutters stood at the bottom of the scaffolding at the guide blocks with the order not to let anyone near them; 30 other workers directed the rollers and removed them from under the cart as the column was raised; 10 masons were at the pedestal to pour cement mortar on top row granite, on which the column will become; 1 foreman stood at the front of the scaffolding, at a height of 6 m, to give a signal with a bell to start lifting; 1 boatswain was at the highest point of the scaffolding at the pole to raise the flag as soon as the column was in place; 1 surgeon was downstairs at the first aid platform and, in addition, there was a team of workers in reserve with tools and materials.
Montferand himself was in charge of all operations, who had previously made a test of raising the monolith to a height of 6 m in two days, and before starting to lift, he personally verified the strength of the piles holding the capstans, and also examined the direction of the ropes and scaffolding.
The raising of the stone, on the signal given by Montferand, began exactly at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and went quite successfully.
The start of the column
The column moved along with the cart horizontally and at the same time gradually rose upwards; at the moment of its separation from the cart, 3 capstans, almost simultaneously, due to the confusion of several blocks, stopped; at this critical moment, one of the upper blocks burst and fell from the height of the scaffolding into the middle of a group of people standing below, which caused some confusion among the workers surrounding Montferand; fortunately, the teams working on the nearby capstans continued to walk at an even pace - this quickly brought calm, and everyone fell into place.
Soon the column hung in the air above the pedestal, stopping its upward movement and aligning it strictly vertically and axially with the help of several capstans, they gave a new signal: everyone working on the capstans made a 180 ° turn and began to rotate their handles in the opposite direction, lowering the ropes and slowly lowering the column exactly into place.
The raising of the column lasted 40 minutes; the next day, Menferand checked the correctness of its installation, after which he ordered to remove the scaffolding. Work on finishing the column and setting decorations continued for another two years, and it was finally completed in 1834.
Bichebois, L. P. -A. Baio A. J.-B. Grand opening Alexander Column (August 30, 1834)
All operations for the extraction, delivery and installation of the column must be recognized as very well organized; however, it is impossible not to note some shortcomings when compared with the organization of work on moving the stone for the monument to Peter the Great, performed under the leadership of Count Carbury 70 years earlier; these shortcomings are:
1. When loading the stone, Caburie flooded the barge, and it stood on the solid bottom of the river, so there was no danger of it capsizing; meanwhile, when loading the monolith for the Alexander column, this was not done, and the barge tilted, and the whole operation almost ended in complete failure.
2. Carbury used screw jacks to raise and lower, while Montferand lowered the stone in a rather primitive and somewhat dangerous way for workers, cutting off the racks on which he lay.
3. Carbury, by using an ingenious way of moving the stone on brass balls, greatly reduced friction and managed with a small number of capstans and workers; Monferand's statement that he did not use this method due to lack of time is incomprehensible, since the extraction of the stone lasted almost two years and during this time all the necessary adaptations could be made.
4. The number of workers when raising the stone was with a large margin; however, it must be taken into account that the operation did not last long and that the workers were mostly privates of military units, dressed up for the rise, as for a solemn parade.
Despite these shortcomings, the entire operation to raise the column is an instructive example of a well-thought-out organization with a strict and clear establishment of the work schedule, the placement of workers and the definition of each acting person his duties.
1. It is customary to write Montferand, however, the architect himself wrote his last name in Russian - Montferand.
2. "Construction industry" No. 4 1935.
Thanks to Sergey Gaev for providing the magazine for scanning.
Pillar of Alexandria (Alexander, Alexandrinsky) - a monument to Alexander I, the winner of Napoleon in the war of 1812-1814. The column, designed by Auguste Montferrand, was installed on August 30, 1834. It is crowned with the figure of an Angel, made by the sculptor Boris Ivanovich Orlovsky.
A
the Alexandrian column is not only architectural masterpiece in the Empire style, but also an outstanding achievement of engineering. The tallest column in the world, made of solid granite. Its weight is 704 tons. The height of the monument is 47.5 meters, the granite monolith is 25.88 meters. It is taller than Pompey's Column in Alexandria, Trajan's Column in Rome, and, most pleasingly, the Vendome Column in Paris, a monument to Napoleon.
Let's start with brief history its creation
The idea of building the monument was given by the famous architect Carl Rossi. When planning the space of Palace Square, he believed that a monument should be placed in the center of the square. The installation point of the column from the side looks like the exact center of the Palace Square. But in fact, it is located 100 meters from the Winter Palace and almost 140 meters from the arch of the General Staff building.
