The best monuments to Sherlock Holmes. A monument to Sherlock Holmes has been unveiled on Baker Street in London. A monument to Sherlock Holmes and Watson in England.

Societies of fans of Holmes' deductive method have spread throughout the world. This detective, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the most popular movie character in the world. In the last century, people even wrote letters to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, considering them to be real personalities.

Sherlock Holmes. Statue in Meiringen, Switzerland. Sculptor John Doubleday

In March 1990, a permanent museum-apartment of Sherlock Holmes opened in London at 221b Baker Street - at the address associated with the name of the great detective and detective. The house, built in 1815, was declared an architectural and historical monument by the British government.

There are many memorial signs around the world associated with the name of Holmes. Plaques adorn the Criterion bar in Piccadilly, where Watson first learned of Holmes; the chemistry laboratory of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where their first meeting took place; the vicinity of the Reichenbach Falls (Switzerland) and Maiwand (Afghanistan), where Watson received his mysterious wound.

in Edinburgh

And there are no less monuments to Sherlock Holmes. His first statue appeared in 1988 in Meiringen (Switzerland), the next one was opened in Karuizawa (Japan). In 1991, a bronze Holmes was installed in Picardy Place in Edinburgh (where Conan Doyle was born).

In London, a monument to the world's most famous detective and detective Sherlock Holmes was unveiled on September 24, 1999 at the Baker Street metro station. Holmes appeared thoughtfully looking into the distance, dressed for the rainy London weather - in a long raincoat, a hat with a small brim and with a pipe in his right hand. The author of the three-meter bronze monument was the famous English sculptor John Doubleday.

In April 2007, a monument to the great detective by Andrei Orlov was opened on Smolenskaya Embankment in Moscow, near the British Embassy. This was the first monument where Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are depicted together. In the sculptures one can discern the faces of actors Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin, who at one time played the roles of these Conan Doyle heroes.

monument in Moscow

Sherlock Holmes is a literary character created by Arthur Conan Doyle. His works, dedicated to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the famous London private detective, are considered classics of the detective genre. The prototype of Holmes is considered to be Dr. Joseph Bell, Doyle's colleague, with whom he worked together at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

Arthur Conan Doyle himself never reported the date of birth of Sherlock Holmes in his works. Presumably, the year of his birth is 1854. Fans of Conan Doyle's work have attempted to establish a more accurate date of birth for Sherlock Holmes. In particular, it was suggested that the date was January 6.

Holmes also mentions there that his grandmother was the sister of the French battle painter Horace Vernet (1789-1863). In a number of works, Sherlock Holmes' brother, Mycroft Holmes, who is seven years older than him and works in the Foreign Office, appears. Also in "The Norwood Contractor" there is a mention of a young doctor, Werner, a distant relative of Holmes, who bought Watson's doctoral practice in Kensington. There is no mention of Holmes' other relatives.

Key dates in the life of Sherlock Holmes are as follows:

In 1881, Holmes met Dr. John Watson (if we take Holmes's date of birth as 1854, then at that moment he is about 27 years old). He is apparently not rich, as he is looking for a partner to rent an apartment together. Then she and Watson moved to Baker Street, house 221-b, where they rented an apartment together from Mrs. Hudson. In the story "Gloria Scott" we learn something about Holmes' past, about what motivated him to become a detective: the father of Holmes' classmate admired his deductive abilities.
In 1888, Watson marries and moves out of his apartment on Baker Street. Holmes continues to rent an apartment from Mrs. Hudson alone.
The story "Holmes' Last Case" takes place in 1891. After a fight with Professor Moriarty, Holmes goes missing. Watson (and with him almost the entire English public) is confident in the death of Holmes.
Holmes was on the run from 1891 to 1894. Having survived a single combat on the edge of a waterfall, he crossed the Alpine mountains on foot and without money and reached Florence, from where he contacted his brother and received money from him. After this, Holmes went to Tibet, where he traveled for two years, visited Lhasa and spent several days with the Dalai Lama - apparently Holmes published his notes about this trip under the name of the Norwegian Sigerson. Then he traveled all over Persia, looked into Mecca (obviously using acting skills, since according to the laws of Islam, visiting Mecca and Medina by non-believers is excluded) and visited the caliph in Khartoum (about which he presented a report to the British Foreign Secretary). Returning to Europe, Holmes spent several months in the south of France, in Montpellier, where he was engaged in research on substances obtained from coal tar.
In 1894, Holmes unexpectedly showed up in London. After eliminating the remnants of the Moriarty criminal group, Holmes again settles on Baker Street. Dr. Watson moves there too.
In 1904, Holmes retired and left London for Sussex, where he was engaged in bee breeding.

