Photos

  • Памятник Петру I (Екатеринбург). Photo 1

Description

The monument to Peter I in Yekaterinburg has an interesting history, starting with its installation in 1885 on the initiative of the Administration of the Yekaterinburg-Tyumen Railway. This bronze bust was installed on identical marble pedestals along with the bust of Empress Catherine I in the park near the dam of the city pond. The inscriptions on the pedestals spoke of the importance of these monarchs for the city: Peter I as the founder of the mining business in the Urals, and Catherine I as the founder of the city of Yekaterinburg.

However, in April 1917, the busts were destroyed by a revolutionary crowd of soldiers. Subsequently, in the 1950s, a plaster bust of the writer Maxim Gorky was installed on the pedestal that previously held the bust of Peter I.

In 1992, the bust of Peter I was recreated by sculptor Gennady Chekhomov based on surviving photographs. This bust was cast from cast iron at the Kasli plant and installed on an old pedestal in the courtyard of the Museum of Architecture and Industrial Technology.

In 2014–2015, the monument was moved to the Historical Square closer to the embankment of the Iset River, where it became part of an open exhibition of large-sized samples of Ural technology, owned by the Museum of Architecture and Design of the Ural State Academy of Arts.

Thus, the monument to Peter I in Yekaterinburg not only symbolizes the founding of the city, but also survived several periods in its history, from installation in the 19th century to transfer and reconstruction in later years.

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