The construction of the monument was entrusted to Montferrand. He himself saw it a little differently, with an equestrian group below and with many architectural details, but he was corrected)))
For the granite monolith - the main part of the column - a rock was used, which the sculptor outlined during his previous trips to Finland. Mining and preliminary processing were carried out in 1830-1832 in the Pyuterlak quarry, which was located in the Vyborg province ( modern city Püterlahti, Finland).
These works were carried out according to the method of S. K. Sukhanov, the production was supervised by masters S. V. Kolodkin and V. A. Yakovlev. It took half a year to trim the monolith. 250 people worked on this daily. The stone master Eugene Pascal was appointed the head of the work of Montferrand.
After the masons, having examined the rock, confirmed the suitability of the material, a prism was cut off from it, much larger than the future column. Giant devices were used: huge levers and gates in order to move the block from its place and overturn it on a soft and elastic bedding of spruce branches.
After separating the blank, huge stones were cut from the same rock for the foundation of the monument, the largest of which weighed about 25 thousand pounds (more than 400 tons). Their delivery to St. Petersburg was carried out by water, for this a special design barge was involved.
The monolith was duped on the spot and prepared for transportation. Ship engineer Colonel K.A. dealt with transportation issues. Glazyrin, who designed and built a special boat, named "Saint Nicholas", with a carrying capacity of up to 65 thousand pounds (almost 1065 tons).
An accident occurred during loading - the weight of the column could not withstand the bars along which it was supposed to roll onto the ship, and it almost collapsed into the water. The monolith was loaded by 600 soldiers, who made a march 36 miles long from a neighboring fortress in four hours.
To perform loading operations, a special pier was built. Loading was carried out from a wooden platform at its end, coinciding in height with the ship's side.
Having overcome all the difficulties, the column was loaded on board, and the monolith went to Kronstadt on a barge towed by two steamers, in order to go from there to the Palace Embankment of St. Petersburg.
The arrival of the central part of the column in St. Petersburg took place on July 1, 1832. The contractor, the merchant's son V.A. Yakovlev, was responsible for all the above works.
Since 1829, on Palace Square in St. Petersburg, work began on the preparation and construction of the foundation and pedestal of the column. O. Montferrand supervised the work.
First, a geological survey of the area was carried out, as a result of which a suitable sandy continent was found near the center of the area at a depth of 17 feet (5.2 m).
The contract for the construction of the foundation was given to the merchant Vasily Yakovlev. Until the end of 1829, the workers managed to dig a foundation pit. While strengthening the foundation for the Alexander Column, the workers stumbled upon piles, which had been used to strengthen the soil back in the 1760s. It turned out that Montferrand repeated after Rastrelli the decision on the place for the monument, landing at the same point!
In December 1829, the place for the column was approved, and 1250 six-meter pine piles were driven under the foundation. Then the piles were cut to the level, forming a platform for the foundation, according to the original method: the bottom of the pit was filled with water, and the piles were cut at the level of the water table, which ensured the horizontality of the site. Earlier, using a similar technology, the foundation of St. Isaac's Cathedral was laid.
The foundation of the monument was built from stone granite blocks half a meter thick. It was brought out to the horizon of the square with a plank masonry. In its center was placed a bronze box with 0 105 coins minted in honor of the victory of 1812. There was also placed a platinum medal minted according to the Montferrand project with the image of the Alexander Column and the date "1830", as well as a mortgage board with the following text:
"In the summer of the Nativity of Christ 1831, the construction of a monument erected to Emperor Alexander by grateful Russia began on a granite foundation, laid on the 19th day of November 1830. In St. Petersburg, during the construction of this monument, Count Y. Litta presided. The meeting was: Prince P Volkonsky, A. Olenin, Count P. Kutaisov, I. Gladkov, L. Carbonier, A. Vasilchikov. The construction was carried out according to the design of the same architect Augustine de Montferand".
The work was completed in October 1830.
After laying the foundation, a huge four-hundred-ton monolith, brought from the Pyuterlak quarry, was hoisted onto it, which serves as the base of the pedestal.
The engineering problem of installing such a large monolith was solved by O. Montferrand as follows: the monolith was rolled on rollers through an inclined plane onto a platform built near the foundation. And the stone was piled on a pile of sand, previously poured next to the platform.
"At the same time, the earth trembled so much that the eyewitnesses - passers-by who were on the square at that moment, felt, as it were, an underground shock." Then it was moved on skating rinks.
Later, O. Montferrand recalled; "Since the work was carried out in winter, I ordered to mix cement with vodka and add a tenth of soap. Due to the fact that the stone initially sat incorrectly, it had to be moved several times, which was done with the help of only two capstans and with particular ease, of course , thanks to the soap that I ordered mixed into the solution ... "
Album with drawings by Montferrand.
