Barclay de Tolly monument

The Barclay de Tolly Monument is a memorial to Field Marshal General Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly in the Latvian capital Riga .

location

The monument is located in the eastern part of Esplanade Park, northeast of Riga's old town, not far from the Russian Orthodox Nativity Cathedral .

Design and history

Monument from removal

Base with a new function on May 1, 1919

Planning for the memorial began in 1911 in preparation for the 100th anniversary of Napoleon's Russian campaign in 1812 , which is known in Russian as the Patriotic War. Barclay de Tolly had made decisive contributions to this war on the Russian side. A building commission was established, donations were collected and a design competition was held. With a total height of up to eight meters, the monument was to consist of a bronze statue on a granite base . One of the 44 designs was won by the sculptor Wilhelm Wandschneider, who lives in Charlottenburg , Germany .

The result was a 4.77 meter tall, two tonne sculpture depicting Barclay de Tolly on a base made of Finnish granite. The inauguration of the monument took place on October 13, 1913.

On the pedestal is the name Barclay de Tollys in Russian :

Генералфельдмаршал

князь

Барклай-де-Толли

(German: Generalfeldmarschall Fürst Barclay de Tolly )

However, the monument was removed from the base as early as 1915. It was evacuated before German troops approached during the First World War . When transported by ship, the ship went down in an attack. It was on board the steamer Serbino , which was sunk on August 16, 1915 on the way from Riga to Saint Petersburg by the German submarine SM U 9 by torpedo fire near the island of Worms .

An approx. 70 cm model was preserved. Based on this model, the sculptors Alexei Murzin and Iwan Korneew made a copy of the monument in 2002 and placed it on the base that had been preserved. The new inauguration took place on July 1st, 2002.

In the lower part of the base there is a brass plate with brief information about de Tolly in Latvian , English and Russian.

Web links

Commons : Barclay de Tolly Monument - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

56.954589 24.116283Coordinates: 56 ° 57 ′ 16.5 ″ N , 24 ° 6 ′ 58.6 ″ E

[1] Monument to Barclay de Tolly on www.liveriga.com

[2] SS Serbino (+1915) on www.wrecksite.eu (English)