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Monument to Peter the Great

The initiative of the construction of the monument to Peter I in Petrozavodsk in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Emperor belongs to Olonets Governor G.G. Grigoriev. He also allocated the place for the monument in the centre of the historic Circular Square, which was named Petrovskaya at the time.

The author of the monument is architect I.N. Schroder. The monument was put together in St.Petersburg in the workshop of A. Morand, the bronze casting was done at the Sestroretsky factory. The pedestal was made of gray serdobolsky granite according to the design of architect I.A. Monigetti by cutter Barinov.

Peter is standing upright with his left leg put forward. He is wearing his military dress coat; his decoration ribbon is hoisted over his right shoulder, the saltier on his chest, knee-high boots on his legs and a sword hanging on his side. The right hand of the Emperor is pointing to the original place of the foundation of Petrozavodsk, and the left hand is holding a scroll of paper. The front part of the pedestal has an inscription made with bronze letters; it says “”To Emperor Peter the Great, the founder of Petrozavodsk” and three different dates “1703-1672-1872”, which stand for the year of the foundation of Petrozavodsk, the date of birth and 200th anniversary of Peter the Great. The total height of the monument is 6.3 m., while the height of the figure of Peter I is 2.9 m., and the pedestal is 3.4 m. high.

The foundation of the monument was laid on May, 30, 1872, in the presence of the Governor, the representatives of the city authorities and clergy. The opening ceremony of the monument took place on June 29, 1873, during the festivities in honor of 100th anniversary of Alexandrovsky factory. In 1876 the cast iron fencing was added, but it did not survive up to the present day.

In 1918 the monument was dismantled and put into storage for a long time in the back yard of the buildings in Circular Square. Only in 1940 the monument was put up in Factory square nearby the museum of local history (now Alexander Nevsky Cathedral).

In 1974 the decision was made to have the monument reconstructed. Since 1978 the monument has been located at Lake Onego water front. In the vicinity of the monument there is a memorial sign presenting a brief history of the monument.