By July 1832, the column monolith was on the way, and the pedestal had already been completed. It's time to start the most difficult task - placing the column on the pedestal.
On the basis of the developments of Lieutenant General A. A. Betancourt for the installation of the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral in December 1830, an original lifting system was designed. It included: scaffolding 22 fathoms (47 meters) high, 60 capstans and a system of blocks.
On August 30, 1832, masses of people gathered to watch this event: they occupied the entire square, and besides this window and the roof of the General Staff Building were occupied by spectators. The sovereign and the entire imperial family came to the raising.
To bring the column to a vertical position on Palace Square, it was necessary to attract the forces of 2,000 soldiers and 400 workers, who installed the monolith in 1 hour and 45 minutes.
After installation, the people shouted "Hurrah!" And the admiring emperor said: "Montferrand, you immortalized yourself!"
The granite pillar and the bronze angel standing on it are supported solely by their own weight. If you get very close to the column and, with your head up, look up, it takes your breath away - the column sways.
After the installation of the column, it remained to fix the bas-relief plates and decorative elements on the pedestal, as well as to complete the final processing and polishing of the column.
The column was topped with a bronze capital Doric order with a rectangular masonry abacus with bronze facing. A bronze cylindrical pedestal with a hemispherical top was installed on it.
In parallel with the construction of the column, in September 1830, O. Montferrand worked on a statue that was supposed to be placed above it and, according to the wishes of Nicholas I, facing the Winter Palace. In the original project, the column was completed by a cross wrapped around with a snake to decorate the fasteners. In addition, the sculptors of the Academy of Arts proposed several options for the compositions of the figures of angels and virtues with a cross. There was an option with the installation of the figure of the holy prince Alexander Nevsky, but the first option that was approved was a cross on a ball without an angel, in this form the column is even present on some old engravings ..
But in the end, the figure of an angel with a cross was accepted for execution, made by the sculptor B. I. Orlovsky with expressive and understandable symbolism for everyone - “You will conquer this!”.
Orlovsky had to redo the sculpture of the Angel several times before Nicholas I liked it. The emperor wished that the face of the Angel was given a resemblance to Alexander I, and the snout of the snake trampled by the cross of the Angel must certainly resemble the face of Napoleon. If it does, it's far away.
Initially, the Alexander Column was framed by a temporary wooden fence with lamps in the form of antique tripods and plaster lion masks. The carpenter's work from the manufacture of the fence was carried out by the "carved master" Vasily Zakharov. Instead of a temporary fence at the end of 1834, it was decided to put a permanent metal one "with three-headed eagles under the lanterns", the project of which Montferrand had drawn up in advance.
Parade at the opening of the Alexander Column in 1834. From a painting by Ladurner.
To accommodate honored guests, Montferrand built a special tribune in front of the Winter Palace in the form of a three-span arch. It was decorated in such a way as to connect architecturally with the Winter Palace.
A parade of troops passed in front of the podium and column.
I must say that the monument, which now seems perfect, sometimes caused criticism from contemporaries. Montferrand, for example, was reproached for allegedly spending the marble intended for the column on the construction own house, and for the monument he used cheap granite. The figure of the Angel reminded the Petersburgers of a sentry and inspired the poet to the following mocking lines:
"In Russia, everything breathes military craft:
And the Angel makes a cross on guard.
But the rumor did not spare the emperor himself. Imitating his grandmother, Catherine II, who inscribed on the pedestal of the Bronze Horseman "To Peter I - Catherine II", Nikolai Pavlovich in official papers called the new monument "Pillar of Nicholas I to Alexander I", which immediately gave life to the pun: "Pillar of pillar to pillar."
In honor of this event, a commemorative coin was minted with a face value of 1 ruble and a ruble and a half
The grandiose building inspired admiration and awe in Petersburgers from the moment of its foundation, but our ancestors were seriously afraid that the Alexander Column would collapse, and tried to bypass it.
In order to dispel philistine fears, the architect Auguste Montferrand, who lived nearby, on the Moika, began to exercise daily around his brainchild, demonstrating complete confidence in his own safety and the correctness of calculations. Years have passed, wars and revolutions, the column is standing, the architect was not mistaken.
On December 15, 1889, almost mystical story- Foreign Minister Lamsdorf said in his diary that at nightfall, when the lanterns are lit, a luminous letter "N" appears on the monument.
Rumors began to spread around St. Petersburg that this was an omen of a new reign in the new year, but the next day the count figured out the reasons for the phenomenon. The name of their manufacturer was etched on the glass of the lamps: "Siemens". When the lamps were working from the side of St. Isaac's Cathedral, this letter was reflected on the column.
