The Bronze Horseman, the symbol of St. Petersburg, is actually made not of copper, but of bronze. The monument was opened in 1782 at the behest of Empress Catherine II. That year marked the 100th anniversary of the accession to the throne of young Peter. And they began to call the monument “copper” only in 1833, with the light hand of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, who wrote the poem “The Bronze Horseman”. The weight of the monument is 8 tons, and the height is 5 meters.

The famous sculptor Etienne Maurice Falconet was invited from Paris to work on this majestic monument. For work, he was given two horses from the imperial stables - Caprice and Diamond. Guards officers reared their horses on the platform, and the sculptor made sketches.

It took the master 12 years to make a plaster sketch of the monument. Several times Catherine demanded that the proposed option be remade. But the emperor’s head was made by the sculptor’s young assistant, Marie-Anne Colot.

The Empress liked the work, and Marie-Anne received a lifelong pension.
Finding a foundry capable of casting such a grandiose figure also proved difficult. Emelyan Khailov, a cannon master, decided to take on the job. Together with Falcone, they spent a long time selecting the composition of the alloy and conducting tests. By the way, it was Khailov who saved the work from collapse. During casting, the clay mold suddenly burst, and hot metal flowed to the ground. The workers fled in horror, but Khailov, at the risk of his life, managed to fix the leak.

Falconet initially planned to erect a monument to Peter on a huge granite pedestal. Moreover, granite must be monolithic. After a long search, such a boulder was found 12 versts from the capital. Local residents called it “Thunder Stone” because, according to legend, a thunderstorm hit it, leaving a large crack.
Catherine the Second stated that she would pay 7,000 rubles to anyone who could deliver a block weighing 2,000 tons to Senate Square. A certain engineer Marinos Carbury took on the risky business. On a huge wooden platform on logs covered with copper, the gigantic stone was sent on its way. For almost a year, the stone was dragged to the Gulf of Finland, where it was loaded onto a barge. The granite was delivered to the appointed place on September 23, 1770. The delighted Catherine ordered a commemorative medal to be made for this occasion with the inscription: “Like daring.” Interestingly, the monument itself was installed on the stone only 12 years later.

The grand opening of the monument took place on August 18, 1782. It is interesting that Falcone himself was no longer in Russia at that time. He left our country back in 1778. On Catherine's instructions, Prince Golitsin visited him in Europe and presented him with a commemorative medal.

The snake on the monument was no longer made by Falconet, but by the Russian sculptor Fyodor Gordeev. The snake is the third point of support and gives the monument more stability.

An interesting fact is that Peter points his hand towards Sweden, with which Russia waged a war for more than 20 years for access to the Baltic Sea. And in Stockholm there is a monument to Charles XII, with whom the Russian emperor waged war. Karl's hand is directed towards St. Petersburg.

The monument to Peter I, called the Bronze Horseman by Alexander Pushkin, is one of the symbols of the Northern capital. Erected by the will of Catherine II, it has been decorating Senate Square for more than 200 years.

Today I will talk about interesting facts and the most mysterious legends associated with the Bronze Horseman.

Bronze Horseman: Catherine II to Peter I.

The creation of the monument turned out to be very troublesome: the plan of the famous Parisian sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconet, specially invited to Russia by Catherine to work on the monument to Peter the Great, was grandiose. To perpetuate the figure of the Russian reformer, it was decided to create a sculpture of him on a horse. According to the plan, the rider climbed a high cliff, leaving behind all enemies and thereby overcoming all life's difficulties.

Transportation of Thunder Stone

The first test was to find a stone that would serve as a pedestal. At first it was supposed to be assembled from individual stones, but attempts were still made to find a block of appropriate size. For this purpose, they even placed an advertisement in the newspaper: and, lo and behold, an ordinary peasant agreed to deliver a boulder to St. Petersburg. It is believed that a holy fool helped him find the right rock; the stone itself was called the Thunder Stone because it had long ago suffered from a lightning strike. Delivery of the pedestal lasted 11 months; the block weighing 2,400 tons had to be moved in the winter, as it pushed through literally everything in its path. According to another legend, the stone was named Horse because it was found on the island of the same name and in ancient times lay at the entrance to the gates of another world. According to legends, local residents sacrificed horses to the gods at this stone.

Illustration for the poem The Bronze Horseman by A. Pushkin, painted by Alexander Benois.

