Horse cemetery (Saint Petersburg)

The horse cemetery in Saint Petersburg is located in the Alexander Park of the former Tsar Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo). It is a listed burial place for horses and is considered the largest horse cemetery in the world.

The horse cemetery was founded together with a sanctuary in 1826 by Tsar Nicholas I at his summer residence and was used for about 100 years. During this time 122 tried and tested horses of the tsarist family were buried there, the last in 1917.

First of all, a stable for the horses that had been ridden by the tsars was built in neo-Gothic style according to plans by the architect Adam Menelaws . It offered space for eight horses. The burial ground was created in the immediate vicinity of this stable. The horse graves were marked with stone slabs on which the names, dates of birth and death and other information about the horses were carved. The oldest graves are on the eastern edge of the burial site; the first horse to be buried here was L'Ami , on which Alexander I entered Paris. L'Ami died in 1831.

Well-known horses that were buried here were also Flora , one of Nicholas I's favorite mares and Cob , Alexander III's horse, which was also immortalized in a statue by the sculptor Pavel Trubetskoi .

The facility was later converted into a warehouse and scrap yard. Since the end of the 20th century there have been plans to restore the cemetery on the initiative of the French author Jean-Louis Gouraud . Currently (as of September 2010), however, the facility is in a neglected condition; most of the grave slabs have disappeared or are badly damaged. The inscriptions have largely become illegible due to weathering .