Sphinxes on the Robespierre embankment. Monument to the Victims of Political Repression
The sphinxes on the University Embankment have long become one of the main symbols of St. Petersburg, along with the Peter and Paul Fortress and St. Isaac's Cathedral, and the Egyptian Hall in the Hermitage is a treasured secret room for many children and adults.
The fashion for Egyptian themes, which arose in Europe after Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt at the beginning of the 19th century, was also reflected in St. Petersburg monuments. Many Egyptian details in the appearance of the city - decorative elements of classical houses, obelisks, steles and, of course, sphinxes - are so familiar to the eye that they are perceived as a natural part of the environment. And yet, having seen so much in their lifetime, they keep many secrets. The Egyptian mysticism of St. Petersburg is further enhanced by the fact that the city is located almost on the meridian of the Great Pyramid. Our detailed guide has collected the brightest, most ancient and most mysterious “Egyptian” places in St. Petersburg.
Sphinxes on Universitetskaya embankment
Among the varied monumental and decorative sculpture of St. Petersburg there are various sphinxes; Of these, two granite sculptures from ancient Thebes are of greatest artistic and historical value. They were discovered in the 20s of the 19th century by French archaeologists and since 1834 they have been decorating the pier on the Neva in front of the Academy of Arts. Almost 35 centuries ago, they guarded the tomb of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, king of Upper and Lower Egypt. Wise as people, strong as lions, they are called upon to patronize and protect the pharaoh. Both statues are covered with hieroglyphs - on the cartouches and on the chest of the sphinxes, on the side faces of the granite bases. Each of the sphinxes has two inscriptions, which are variants of the titles of Amenhotep III.
Sphinxes of Mikhail Shemyakin (monument to victims of political repression)
The youngest sphinxes of St. Petersburg are located on the Robespierre embankment. They were installed in 1995 as a monument to the victims of political terror and repression. The location was not chosen by chance: opposite, on the other bank of the Neva, is the famous Kresty prison, where convicts languished. The appearance of the sphinxes is somewhat frightening: one half of the face is a traditional female face, which is facing the houses on the embankment, and the other half, looking at the prison, is covered with wounds to the bare bones of the skull. On the pedestals of the monuments there are traces of bullets and lines by Brodsky and Akhmatova, Gumilyov, Solzhenitsyn and other authors of the 20th century who came into contact with the topic of political repression. Some argue that sphinxes supposedly help prisoners who were unjustly imprisoned to return home.
Egyptian Bridge
The Egyptian Bridge on the Fontanka, through which Lermontovsky Prospekt passes, was built in 1826. At one time it was considered the most beautiful in St. Petersburg. True, the bridge that exists today bears little resemblance to the old Egyptian one - it is single-span, suspended on chains from a gate decorated in the Egyptian style and covered with imitations of hieroglyphs. The entrance to the bridge on both sides was guarded by four cast-iron sphinxes made by the sculptor P. P. Sokolov.
In 1905, the Egyptian Bridge collapsed as a cavalry detachment crossed it head to head - as in the most classic example of resonance in a school physics textbook. It was restored in a modified form only half a century later, in 1955. However, the stylized appearance of the new sphinxes with a high gilded crest of a headdress and a flexible strong body began to resemble Greek sculptures rather than Egyptian art.
The Stroganov Palace is a wonderful work of the outstanding architect of the mid-18th century F.B. Rastrelli and one of the best architectural monuments of the heyday of the Russian Baroque. At the doors of the former main entrance (now from the side of the courtyard), on low pedestals lie two sphinxes made of gray granite, more than a meter in size. They were transported here in 1908 from the pier at the dacha of Count A.S. Stroganov and were, in fact, the first sphinxes to appear on the embankments of St. Petersburg.
Sphinxes on Sverdlovskaya embankment
The front terrace-pier with sphinxes on the Sverdlovskaya embankment was built in the 1780s according to the design of D. Quarneghi and was an excellent addition to the architectural ensemble of the estate of Chancellor A. Bezborodko. The terrace was decorated with four sculptures of sphinxes and vases, the author of which is unknown. A grotto was built between them, in which a spring with healing water flowed. The original sphinxes disappeared without a trace in the 19th century, and during the Great Patriotic War the pier itself was destroyed. Its restoration took place in 1959–1960 and included, among other things, the restoration of lost sculptures. New figures of sphinxes are carved from gray granite according to samples located in front of the Stroganov Palace on Nevsky Prospekt. However, the statues seem to have lost their magical power, and there is no longer a healing spring in the grotto.
