St. Petersburg is one of the significant cities in Russia tour because of the history and historical places inside the city and its suburban area. While it was only founded in 1703 by Peter I, it has turned out one of the foremost destinations for tourists who travel to Russia. There are several museums, historical places, galleries, palaces, religious places, gardens and parks, and many other places that you can visit on your St. Petersburg tour. The number of St. Petersburg attractions are so many that you need more than a simple short trip to St. Petersburg to visit all of them.
If you investigate the history of St. Petersburg inside its museums and history books, you’ll find that since birth, several prominent people have helped St. Petersburg to reach the next level of civilization and developed into a better city among the top European cities. Since Peter the Great, founder of St. Petersburg to the Nicholas II, the last emperor of Russia in 1917, many influential personages have ruled over Russia; among them, five rulers had the most influence on the culture, life, science, and social life of people of Russia and its capital city of St. Petersburg.
The first one is Peter the Great himself, who had founded the capital city, St. Petersburg; Catherine the Great is the second ruler in this order, which her reign recognized as the Golden Age of Russia, and many people had cherished her because of her effort to advance the culture, art, and social life of people in St. Petersburg; the third one is Nicholas I, who was a military figure and throughout his reign, the liberal Decembrist uprising had overwhelmed, and Russia empire had considerably enlarged; Alexander II is the fourth emperor of Russia in our list, who was acknowledged as the most enlightened emperor of Russia and one of the most respected emperors among people; the last one is the Alexander III, the peacemaker, who unlike his father had a conservative personality, and during his reign, Russia did not partake in any war, despite the conflicts with Turkey and Afghanistan.
Like any other historic capital city, you can find loads of sculptures and statues in the streets, squares, and parks of St. Petersburg. Since Russian rulers had the interest to express their personality in architecture and art, and also people of St. Petersburg had deep respect for their great people, you can find the sculptures and monuments to prominent people of Russia, including great poets, scientists, architects, writers, soldiers, generals, and especially rulers in every corner of the city.
The Bronze Horseman
Though there are multiple monuments to the founder of the St. Petersburg city, the Bronze Horseman is one of the most remarkable monuments to Peter the Great, which stands on Senatskaia Square (Ploshchad), surrounded by several major St. Petersburg attractions, such as St. Isaac’s Cathedral and Admiralty Building, and you can visit it on your trip to Russia.
The Bronze Horseman was built by the commands of Catherine the Great by the famed French artist Etienne Maurice Falconet. The platform is made of a one-piece of red granite formed a shape of a cliff, on which the equestrian figure of Peter the Great stands. While the statue of Peter the Great looks to lead Russia forward, his horse has stepped on a snake, which implies the destruction of the enemy of Russia. There’s writing on the cliff that says “To Peter the First from Catherine the Second” in Russian and Latin, which had shown the amount of respect that Catherine had for her predecessors.
There was a 19th-century myth that tells the enemy will never capture the city of St. Petersburg if the Bronze Horseman stands inside it. During the Second World War, the Bronze Horseman was one of the few sculptures that didn’t take down but protected with wooden shelter and sandbags. The statue remained virtually untouched during the 900-day Siege of Leningrad.
Monument to Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great is one of the favorite empresses of Russia because of her efforts to make improvements in the life, education, art, and social life of St. Petersburg. The monument locates near the Anichkov Palace off Nevsky Prospect. The sculpture was a brilliant design of the Russian artists Mikhail Mikeshin and created by the top sculptors of the time. The sculpture shows Catherine the Great in her official gown on the top of the pedestal; her statue is surrounded by the etched forms of most leading people of her time, including politicians, poets, military figures and courtiers; you can find Alexander Suvorov, Prince Potiomkin, Ekaterina Dashkova, and Gavrila Derzhavin among the craved figures. You can visit this monument on your tour to Russia since it locates on one of the main streets and attractions of the St. Petersburg tour.
Monument to Nicholas I
Nicholas I had a strict military personality, and the equestrian monument of Nicholas I perfectly portrays him as a ruthless military character. The figure locates on the St. Isaac Square, which is only fair since the designer of the statue was Auguste de Montferrand, who was the architect of St. Isaac’s Cathedral. Besides the statue of Nicholas I and his pony, there are also allegorical female figures, bas-reliefs, and other ornaments on the pedestal. Alongside Auguste de Montferrand, various artists and sculptors had worked on the remarkable monument, such as Nikolai Ramazanov, Pyotr Klodt, and R. Zaleman. You can visit this masterpiece on your trip to St. Petersburg.
Monument to Alexander II
Though the Church of Our Saviour on the Spilled Blood is the most famous memorial to Alexander II in St. Petersburg, there were several other sculptures erected as a monument to the most liberal monarch of Russia; but currently, none of them have survived except one sculpture by Antakolsky, which have been installed in the courtyard of Museum of Russian Art in Kyiv. On the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, a copy of ‘Alexander leaning on a sword’ was situated in front of the former Nikolaevskiy General Staff Academy. Alexander II was one of the most admired and fondly remembered emperors of Russia, who was assassinated by a terror attack. Both the Church of Our Saviour on the Spilled Blood and the monument to Alexander II are considered as significant attractions in Russia tour.
Monument to Alexander III
The Monument to Alexander III was one of the most controversial conclusions of its time. The more regressive part of the Petersburg society was angry with the powerful and exposing monument to Alexander III, but the democratic society had welcomed it quite well. The statue depicted the heavy-weighted tsar on his horse on Ploshchad Vosstaniya, where the present Hero City Leningrad obelisk has been erected. In 1937, the figure had removed from Polshchad Vosstaniya, and reinstalled in the inner courtyard of the Russian museum; there were various folklore beliefs and legends about the sculpture, one of which was a belief that the monument became the hostage of the Russian museum. The statue of Alexander III was moved to the entrance of the Marble Palace in the post-communist Leningrad era. Though it was said that location was a temporary place, it’s highly doubtful that the figure changes its location again. The Marble Palace and this monument are located in the historical center of St. Petersburg, which you can visit on your tour to Russia.
One of the most striking beliefs in Leningrad about the monuments of Russian Prominent Imperial Leaders was about the three horsemen, the statues of Peter the Great, Nicholas I, and Alexander III. It was believed that these three horsemen are the protectors of the city, and when the Soviet officials removed one of the horsemen (Alexander III) from its original location, the elders had seen the action as a sign of imminent misfortune. Even today, many people believed that the replacement of the horseman and the 900-day Siege of Leningrad were related matters.
Figures and sculptures around the former capital city are part of the main attractions of St. Petersburg. These monuments often located near or inside the top St. Petersburg attractive places, so you don’t need to change your tour to St. Petersburg routine program.
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