When the Thunder Stone was delivered to St. Petersburg, Falcone began working on the sculpture of the horseman. To achieve maximum realism, he built a pedestal with the same angle of inclination, and over and over again asked the rider to ride on it. Observing the movements of the horse and rider, the sculptor gradually created a sketch. Over the next eight years, the statue was cast in bronze. The name “Bronze Horseman” is an artistic device of Pushkin; in fact, the figure is bronze.

Unveiling of the monument to Peter I on Senate Square in St. Petersburg. Paper, engraving with chisel. Mid-19th century

Despite the fact that Catherine was delighted with Falcone’s project, the protracted work on casting the statue put her at odds with the sculptor. The Frenchman left for Paris without waiting for the grand opening. In fairness, we note that when the monument was presented to the public, at the behest of Catherine II, the coins minted on the occasion of the celebration were gratefully delivered to Falcone.

Bronze Horseman during the Great Patriotic War

The Bronze Horseman is the calling card of St. Petersburg. During the War of 1812 there was an idea to evacuate it, but this was prevented by chance. According to legend, a major in the Russian army, who was ordered to work on the monument, asked Alexander I for permission to leave the monument in place: supposedly he had a dream in which Peter I himself assured the Russians that while he was in place, nothing threatened his creation. During the Great Patriotic War, they were also worried about the monument, but they did not dare to remove it from the pedestal: they covered it with sandbags and boards. This is how the Bronze Horseman survived the blockade.

Muscovites greeted one of the tallest monuments in Russia with some criticism. In 1997, after its installation, a series of publications appeared in the Moscow media calling on city residents to write letters in support of collecting signatures for the demolition of the monument. There were about 5 thousand of them, most of whom criticized two points - the excessive height of the monument and its location.

However, as we can observe at the moment, the monument to Peter I in Moscow has received the right to life. The work of Zurab Tsereteli was erected by order of the Moscow Government on an artificial island poured at the separation of the Moscow River and the Vodootvodny Canal. Officially announced by the creator and customers as a gift to sailors for the 300th anniversary of the Russian Navy. The total height of the monument is 98 meters, the height of the figure of Peter is 18 meters.

Some Russian newspapermen called this monument a recycled statue of Columbus, which Tsereteli planned to sell in 1992 for the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America by Europeans, but never sold.

In 2014, architectural critic Revzin expressed his opinion regarding the overly active protests against the new monument. Thus, he pointed out that publications and posters “You weren’t here” began to appear too suddenly in Moscow, which must first be agreed upon, the budget reduced and received. Thus, this process was most likely started by someone, and then picked up by the townspeople.

The height of the monument is comparable to the height of the Statue of Liberty, which stands in New York.

Just don’t forget that the difference of 5 meters is due to the fact that the Statue of Liberty, as a solid monument, is only 46 meters, but it stands on a pedestal 47 meters high. From here the total height is considered to be 93 meters.

On January 24, 1791, the French sculptor Maurice Etienne Falconet, author of the monument to Peter I on Senate Square in St. Petersburg - the famous “Bronze Horseman”, which became one of the symbols of the northern capital, died in Paris. The author himself wrote about his creation: “I will limit myself only to the statue of this hero, whom I do not interpret either as a great commander or as a winner, although he, of course, was both. The personality of the creator, legislator, and benefactor of his country is much higher , and this is what needs to be shown to people. My king does not hold any rod, he extends his beneficent right hand over the country he is traveling around. He rises to the top of the rock that serves as his pedestal - this is the emblem of the difficulties he has conquered.”

From the very beginning of its creation, the monument was surrounded by legends in which facts were mixed with fiction. "RG" has collected 10 of the most interesting legends.

1. Blessing of Peter.

Falcone worked very meticulously on the image of Peter, collected historical material as much as possible, worked in archives, studied documents, met with people who communicated with the emperor personally. One legend says that the sculptor even spent the night in the sovereign’s bedroom in his palace in the Summer Garden, where the spirit of Peter himself appeared before him, and Falcone was forced to take an exam. Peter was satisfied with the Frenchman's answers, and the sculptor promised to serve the Tsar faithfully and create a monument worthy of a great statesman.

2. Thunder stone.

When working on the monument, Falcone encountered a problem - it was impossible to find a suitable stone for the pedestal. The sculptor planned to depict Peter as a horseman on a rock resembling a sea wave in shape, which would symbolize Russia’s access to the sea, conquered by the emperor. Falcone developed a sketch of a pedestal made of individual granite blocks, since it was unrealistic to find a solid block of the required size. But still, an announcement was made in the newspapers. Semyon Vishnyakov, a supplier of building stone for the needs of the capital, responded to him. According to legend, a holy fool pointed him to the right stone not far from Lakhta. In ancient times, lightning split a granite rock, which is why local peasants called it the Thunder Stone. They claimed that during the Northern War, Peter actually climbed to the top of this cliff more than once and surveyed the surrounding area.