Completely original sphinxes are located in the courtyard of the St. Petersburg Mining University. The middle of the courtyard is occupied by a small ancient garden with lawns, densely overgrown bushes and trees, and in the depths of the central alley there are two sphinxes and a stone bowl with flowers between them. The sculptures are small, installed without pedestals, but thanks to their black coloring they stand out sharply against the background of greenery. These are perhaps the most feminine of all St. Petersburg specimens: expressive faces are framed by thickly curly hair gathered at the back of the head, rather than traditional headdresses. The sphinxes changed their location more than once, but found their permanent refuge in the park of the institute in the summer of 1966. They say that they help students pass exams - the main thing is to ask them about it the day before.
21st line V.O., 2
The smallest sphinx of St. Petersburg has probably not been seen by the vast majority of citizens. Since 1832, he has lived at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and Sadovaya Street, on the main building of the Russian National Library. Sculptor Vasily Demut-Malinovsky placed it on the helmet of the goddess of wisdom Minerva, crowning the attic of the main facade of the building. He is very difficult to notice from the ground, but he, of course, like the “elders,” can fulfill any innermost desire.
Egyptian house
In 1911–1913, according to the design of the architect Songailov, the Nezhinskaya apartment building, better known today as the Egyptian House, was built on Zakharyevskaya Street. The facade of the building is somewhat reminiscent of the main entrance to the temple of the goddess Hathor in Dendera, despite the obvious overload of decorative elements. The capitals of the columns are decorated with the faces of the heavenly goddess of love, at the doors of the entrances there are colossal royal pilasters depicting pharaohs in short loincloths, in the inner courtyard-well there are friezes made of uraei and two monumental figures of the king and queen on the wall. And besides, on the facade you can find scarabs, sun disks, flying birds, and papyri - in general, everything that reminds you of the “banks of the sacred Nile”.
st. Zakharyevskaya, 23
For the first time, interest in Egypt acquired architectural forms in Tsarskoe Selo, where in 1770, by order of Catherine II, the Pyramid pavilion appeared. It became a park structure quite characteristic of its era. The Empress showed a sense of humor and ordered it to be built next to the burial place of her dogs - and in Ancient Egypt, as you know, the pyramids were the tombs of the pharaohs. In 1773, four columns carved from marble were installed at the corners of the pyramid. Later, here, in the wall niches, a collection of Egyptian sarcophagi and other antiquities was placed, which were later transferred to the Hermitage collection.
Pushkin, st. Sadovaya, 7
Egyptian Gate in Pushkin
The Egyptian, also known as Kuzminsky (due to the proximity of Kuzminskaya Street), gates were built in the 1827–1830s according to the design of the architect A. Menelas. They formed the frame of the triumphal entry into Tsarskoe Selo. Two stone gate guards with relief images of various scenes from the mythology and life of the ancient Egyptians reproduce the shape of Egyptian temple pylons. During the Great Patriotic War, the gates suffered heavy damage. Today they have been restored, the damaged parts of the cast-iron cladding have been re-cast, which has given the building back its monumental, but at the same time very harmonious appearance.
Pushkin
Hall of Ancient Egypt in the Hermitage
In the large hall on the ground floor of the Winter Palace, objects of culture and art of Ancient Egypt from the fourth millennium BC to the first centuries of our time are exhibited: sarcophagi, papyri, sculptures, jewelry, small sculptures, there is even a mummy of a priest, so beloved by the public. The beginning of the Egyptian collection of the Hermitage, along with the collection of the Italian Castiglione acquired by Russia, was the statue of Sekhmet, which had stood in the Academy of Arts for several years before. The famous orientalist of the 19th century O. I. Senkovsky, who himself visited Egypt, was the first to draw attention to the significance of the unique collection of the museum and predicted that the study of this collection “will, without a doubt, glorify more than one Russian name.” Indeed, the Egyptian treasures of the Hermitage inspired the best Russian orientalists years later.