The last described Holmes case dates back to 1914 (the story “His Farewell Bow”). Holmes here is about 60 years old (“He could have been about sixty years old”). Arthur Conan Doyle mentions the future fate of Sherlock Holmes several times. From the story “The Devil's Foot” it follows that Dr. Watson received a telegram from Holmes with a proposal to write about the “Cornish Horror” in 1917, therefore, both friends survived the First World War safely, although they live separately.

Later in the story “The Man on All Fours,” Watson again indirectly hints at the date of publication of this case to the general public and about the fate of Holmes: Mr. Sherlock Holmes has always been of the opinion that I should publish the amazing facts connected with the case of Professor Presbury, in order to at least , in order to put an end once and for all to the dark rumors that stirred up the university twenty years ago and were still repeated in every possible way in London scientific circles. For one reason or another, however, I was long deprived of such an opportunity, and the true story of this curious incident remained buried at the bottom of the safe, along with many, many records of the adventures of my friend. And now we have finally received permission to make public the circumstances of this case, one of the very last that Holmes investigated before leaving practice... One Sunday evening, in early September 1903...

Watson says “we got it,” meaning, of course, himself and Holmes; If the actions of the hero of the story, Professor Presbury, rocked scientific circles in 1903, and this was “twenty years ago,” then it is not difficult to conclude that both Holmes and Watson are alive and well in 1923.

Sherlock Holmes method

Based on all the facts and evidence, a complete picture of the crime is built.
Based on the obtained picture of the crime, the only accused person corresponding to it is searched.

In terms of terminology, Holmes rather used the “inductive method” (a general judgment is made on the basis of particulars: cigarette butt-weapon-motive-personality, therefore Mr. X is a criminal). The deduction, in this case, would look like this: Mr. X is the only person with a dark past surrounded by the victim, therefore, it was he who committed the crime.

When forming an idea of ​​the crime scene, Holmes uses strict logic, which allows him to reconstruct a single picture from scattered and individually insignificant details as if he had seen the incident with his own eyes.

The key points of the method are observation and expert knowledge in many practical and applied fields of science, often related to forensics. Here Holmes's specific approach to understanding the world is manifested, purely professional and pragmatic, seeming more than strange to people unfamiliar with Holmes' personality. Having the deepest knowledge in areas specific to forensic science, such as soil science or typography, Holmes does not know basic things. For example, Holmes does not know the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun, because this information is completely useless in his work.

In most cases, Holmes is faced with carefully planned and complexly executed crimes. At the same time, the range of crimes is quite wide - Holmes investigates murders, thefts, extortion, and sometimes he comes across situations that at first glance (or ultimately) do not have the elements of a crime at all (the incident with the king of Bohemia, the case of Mary Sutherland, the story of a man with split lip, Lord St. Simon's case)

Sherlock Holmes prefers to act alone, performing all investigative functions in one person. He is assisted by John Hamish Watson and the staff of Scotland Yard, but this is not of a fundamental nature. Holmes finds evidence and, as an expert, evaluates the involvement of those involved in the crime. Questions witnesses. In addition, Holmes often directly acts as a detective agent, searching for evidence and persons involved, and also participates in the arrest. Holmes is no stranger to various tricks - he uses makeup, wigs, and changes his voice. In some cases, he has to resort to complete transformation, which requires the art of an actor.

In some cases, a group of London street boys work for Holmes. Holmes mainly uses them as spies to assist him in solving cases.

Interesting Facts

The founder of this deductive-detective genre is, contrary to popular belief, not Conan Doyle, but Edgar Allan Poe with his story “Murder in the Rue Morgue.” At the same time, Holmes himself spoke very contemptuously about the deductive abilities of Auguste Dupin, the main character of “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (the story “A Study in Scarlet”).

At the time the Sherlock Holmes stories were written, the house with the address 221b Baker Street did not exist. When the house appeared, a flood of letters fell to this address. One of the rooms in this building is considered the room of the great detective. The company located at this address even had a position for an employee to process letters to Sherlock Holmes. Subsequently, the address 221b Baker Street was officially assigned to the house in which the Sherlock Holmes Museum was located (despite the fact that this had to break the numbering order of the houses on the street).

Conan Doyle considered his stories about Sherlock Holmes frivolous, so he decided to “kill him” - a common technique of writers. After the publication of the story “Holmes's Last Case,” a heap of angry letters rained down on the writer. There is an unconfirmed legend about a letter from Queen Victoria to Conan Doyle that the death of Sherlock Holmes was just a cunning move by the detective. And the writer had to “revive” the character.