3. Horse on horseback.

According to another version, the huge boulder in Lakhta was called the Horse. Legend has it that once on Ladoga there was an island called Konevets, which blocked the passage to another world. The island was notorious, and in order to appease the evil spirits, every year local residents sacrificed a horse on it. This continued until the monk Arseny from Valaam arrived on the island in the middle of the 14th century. He prayed near the stone, sprinkled it with holy water, and placed a cross on top. Since then, demons flew out from under the stone, turned into crows and settled on the Vyborg shore. And where the crows nested, a rock in the shape of a horse also appeared. This is what Semyon Vishnyakov allegedly found.

It is also believed that when the cult stone, which preserved pagan beliefs, began to be exported to St. Petersburg, local residents tried to prevent this. And when they realized that nothing could be done, they cursed him.

4. Monument to Lisette.

Another legend says that in the image of the “Bronze Horseman” not only Peter I himself is depicted, but also his beloved stallion Lisette. The tsar bought this horse spontaneously from merchants he met when he was returning from the Great Embassy, ​​having overpaid an extra “100 Dutch chervonets” for it. He really liked this brown horse. And he immediately called her Lisette, which is unusual for a horse. Allegedly in honor of a girl at the court of the Saxon king, with whom Peter had an affair. Lisette was a “one-master horse,” Petra obeyed unquestioningly, but the grooms suffered with her. The horse served his owner for about 10 years, and when he died, Peter ordered a stuffed animal to be made. It is still kept in the Zoological Museum.

In fact, when Falcone was making sketches for the future sculpture, a guards officer on Oryol trotters from the imperial stable posed for him, who over and over again jumped onto a special pedestal and sharply pulled the horse back. The stuffed horse of Peter I has nothing to do with it, which means the monument cannot be a monument to Lisette.

5. Horseman of the Apocalypse.

When the monument to Peter was unveiled in 1782, the Old Believers living in the vicinity of St. Petersburg called him the “Horseman of the Apocalypse,” “whose name is death; and hell followed him; and power was given to him over the fourth part of the earth - to kill with sword and hunger, and pestilence, and the beasts of the earth." The Old Believers, in their rejection of Peter's reforms, saw parallels between biblical prophecy and the actions of the emperor.

6. Blasphemer.

Another ancient legend about the monument, absolutely fantastic, says that the king, in the place where the sculpture was installed, jumped on a horse from one bank of the Neva to the other. Twice with the words “Everything is God’s and mine,” he jumped over successfully, but the third time he misspoke, said, “Everything is mine and God’s,” thereby placing himself above God, and turned to stone. In another version of this legend, he fell into the water, caught a cold and became seriously ill, and when he recovered, he never allowed himself or those close to him to blaspheme again.

7. Snake-savior.

According to another legend, in his feverish delirium Peter imagined that the Swedes were advancing. The king jumped on his horse and rushed towards the Neva. But then a snake crawled out and wrapped itself around the horse’s legs, preventing him from jumping into the water and saving Peter from death.

The snake is indeed part of the monument. By the way, it was not sculpted by Falcone, but by the Russian sculptor Gordeev. The snake is the third fulcrum of the sculpture. In the symbolism of that time, it means envy, enmity, obstacles put in front of Peter and trampled upon by him.

8. Confrontation between the emperors.

They say that Peter points his hand towards Sweden, the main enemy of Russia in those days. And that in the center of Stockholm there is a monument to Charles XII, Peter’s main opponent, who points his hand towards St. Petersburg.

9. Dream of Major Baturin.

This is the most famous legend about the Bronze Horseman. In 1812, during the Napoleonic invasion, Alexander I ordered the monument to be removed to the Vologda province. However, the unknown Major Baturin began to be haunted by the same dream, in which the statue comes to life, leaves its pedestal and jumps to Kamenny Island, where the emperor then lived in the palace. Alexander I comes out to meet his royal ancestor, and Peter says to him: “Young man, what have you brought my Russia to! But as long as I am in place, my city has nothing to fear.” The rider turns back, and all you can hear is the clatter of metal hooves on the stones of the pavement. This dream was reported to Alexander I. He was so impressed that he canceled the evacuation of the monument. And indeed, Napoleon did not reach St. Petersburg.