The 20th century became a time of difficult trials for our country. Wars, revolutions and terror have claimed the lives of tens of millions of people. On April 28, 1995, a monument to the victims of political repression was unveiled in St. Petersburg, created by sculptor Mikhail Shemyakin and architects Vyacheslav Bukhaev and Anatoly Vasiliev.
The most brutal and mass murders in Russian history took place in 1937-1938 - during the Great Terror. Then 1.7 million people were arrested on political charges and more than 700 thousand of them were shot. On average, the state killed a thousand of its citizens every day, it was the bloodiest company. Crimes were committed with less cruelty and on a smaller scale throughout the 70 years after the October Revolution.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, foundation stones were installed in some Russian cities, which were later to be replaced with monuments to perpetuate the memory of the victims. St. Petersburg became one of the first cities in Russia where such a memorial was created.
Monument to the victims of political repression in St. Petersburg
Its location was not chosen by chance - the Neva embankment opposite the "Crosses", because this prison was a sign of that terrible time. At the heart of the memorial is one of the symbols of St. Petersburg - sculptures of sphinxes located opposite each other at a distance of several meters. One side of the sphinx's face is ordinary, female, and it faces residential buildings, and the other side, facing the Neva and the Crosses, is eaten away to the skull.
This terrible detail and the location of the monument speak of the drama of the events that took place during the period of repression in Leningrad, a city of intellectuals and dissidents, where millions of residents were imprisoned. The author shows how close life and death, freedom and imprisonment, happiness and tragedy were at that terrible time.
The bodies of sphinxes are thin and bones protrude through their skin, and the high carriage of the head expresses anxiety and concern.
On the tablets around the sphinxes are poems by Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Gumilyov, Osip Mandelstam and Nikolai Zabolotsky, Daniil Andreev and other poets, as well as statements by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Joseph Brodsky. Between the sphinxes on the embankment parapet are four granite blocks, reminiscent of a prison window.
Address and how to get there
- St. Petersburg, Robespierre Embankment, opposite Kresty prison
- Get to the Chernyshevskaya metro station, exit onto Chernyshevsky Avenue and walk towards the Neva. Exiting the Quai Robespierre, turn right and walk for five minutes
Work to perpetuate the memory of those who suffered during the years of terror has been going on for more than two decades. Books of memory have been created in which the names and information about the victims are restored. The monument to the victims of political repression in St. Petersburg, presented in the form of sphinxes, symbolizes death and eternity, mystery and the triumph of truth over lies. There are memorial obelisks and sculptures in Barnaul and
Residents of St. Petersburg, and many of its guests, are well aware that sphinxes are not at all uncommon in this city. They are one of the decorations of the city, and everyone has already become accustomed to them. But why sphinxes and how many of them are there? Let's take a walk through the places where these unusual and mysterious creatures “settled”...
Different peoples also had different ideas about the sphinxes. Among the ancient Egyptians, sphinxes were creatures with the body of a proud lion and the head of a man. Often the faces of the Egyptian sphinxes resembled the faces of their pharaohs. Among the Greeks, the sphinxes were winged, had the body of a lion or dog and a female head and chest.
Sphinxes on the front embankment
These are the only real sphinxes from Ancient Egypt in St. Petersburg; they are more than three thousand years old. They are very large - more than 5 meters long and 4.5 meters high. The weight of each of them is 23 tons.
« In terms of craftsmanship - the figures are carved from the strongest Egyptian red-brown-gray granite - the abundance of inscriptions and good preservation, the Neva Sphinxes have no equal in the world. Even Egyptian museums and the Louvre do not have such exhibits.» V. Struve
They have long since taken root in this northern city, becoming its integral part.
But how did these huge sphinxes from a distant country get here?