The five Soviet films about Sherlock Holmes (1979-1986), in which the main roles were played by Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin, are recognized as one of the best film productions even by the British, and since February 23, 2006, we can talk about the state level of this recognition - on the website The British Embassy in Russia published news with the headline “Vasily Livanov - Commander of the Order of the British Empire.”

S.Holmes Museum in London

On the Smolenskaya embankment in Moscow, not far from the newly built British Embassy building, there is an unusually beautiful and surprisingly believable sculpture dedicated to Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion Watson, who are among the famous heroes of the literary world.

The grand opening of the monument took place in April 2007 and was dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the first release of the book “A Study in Scarlet” by Arthur Conan Doyle, who managed to create a story about the famous detective. The international charitable public foundation “Dialogue of Cultures – One World” proposed the project “Folk Heroes in Sculptural Compositions”. A monument to famous detectives was erected as part of this project.

This is the only sculpture in the world where the legendary pair of detectives is represented together. The figures of the characters in Conan Doyle's works are depicted in human size. Next to Dr. Watson, who is sitting on a bench, stands Sherlock Holmes, holding a pipe in his right hand, an integral attribute of his image, and politely holding his left hand behind his back. Apparently, he is expressing to a colleague some of his thoughts about a certain investigation.

The installation of the monument was preceded by a closed competition among Moscow architects, who competed to create the best sculptural personification of popular literary characters. The winner of the competition was A. Orlov. According to him, he took inspiration from the original illustrations of the artist Sidney Paget, who first depicted Holmes in a hunting hat, and from the images of heroes created by cinematographers Vitaly Solomin and Vasily Livanov

Fans of the detective genre who are fond of reading the works of Conan Doyle and love his heroes treat the installation of such a monument with pride and admiration. He once again reminds them of the exciting events and fascinating moments in the books of the famous author.

In March 1990, a permanent museum-apartment of Sherlock Holmes opened in London at 221b Baker Street - at the address associated with the name of the great detective and detective. The house, built in 1815, was declared an architectural and historical monument by the British government.

Cm.

There are many memorial signs around the world associated with the name of Holmes. Plaques adorn the Criterion bar in Piccadilly, where Watson first learned of Holmes; the chemistry laboratory at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where their first meeting took place; the vicinity of the Reichenbach Falls (Switzerland) and Maiwand (Afghanistan), where Watson received his mysterious wound.

There are no less monuments to Holmes. His first statue appeared on September 10, 1988 in Meiringen (Switzerland), its author is sculptor John Doubleday.

Holmes' apartment museum was opened in the building of the old English church of Meiringen - a complete copy of the one at 221 B Baker Street in London. And at the same time, the adjacent street was named Baker Street. In 1987, a statue of the detective was unveiled.

The entire “corner” near the church and statue is covered with enlarged old clippings from the Strand magazine, which published stories about Sherlock with magnificent illustrations by Sidney Page (1860-1908), who is recognized as the best illustrator of the Holmes and Watson series. Bronze Holmes rests on a piece of rock, having prudently made room for a tourist with a camera. In fact, he indulges in reflection before the last battle with Moriarty (all the details of which are engraved on special memorial plaques).

The next statue of the famous detective was unveiled on October 9, 1988 in Karuizawa (Japan), sculptor - Yoshinori Sato.

The honor of erecting the world's first full-length monument to Holmes fell to... Japan. The sculpture can be seen in the city of Karuizawa, where the most famous Japanese translator of “Holmes” Nobuhara Ken lived, who worked on the cycle about the adventures of the detective for 30 years, from 1923 (“The Hound of the Baskervilles”) to 1953 (complete collection).

Certain difficulties arose with the installation of the monument - there were fears that the European style of the Holmes statue would not fit into the classical Japanese look of the city, but in the end, persistent enthusiasts of the project prevailed. The monument was made by the famous Japanese sculptor Sato Yoshinori and opened on October 9, 1988 - just a month after Switzerland. What the Japanese Holmes is thinking about is not precisely established. Probably about translation difficulties.

In 1991, the turn came to Edinburgh. Here, in the homeland of Conan Doyle, the third monument to Sherlock Holmes was unveiled on June 24, 1991, which caused considerable excitement among Stevenson's admirers - what about the monument to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, huh? Stevenson remained on the sidelines this time, but the Edinburgh Federation of Builders was luckier - the opening of the monument was timed to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of its creation.

Edinburgh Holmes is set on Picardy Place, the birthplace of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The bronze sculpture was sculpted by Gerald Lang.

In London, a monument to the world's most famous detective and detective Sherlock Holmes was unveiled on September 24, 1999 at the Baker Street metro station.

Holmes appeared thoughtfully looking into the distance, dressed for the rainy London weather - in a long raincoat, a hat with a small brim and with a pipe in his right hand.