There are many tales and legends associated with it)))
In 1925, it was decided that the presence of an angel figure on the main square of Leningrad was inappropriate. An attempt was made to cover him with a cap, which gathered a fairly large number of passers-by on Palace Square. A balloon hung over the column. However, when he flew up to her at the required distance, the wind immediately blew and drove the ball away. By evening, attempts to hide the angel stopped.
There is a legend that at that time, instead of an angel, they seriously planned to erect a monument to Lenin. It would look something like this))) Lenin was not installed, because they could not decide in which direction Ilyich should extend his hand ...
The column is beautiful both in winter and summer. And it fits perfectly into the Palace Square.
There is one more interesting legend. It happened on April 12, 1961, after the solemn announcement of TASS about the launch of the first manned spaceship. There is general jubilation on the streets, real euphoria on a national scale!
The very next day after the flight, at the feet of the angel crowning the Pillar of Alexandria, a laconic inscription appeared: "Yuri Gagarin! Hurrah!"
What kind of vandal was able to express his admiration for the first cosmonaut in such a way and how he managed to climb to such a dizzying height will remain a mystery.
In the evening and at night, the column is no less beautiful.
Alexander Column (Russia) - description, history, location. Exact address, phone number, website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.
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I erected a monument to myself not made by hands,
The folk trail will not grow to it,
He ascended higher as the head of the rebellious
Pillar of Alexandria.
A. S. Pushkin
One of famous monuments Petersburg, the Alexander Column is familiar to each of us literally from school. WITH light hand Everyone began to call the beloved poet the monument - the Alexandrian Pillar, although, in fact, this is a poetic refinement, and the monument has been called the Alexander Column for almost 200 years.
The Alexandrian column was erected on the Palace Square during the reign of Nicholas I in 1834 by the architect Auguste Montferrand.
And the 47.5 m high monument was supposed to remind of the victory of Russia over France in 1812. An idea arose to erect a monument in the center of Palace Square near Karl Rossi, and as a result open competition was selected exactly the project that we now have the pleasure to contemplate.
The Alexander Column is the tallest column in the world made of solid stone.
The name of the Alexander Column, on the one hand, is associated with Emperor Alexander I, who defeated Napoleon, and on the other hand, with the Faros (Alexandria) lighthouse, which is one of the seven wonders of the world, embodying the ultimate level of human achievement. The Alexander Column was supposed to surpass all existing columns in the world. Indeed, to this day, the Alexander Column is the tallest column in the world, made of solid stone. And to lift this grandiose monolith onto a pedestal, the architects of St. Petersburg created a special lifting system.
At the top of the monument is the work of B. Orlovsky - an angel, whose face the sculptor gave the features of Alexander I. The angel trampling a snake on top of the column symbolizes the peace and tranquility that Russia brought to Europe by defeating Napoleon. The bas-reliefs on the pedestal of the Alexander Column in allegorical form represent the glory of Russian weapons and symbolize the courage of the Russian army: they depict Victory and Glory, recording the dates of memorable battles, Peace and Justice, Wisdom and Prosperity.
Figures and facts
The Alexander Column is made of red granite, processed not in St. Petersburg, but in the Pyuterlak quarry near Vyborg, and the figure of an angel is made of polished pink granite. In order to deliver the column to St. Petersburg, a special ship was needed, which was towed by two steamers. Under the base of the pedestal of the Alexander Column, 1250 piles of 6 meters in length each were driven. The column was installed with the help of scaffolding and capstans specially designed in St. Petersburg.
It is curious that the installation took only 1 hour and 45 minutes, and 2000 soldiers and 400 workers took part in it, raising the column to the pedestal.
The column itself weighs 600 tons. It is not dug into the ground and is not fixed on the foundation, but is held solely by accurate calculation and own weight.
The sculptor gave the face of the angel on top of the monument the facial features of Alexander I.
The height of the angel crowning the Alexander Column is 4.26 m, in his hands he holds a cross 6.4 m high. The height of the pedestal, on which the Alexander Column rises, is 2.85 m. And the weight of the entire structure is 704 tons. Such is the greatness of Russian weapons, a monument to the victory not only of the Russian army, but of the entire people, the victory over what was impossible for others to win.
How to get there
The Alexander Column rises in the center of the Palace Square in St. Petersburg. To get to the square and the monument, you need to use underground transport and get to the Nevsky Prospekt station, then move to the beginning of Nevsky Prospekt, focusing on the Admiralty spire. From the intersection of Nevsky and Admiralteisky avenues, a view of Palace Square with the Alexander Column in the center opens up. Here is what you were looking for.