The history of the appearance of Egyptian sphinxes in St. Petersburg
At the beginning of the 19th century, Europe was swept by a passion for oriental culture, and St. Petersburg did not escape this. An Egyptian vestibule appears in Pavlovsk, an Egyptian pyramid appears in Tsarskoye Selo, and in the city itself an Egyptian bridge appears, and soon these Egyptian sphinxes. Since the 14th century BC. e. they guarded the sanctuary of Pharaoh Amenhotep III in Thebes. Years, centuries, millennia passed, and time had no power over them.
But when the civilization of Ancient Egypt fell into decline, the temple collapsed, and the sphinxes were buried for a long time under a thick layer of sand. They were dug up only in the late 20s of the 19th century, after which it was decided to put them up for sale.
One of these sphinxes somehow caught the eye of officer Andrei Muravyov, who was in Egypt at that time. This hitherto unprecedented creature amazed the Russian officer so much that Muravyov immediately sent a letter to the Russian ambassador with a request to discuss with the emperor the possibility of purchasing sphinxes for Russia.
However, Nicholas I did not immediately approve of this idea, and then a long fuss with papers followed. But when everything was prepared, it turned out that France had already bought the sphinxes in order to decorate Paris with them.
However, the French did not have time to get them out of Alexandria; the revolution of 1830 began, and they had no time for the sphinxes. Then they agreed to resell them to Russia. And finally, in the spring of 1832, the sphinxes arrived in St. Petersburg. A Greek ship called the Good Hope carried them from Alexandria for a whole year.
While loading onto the ship, the cable of one of the sculptures broke. The huge sphinx fell, breaking the side of the ship, and almost sank it. He himself also suffered in this case - part of his chin was broken off, his face was also damaged, on which the rope left a deep mark.
For two years the sphinxes stood in the courtyard of the Academy of Arts, waiting in the wings. Finally, the pier was completed, and in 1834 they were placed on high pedestals made of Finnish granite.
And since then they have been a magnificent decoration of the Neva embankment in the front part of the capital.
Their eyes are directed into infinity, and sometimes it seems that these ancient sphinxes are hiding some secret from us. After all, they have seen so much in this life...
A.S. Pushkin often walked along this embankment, admiring the sphinxes.
« ...the faces of these sphinxes are like a riddle that needs to be solved».
Many poets dedicated poems to them:
« Did the magic of the white night lure
You are in the haze, full of polar wonders,
Two beast-divas from hundred-century-old Thebes?
Has pale Isis captivated you?
What secret has petrified you
A laughing twist of cruel lips?
Midnight waves unceasing spill
Are you happier than the stars of St. Nile? Vyacheslav Ivanov
« Eyes fixed, silent,
Filled with holy melancholy
It's like they hear the waves
Another, solemn river.
For them, children of millennia,
Only a dream vision of these places...” V. Vryusov
And in our time they also do not go unnoticed:
In 2002, a very large and complex work was carried out on their restoration, after which the ancient sculptures appeared in their original form and even looked younger in appearance.
Sphinxes in the courtyard of the Stroganov Palace
These two granite sphinxes are the very first to appear in St. Petersburg. Since 1796, they decorated the pier at the dacha of A.S. Stroganov. Since 1908, after the dacha was rebuilt, they were transported several times until they finally took their final place - in the courtyard of the Stroganov Palace.
Sphinxes on the Egyptian Bridge
This ancient bridge with four cast iron sphinxes received its name because it was decorated in a style characteristic of Egypt. However, Pavel Sokolov’s sculptors are more reminiscent of Greek sphinxes than Egyptian ones - after all, they have female appearances.
Many have heard about the tragedy that happened on this bridge in 1905. The bridge collapsed, unable to withstand the load, when a cavalry squadron drove onto it. Most likely, this happened due to errors in calculations during the construction of the bridge.
A wooden bridge was temporarily built at this site. But they were able to replace it with a solid stone one only in 1955. And although the design of the new bridge was significantly inferior to the original one, the Egyptian motifs were still preserved. And, of course, his guards - the magnificent sphinxes - also took their places.
Sphinxes on the Malaya Nevka embankment
Historians agree that these sphinxes represent nothing more than the original test castings of the sphinxes from the Egyptian Bridge. They are very similar to each other.