The author of the three-meter bronze monument was the famous English sculptor John Doubleday.

And on April 27, 2007, a monument to the great detective by Andrei Orlov was opened on Smolenskaya Embankment in Moscow, near the British Embassy. This was the first monument where Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are depicted together. This is understandable. Our popularly beloved television series is not about deduction with common sense, but about friendship, about the local way of talking in the kitchen, about ideal relationships between people. In the sculptures one can discern the faces of actors Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin, who at one time played the roles of these Conan Doyle heroes.

The opening of the monument was timed to coincide with the 120th anniversary of the publication of the first book about the adventures of a private detective - the story “A Study in Scarlet.” “The composition of the monument was determined from the very beginning - it had to be a small-sized urban sculpture, with a bench so that a person could sit on this bench and come into contact with the images of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson,” said the author of the monument, Andrei Orlov.

Russian actor Vasily Livanov, who was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain for the best embodiment of the image of the legendary Sherlock Holmes, took part in the creation of the monument.

There is a saying that if you sit between Holmes and Watson and touch the doctor's notebook, many problems will be solved.

But in Riga there is no monument to the heroes of Conan Doyle yet. But it is Riga that is the only city in the world where Sherlock Holmes' birthday is celebrated. For the second year now, Riga residents are organizing a celebration in honor of the famous detective’s birthday.

And although the great detective, a character in Conan Doyle’s works, has nothing to do with the Baltic states, in the Latvian capital he is considered almost a fellow countryman. And all because it was here, from 1979 to 1986, that the television series “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson”, directed by Igor Maslennikov, was filmed, in which the main role was played by actor Vasily Livanov.

Old Riga has been successfully transformed into London's Baker Street. Holmes, performed by Livanov, was recognized as one of the best screen images of the great detective, for which Vasily Livanov was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

14 years ago, the most famous monument to probably the most famous detective in the world was unveiled on Baker Street. On this occasion, we decided to collect in one selection the most interesting and simply the best sculptural compositions dedicated to Sherlock Holmes.

Baker Street, London

It would seem that on this London street, made famous thanks to the detective novels of Arthur Conan Doyle, a monument to its most famous resident, whose fictional status does not at all interfere with his popularity, should have appeared a long time ago. Somewhere at the beginning of the century, after 1927, when the last book about the adventures of a British detective who never parted with his pipe and violin was published.

But no, the house-museum in house 221-b, where, according to the plot of the novels, Mr. Holmes lived, was opened only in 1990, and the monument - even later. But, despite his youth, it is the thoughtful figure of Sherlock with a pipe in his hand, perched at the exit of the metro station, that is considered the main monument to the famous detective.

Meiringen, Switzerland

Amazingly, it was not the British, but the Swiss who were the first to honor the memory of the most famous literary character. And they did it very diligently. Bronze Sherlock Holmes thoughtfully smokes a pipe, perched on a stone, waiting for a battle with the insidious villain Moriarty. And on a very impressive area around it are hung replicas of old issues of the Strand magazine, where notes about the Baker Street detective first appeared, decorated with illustrations by the famous Sidney Page. And he is almost at home - the joke is that the townspeople gladly renamed the nearby street after the name of the London “sister”, and opened a museum in whose name it is clear. And the monument appeared in 1987 - also, it seems, surprisingly late.

And after giving yourself some thought to Sherlock Holmes and smoking a pipe, you can go to the outskirts of this town, where the beautiful Reichenbach Falls, the one from the book, is located. It is unlikely, of course, that your own Moriarty will be waiting for you there, but there is a memorial plaque on a stone with the profile of the brave detective - yes.

Karuizawa, Japan

A tiny town in Japan is clearly the place where you least expect to stumble upon a sculpture in which you unmistakably recognize the most famous British detective. The surprise intensifies even more when you find out that the local monument to Sherlock Holmes is the second one erected in the world in order, and it was only a month behind its Swiss counterpart. The choice of such a strange place for the monument to the British was due to the fact that it was in this town that the famous translator of Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels into Japanese, Nobuhara Ken, lived.

Edinburgh, Scotland

It’s no joke, but in terms of the speed of installation of the monument to Sherlock Holmes, the British were outdone even by their sworn friends from Scotland, which, however, is not at all surprising when you consider that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in the country of the Highlanders, in Edinburgh. The sculpture, which pays tribute to both the London detective and his author, perches on a platform in Picardy Place, where the famous writer was born.

Moscow, Russia

The Russian capital also paid tribute to the memory of either Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, or Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin. The monument to Watson perched on a bench with a notebook in his hand and Holmes standing proudly above him with a pipe appeared on Smolenskaya Embankment in 2007 according to the design of the eminent sculptor Andrei Orlov.

Photo: Monument to Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson