Monument to Peter I (Moscow)

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Side view from the Moscow Art Park

The monument to Peter I. (officially: Памятник «В ознаменование 300-летия российского флота» , German for example: memorial "to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Russian Navy" ) in Moscow is a statue erected in 1997, which depicts the Russian Tsar Peter I shows the big guys on a ship. With a height of almost one hundred meters, it is one of the tallest statues in the world .

description

The monument is about 96 meters high. It consists of a sailing ship on which there is a disproportionately large figure representing Peter the Great. He holds the ship's steering wheel with his left hand and a scroll with his right . Behind him is the mast of the ship with ropes and three sails . Under the ship is a pedestal that shows waves and several smaller ships. The large and small ships carry flags with St. Andrew's crosses . The sculpture stands on an artificial island made of reinforced concrete . This is lined with fountains that are intended to give the impression that the ship is moving through the water. Together with the island, the statue rises about 98 meters above the surface of the water. The support structure and the rope are made of stainless steel, the outer layer is partly made of bronze , the sails are made of copper . Various details such as the scroll and the St. Andrew's cross are covered with gold . The ropes are so interwoven that they cannot move. The sails consist of a hollow construction because of their lower weight. The construction weighs around 600 tons in total.

Emergence

Postage stamp with the design of a statue for Columbus, 1992

The statue was designed by the Georgian - Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli . Various claims have been made that Tsereteli initially created the work as an image of Christopher Columbus and offered it between 1991 and 1992 in the United States , Spain and Latin America for the 500th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America in 1492. When he is said to have not found a buyer, he is said to have modified the statue to transform Columbus into Tsar Peter. Other sources - including Tsereteli himself - are trying to refute these claims.

In fact, as a motif , Columbus occupies a recurring place in Zereteli's work; the artist has already dedicated several enormous statues to the navigator, such as the 45-meter-high Birth of a New Man , erected in 1995 in Seville , Spain . Another statue of Columbus Tseretelis is currently being assembled in Arecibo, Puerto Rican , which is expected to reach a height of about 126 meters (as of 2011). The work, known as the Birth of the New World , shows similarities in its composition to the Peter I monument: Both show a disproportionately large man at the wheel of a one-masted ship equipped with three sails; both figures have a raised right arm and the left hand on the ship's steering wheel.

The monument was approved by the then mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov , who is considered a friend of Tsereteli. Under Luzhkov, several Tsereteli works were set up in the city's public space, partly against popular opposition. The statue of Peter the Great was erected in 1997 on an artificial island in the Moscow River , directly in front of the branch of the water diversion canal . For this purpose, various elements - the ship, the pedestal and the figure of the tsar - were individually manufactured and assembled on site. The bronze parts were sandblasted , given an artificial patina and coated with a protective wax against weather influences. Ladders were built into the support structure to make the monument accessible for maintenance work.

The 300th anniversary of the Russian Navy was honored with the erection of the statue . Its foundation can be traced back to Peter I. The cost is estimated at $ 15 to 20 million.

reception

The work was rejected by a majority of the population. Prior to its establishment, there were campaigns in Moscow to prevent the formation. According to surveys, the majority of Muscovites find the statue unsightly. Another reason for the rejection among the Moscow population is that the BBC suspects that Peter the Great replaced Moscow as the capital of Russian tsarism and later empire with Saint Petersburg in 1710 . Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin described the statue as "ugly" and advised Luzhkov to encourage other artists.

The memorial generated similar responses abroad. In 2008 it was listed in the top ten ugliest buildings and monuments by Virtual Tourist . Foreign Policy also ranked it among the ugliest statues in the world in 2010. The memorial also appears regularly in other lists of this type.

A bomb attack on the statue on July 6, 1997 was prevented. With the help of special underwater equipment, the Revolutionary War Council group , responsible for several attacks on other monuments in the country, installed explosive devices under the statue. Thanks to an anonymous tip to the law enforcement authorities, the demolition was thwarted.

Immediately after the end of Luzhkov's term of office as Lord Mayor of Moscow, the acting successor in office, Vladimir Ressin , proposed on October 4, 2010 that the statue be moved. A decade earlier, the Chairman of the Federation Council, Sergei Mironov, had already brought up the Gulf of Finland off Saint Petersburg as an alternative location. This idea was taken up again. In response, the Saint Petersburg news website fontanka.ru held a poll in which 65% of the votes were cast for “Mironov's dacha ”. The St. Petersburg city council also rejected the project and instead suggested that the monument should be dismantled and used as scrap metal . Different cities then offered themselves as new locations. The expected cost of relocating the statue is estimated at 6 to 10 million US dollars. The Moscow construction supervisor Mikhail Moskvin-Tarkhanov even estimates that dismantling alone would cost 25 to 30 million US dollars. Marat Gelman , an art sponsor from Moscow, had declared that he could raise the necessary donations. Gelman is an avowed opponent of the statue and had already been involved in an action to prevent it from being erected.