Apparently, for some reason, rejected, these sphinxes were stored somewhere for a long time, and in 1971 they were installed on the pier of the Malaya Nevka embankment. However, time did not spare them, and at the beginning of the 21st century these sphinxes required urgent restoration.
It was carried out with funds allocated by Mostotrest. After that
The restored sculptures were displayed in the courtyard of this organization for several years, but in 2010 they were returned to their original location, on the embankment.
Sphinxes in the courtyard of the Mining Institute
In the courtyard of the Mining Institute, located on Vasilievsky Island, among the greenery of the ancient garden, small and graceful sculptures of sphinxes appeared in 1826.
These sculptures have a rich dark color and very expressive female faces. No wonder they are considered the most feminine. The author of these works is the sculptor A. Postnikov.
Sphinxes on Sverdlovskaya (Polyustrovskaya) embankment
Sculptures reminiscent of the sphinxes from the Stroganov dacha appeared here at the end of the 18th century, and somehow disappeared in the 19th century. And only during the restoration of the pier, carried out in 1985, it was decided to install the same sculptures here again.
Sphinxes on the Robespierre embankment
In 1995, two eerie bronze sphinxes appeared opposite the famous St. Petersburg “Crosses”. For people on the embankment, these sphinxes look quite traditional - they have ordinary female faces.
One of the smallest sphinxes on the helmet of the goddess of wisdom. Sculpture of the goddess - on the building of the Russian National Library on Nevsky Prospekt
There is great interest not only among residents of St. Petersburg,
but it also evokes feelings among guests of the northern capital.
How many times have I driven along the left bank of the Neva from Bolsheokhtinsky Bridge to Liteiny Bridge, seen two sphinxes on the embankment, but never stopped. And today I was nearby, walked up and took a few pictures. The sphinxes by Mikhail Shemyakin, installed in 1995, are a monument to the victims of political repression.
One half of the sphinxes' face is female - it looks at residential buildings on the Robespierre embankment.
The second half of the face - the skull - is facing the Kresty prison on the opposite bank of the Neva.
These are the famous "Crosses". Since 1868, there was a central transit prison, "tsentral". Trotsky, Lunacharsky, Lev Gumilyov, Marshal Rokossovsky, and actor Georgy Zhzhenov were sitting in Kresty. During the entire existence of the Crosses, there were only three successful escapes. The first escape from Kresty was made in 1922 by St. Petersburg raider Lenka Panteleev with three of his accomplices. The last escape attempt was in 1992, it ended in failure, killing three prisoners and one guard. For several years now, they have been planning to close the Crosses and in their place to make either a museum or a conceptual hotel with rooms in prison cells.
Fisherman on the embankment.
View of the Liteiny Bridge and the Peter and Paul Fortress from the Robespierre embankment.
Monument to Peter I in the Peter and Paul Fortress, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia. (The author's copy is located in Claverack, USA) 1991.
The lifetime mask of Peter I, made by sculptor Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli in 1719, was used in the work on the monument. Peter, sitting in a large bronze chair with armrests, looks unusual and even mysterious. Based on the works of B.K. Rastrelli, Mikhail Shemyakin created a complex, contradictory image, far from the prototypes and making one think about the tragic history of the city and the country. The appearance of the sculptural composition expresses Shemyakin’s understanding of Peter’s personality.
Its features emphasize vitality, informality, psychology, and metaphysical nakedness. On the side plane of the pedestal there is an author’s inscription: “To the Founder of the Great City of Russia, Emperor Peter the Great, from the Italian sculptor Carlo Rastrelli and from the Russian artist Mikhail Shemyakin. 1991 Cast in America"
Article: Likhachev D.S. Mikhail Shemyakin and Peter the Great's Petersburg
Monument to the Victims of Political Repression
(Metaphysical sphinxes)
The monument is a gift from the artist M.M. Shemyakin (architect V.B. Bukhaev) to his hometown of St. Petersburg. The sculptures of metaphysical sphinxes were created by Shemyakin in 1994. The place for the monument was symbolically chosen opposite the famous Leningrad prison “Crosses”, where prisoners languished during the years of Stalin’s repressions. Installed opposite the Kresty prison, famous for its dark history, the sphinxes are not just one of the city’s sculptures. Their faces - half human, half rotten skulls - are the personification of the brutal Stalinist regime
These sphinxes are made with extraordinary and quite recognizable “Shemyakino” plasticity. The very idea of the monument is striking. These sphinxes are so appropriate in St. Petersburg, and this metaphysical symbol is so appropriate in relation to the time when half of the country lived, according to the official version, in the usual “happy world,” and the other half suffered and died in some kind of crazy nightmare, in obscurity and secret, it’s not clear why. And many of this “happy” half did not even suspect the existence of the second one - the Gulag Archipelago.
These unusual sphinxes face the residential buildings on the embankment with their profiles like young female faces, and the Neva and the Kresty prison on the opposite bank are pitted, exposed skulls. Between the sphinxes on the embankment parapet is a stylized window of a prison cell with bars.
Along the perimeters of the granite pedestals there are copper plates on which are engraved lines from the works of V. Shalamov, N. Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, A. Akhmatova, N. Zabolotsky, D. Andreev, D. Likhachev, I. Brodsky, Yu. Galanskov, A. Solzhenitsyn, V. Vysotsky, V. Bukovsky
January passed outside the prison windows and I heard the singing of prisoners, sounding in the brick host of cells: “One of our brothers is free.”
Joseph Brodsky
Krestovsky counterbalance - life - death, freedom - imprisonment, happiness - tragedy... the list can be continued endlessly. The frighteningly bewitching sculptures of sphinxes are a metaphysical symbol of Russia and the city of that time.
The youngest sphinxes in St. Petersburg are located on the Robespierre embankment.
Unlike Shemyakino Peter in the courtyard of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the “metaphysical sphinxes” do not give rise to controversy. Nevertheless, these workshops, even though they are cartoon monsters, fully represent the death guards of the past century - half-dead sphinxes, devoid of mystery.
"Casanova"
(monument to the 200th anniversary of the death of Giacomo Casanova), Italy, Venice, Doge's Palace (1998)
Casanova, in whose face one can discern the features of Donald Sutherland from the cult film by Federico Fellini, carefully holds the hand of a mechanical doll - a kind of paradoxical ideal of a woman. The role of honorary sentries of History is performed by six-breasted sphinxes located on the sides. Each of the pedestals is decorated with a bronze mask, developing the theme of the theater of life. Unfortunately, the monument donated to Venice did not last even six months in the city.
In Russia, it is clear that the sculptor, favored by the mayors, did not find understanding among the residents of the cities, blessed by his monumental art, but what about in enlightened Europe, why has Shemyakino’s Casanova not been able to register in the legendary city on the water for many years?
Anyone who has seen this monument will certainly understand that the point is not in the boneiness of human perception or the machinations of ill-wishers - it is in the sculptural composition itself.
So, Casanova himself is depicted in full growth, surrounded by a pair of six-breasted sphinxes, which should depict either symbols of eternity, or “guard” the central part of the composition, or represent the triumph of lust. But to whom does he extend his hand with such elegance?
Who does he look at with a smile? Who stands next to him on the pedestal? Is it really a woman?
No, of course not. All proportions indicate that for Shemyakin women are something inanimate, not worth attention, characters so insignificant that the artist specially emphasized this with the proportions of the sculptural group, where Casanova seems to extend his hand to the doll.
Those who are familiar with Casanova’s work know that he never treated women as toys. Moreover, such a symbol of deliberate disrespect for women cannot today fit into the European cultural space, where there is a place for women scientists, women musicians, and women politicians.
Monument to the “Primary Architects of St. Petersburg”
The opening of the monument to the “First Builders of St. Petersburg” took place in the presence of the mayor of the city A.A. Sobchak in October 1995 in the garden not far from Sampsonievsky Cathedral (a temple-monument to the Battle of Poltava, which took place on the day of St. Sampson in 1709), on the site of the first cemeteries of St. St. Petersburg - Orthodox (for the “true believers”) and “German” (for the “non-believers”). Both ordinary citizens and statesmen, scientists, architects who took part in the construction of St. Petersburg were buried here (A. Schluter, I. Pososhkov, J.B. Leblon, L. Caravaque, G.I. Mattarnovi, D. Trezzini ).