Literary scholars also see parallels between the plot of this legend and Pushkin’s poem “The Bronze Horseman.” By the way, the monument began to be called that with the light hand of the poet. In fact, it is cast from bronze.

10. Guardian of the city.

During the Great Patriotic War, there was a popular legend among Leningraders that as long as the monuments to Peter and the great commanders Suvorov, Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly stood in their places, uncovered, the enemy would not enter the city. And indeed, despite the 900 days of the siege, Nazi troops were never able to take Leningrad. And the monuments themselves remained intact. True, the “Bronze Horseman” was still protected from German bombs and shells: it was covered with boards and lined with sandbags.

In August 1782, a monument to Peter the Great, now better known as the “Bronze Horseman,” was inaugurated in St. Petersburg. The inscription on the pedestal reads: “Peter I - Catherine II, summer 1772” on one side, and “Petro primo Catharina secunda” (Latin) on the other, thereby emphasizing the empress’s intention: to establish a line of succession, inheritance between the actions of Peter and her own activities...

1. Contrary to its name, “The Bronze Horseman” does not contain a single gram of copper. The monument to Peter the Great was cast from bronze, as originally intended. The explanation for this oddity is the simplest - in the 18th-19th centuries in Russian the word “copper” was allowed to be used in relation to bronze.

2. Officially, the author of the monument is considered to be the French sculptor Etienne Falconet, who was recommended to Empress Catherine the Great by the philosopher Denis Diderot.

However, a whole team of authors worked on the creation of the “Bronze Horseman”: the head of the statue was sculpted by Falconet’s student Marie Anne Collot, the snake was created by the Russian sculptor Fyodor Gordeev, and the casting of the statue was done by the foundry master Fyodor Gordeev.

The monolith from which the pedestal was created weighs about 1,600 tons. The “Thunder Stone” was found 12 versts from St. Petersburg, in the village of Lakhta.

3. “The Bronze Horseman” today is unthinkable without its majestic foundation - the Thunder Stone. The block received its name from local residents for a wide crack that appeared as if from a lightning strike. At one time, for reporting about him, the state peasant Semyon Vishnyakov received a prize of 100 rubles - a very large sum for Russia in the 18th century.

In its original form, the stone weighed about 2000 tons, measuring about 13 m in length, 8 m in height and 6 m in width. To transport the giant megalith to St. Petersburg, architect Yuri Felten developed a unique machine that made it possible to successfully solve an unusual problem.

The action of the machine for transporting the “Thunder Stone”. Engraving based on drawings by Yuri Felten. 1770

4. Before The Bronze Horseman, Etienne Falconet did not personally cast a bronze monument. The invited French casting master, however, was unable to fulfill the sculptor's requirements. From that moment on, all preparatory work for casting was carried out by Falcone himself.

In 1778, he left Russia without completing the project. Yuri Felten had to complete the construction of the monument. Falcone himself was not even invited to the opening of the monument.

Yuri Matveevich (Georg Friedrich) Felten

5. “The Bronze Horseman” is a classic example of Russian slowness when building something. 16 years passed from the development of the first sketches to the opening of the monument.

Empress Catherine II, having put forward the idea of ​​a monument to Peter the Great, was able to get what she wanted only on the 20th anniversary of her reign. But the opportunity arose to coincide the opening of the monument with the 100th anniversary of the accession of Peter I to the throne.

Opening of the monument to Peter the Great. Engraving by A.K. Melnikov, 1782

6. For the first half century of its existence, the monument to Peter the Great in St. Petersburg did not have any special name. Alexander Pushkin’s poem “The Bronze Horseman,” written in 1833 and first published in 1837, changed everything. The name turned out to be extremely successful, and now the equestrian statue of Peter the Great is not called anything else.

7. During its history, the Bronze Horseman has undergone several restorations. During the first of them, in 1909, a hatch in the horse's rump was opened, after which 150 buckets of water, which had penetrated inside through numerous cracks, were removed.

During a large-scale restoration in 1976, in which the best Soviet specialists were involved, most of the cracks that threatened the monument were repaired.

8. According to legend, St. Petersburg will not fall or be destroyed while the Bronze Horseman takes his place. During the siege of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War, the monument to Peter I was sheathed with logs and boards and bags of sand and earth were placed around it. The monument itself escaped Nazi bombs and shells, and the city was not taken by the Germans.