See also

literature

  • Irina Titova: Lawmakers Fear Arrival of Peter the Great Statue . In: St. Petersburg Times . No. 1616 , October 8, 2010 ( article online on St. Petersburg Times website [accessed May 28, 2011]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Monumental and design work. In: Internet pages of Zurab Tsereteli . Archived from the original on May 25, 2007 ; accessed on May 25, 2011 (English).
  2. ^ A b c Monument to Peter the Great in Moscow. In: RIA Novosti website . Retrieved May 28, 2011 .
  3. ↑ a b c Moscow is eager to get rid of ugly and gigantic monument to Peter the Great. October 8, 2010, accessed May 25, 2011 .
  4. ↑ От шедевров Церетели люди просто обалдели. In: Komsomolskaya Pravda online edition . September 5, 2002, Retrieved May 26, 2011 (Russian).
  5. ↑ Самые страшные памятники Москвы. July 24, 2007, archived from the original on October 12, 2008 ; Retrieved May 26, 2011 (Russian).
  6. ↑ a b c d Upwardly Immobile: 15 Sky High Statues From 15 Countries. Retrieved May 25, 2011 .
  7. ↑ 1480. Статьи в Московском корреспонденте 15 августа, 1,4, 5, 7, 8 сентября 2007 года. Retrieved May 26, 2011 (Russian).
  8. ↑ Петр и Колумб - разные и люди, и памятники. In: Komsomolskaya Pravda online edition . October 5, 2010, Retrieved May 26, 2011 (Russian).
  9. ^ Elena Romanova: The Assembly of the "Birth of the New World" Sculptural Composition is Proceeding in Puerto Rico. In: Internet pages of Zurab Tsereteli . Archived from the original on July 4, 2012 ; accessed on May 23, 2011 (English).
  10. ↑ Fiona Govan: Too ugly Christopher Columbus statue finds home after 20 years. In: Online edition of The Daily Telegraph . July 29, 2010, accessed May 23, 2011 .
  11. ↑ IMG_2643. Retrieved May 25, 2011 (models of both statues side by side).
  12. ^ A b Monument to Peter the Great, Moscow, Russia. In: Internet pages of the BBC . December 10, 2007, accessed May 28, 2011 .
  13. ↑ a b c d e Irina Titova: Lawmakers Fear Arrival of Peter the Great Statue . In: St. Petersburg Times . No. 1616 , October 8, 2010 ( online ( memento of December 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on the St. Petersburg Times website [accessed on May 28, 2011]).
  14. ↑ Без царя в голове. Памятник Петру Первому работы Церетели. Retrieved May 26, 2011 (Russian).
  15. ↑ «Памятник Петру может превратиться в символ». October 4, 2010, Retrieved May 25, 2011 (Russian).
  16. ↑ Moscow plans to remove 'Terminator' statue. In: The Telegraph website . October 5, 2010, accessed May 28, 2011 .
  17. ↑ Belinda Goldsmith: Travel Picks: 10 top ugly buildings and monument. Reuters , November 14, 2008, accessed May 25, 2011 .
  18. ↑ Joshua Keating: The World's Ugliest Statues. Foreign Policy , April 5, 2010, accessed May 25, 2011 .
  19. ↑ «Реввоенсовет» распустили. June 21, 2010, Retrieved May 25, 2011 (Russian).
  20. ↑ Peter the Great Statue: 98 meters of bronze, steel and copper. Retrieved May 28, 2011 .
  21. ↑ Kevin O'Flynn: In Wake Of Luzhkov's Ouster, Moscow Monument's Future In Doubt. In: Internet pages of Radio Free Europe . October 8, 2010, accessed May 28, 2011 .
  22. ↑ Russian cities in bid for Moscow's Peter the Great monument. In: RIA Novosti website . October 7, 2010, accessed May 28, 2011 .
  23. ↑ Sergei L. Loiko: Sail on bye-bye. In: Internet pages of the Los Angeles Times . Retrieved May 28, 2011 .

Coordinates: 55 ° 44 ′ 19 ″  N , 37 ° 36 ′ 30 ″  E