The design of the monument was authored by two famous St. Petersburg figures - sculptor M. Shemyakin and architect V.B. Bukhaev. It was V.B. Bukhaev who designed the base of the monument - an arch crossed by a cross and oriented towards Samson's Cathedral. The arch is a kind of symbol of the “window to Europe” and St. Petersburg itself. The arch is complemented by a sculptural composition consisting of a table and a chair (modeled on authentic furniture from Holland in the 17th century). On the table lay a plan of St. Petersburg, authored by J.-B. Leblond, and other attributes of architecture. On the eastern side, the arch is decorated with a medallion depicting Peter the Great; directly on the arch’s abutments there are bas-reliefs by M. Shemyakin, in the form of medals from the era of Peter, portraits of architects and other compositions. In addition, the monument is also decorated with a commemorative inscription in Latin and Russian.
Unfortunately, in 2000, the monument to the “First Builders of St. Petersburg” was attacked by vandals, who broke and stole many bronze parts, in particular the table with all the objects placed on it. To this day, the monument remains a ruin; restoration attempts have not yet been made. It is noteworthy that for the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the monument to the “First Builders of St. Petersburg” was included in guidebooks around the world.
Monument to Professor Harold Uecker "Plato's Dialogue with Socrates"
Monument to professor of philosophy and psychology Uecker, installed at the ancient Hofstra University, founded by the Dutch, opposite the building of the Faculty of Philosophy. His favorite thinkers, Socrates and Plato, are depicted (Plato talking with a bust of Socrates). In the monument, Plato sits at a table and points with his finger at a ball with an all-seeing eye. The ball rests on a book and on a bronze manuscript recording the names of famous philosophers of all times and peoples. Opposite the table at which Plato sits is a bronze column. Now students sit on it and, as it were, enter into a dialogue with geniuses.
Monument to Peter the Great in Dettford
The monument to Peter I in Deptford was erected on the site of the house in which the Russian autocrat lived in 1698 during his visit to England. Peter's great embassy to Western Europe is usually associated mainly with Holland, but it was a visit to London that allowed the young tsar to become familiar with the high technologies of that time.
The monument by Mikhail Shemyakin is cast in bronze. A typical Shemyakino lanky king with a telescope in his hand, next to him is a throne that is clearly too small for such a figure, two cannons, a dwarf with a globe and a tiny ship in the palm of his hand. (Shemyakin later used this idea to create a monument to Peter in Strelna near St. Petersburg.) Everything here is ambiguous and symbolic: the guns - because the purpose of the visit was to strengthen the military power of Russia, the dwarf - because the Russian embassy in London did something beyond all measure, and Any viewer can sit on a small throne to look at the Thames
Twenty-five-year-old Peter was called to England by necessity: having mastered the craft of a ship carpenter in Holland, the Tsar discovered that the Dutch could not teach him the theory of shipbuilding. The sad king was drinking beer in a tavern when a random Englishman suggested that “they have this perfectly in England.” Peter went to London at the personal invitation of King William III, who simultaneously ruled Holland.
The visit was unofficial. Peter wanted to settle as close as possible to the Deptford royal docks; the house of Sir John Evelyn was found for him (in order to free it for the king, Admiral John Benbow, the head of the Deptford docks, was asked to move out from here). A special door was made in the wall of the house through which the king could enter the dock area at any time.
Peter spent four months in England. During this time, he studied the theory of shipbuilding under the guidance of Sir Anthony Deane Sr., visited the Greenwich Observatory, the Mint (where Sir Isaac Newton was then director), examined the Woolwich Arsenal and cabinets of curiosities, and began a short-term affair with actress Letitia Cross. To replenish the treasury, Peter sold British merchants a license to trade tobacco in Russia.
The house where the autocrat lived has not survived, but the bills issued by the homeowner after the end of the highest visit have been preserved: for broken doors, broken tiles, broken balusters, a broken bed. The ground in the garden was “exploded from jumping and doing all sorts of things.” The inspection was carried out by the architect Christopher Wren, the losses were calculated at 350 pounds, the treasury paid them to the homeowner.
