Lermontov Duel Site (Pyatigorsk)

The Lermontov Duel Site lies at the foot of Mount Mashuk in Pyatigorsk. Here, on 15 (27) July 1841, the poet Mikhail Lermontov was killed in a duel with Major N. S. Martynov.

The first, temporary monument on the site was unveiled on 15 (28) July 1901, on the 60th anniversary of the poet's death, to a design by I. I. Baikov, chief architect of the Caucasian Mineral Waters region; around ten thousand people gathered for the opening ceremony. That monument did not survive - it was demolished in 1907.

The permanent obelisk was built in 1914-1915 and unveiled in 1915. Its author was the sculptor Boris Mikeshin: the monument is a stone obelisk with a bronze bust of the poet. The fence of heavy metal chains on concrete posts, with concrete griffins at the corners, was designed by the St. Petersburg sculptors L. A. Dietrich and V. V. Kozlov; Mikeshin himself was unhappy with this solution, calling the fence "anti-artistic and ugly," but it was kept nonetheless.

Today the Lermontov Duel Site remains one of the main places in Pyatigorsk connected with the poet's memory, and continues to draw tourists and local residents alike.