The monument to Peter the Great (“The Bronze Horseman”) is located in the center of Senatskaya Square. The author of the sculpture is the French sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet.

The location of the monument to Peter the Great was not chosen by chance. Nearby there is the Admiralty founded by the emperor, and the building of the Senate – the main legislative body of tsarist Russia. Catherine the Great insisted on placing the monument in the center of Senatskaya Square. However, the author of the sculpture, Étienne Maurice Falconet, used his own judgement, setting the “Bronze Horseman” closer to the Neva.

The Bronze Horseman, a monument dedicated to Peter the Great, has become one of the symbols of St. Petersburg. The tsar’s supporters said that the monument symbolized the greatness and glory of the Russian Empire, and that Russia would remain powerful unless the horseman left his pedestal. There are also legends about the pedestal of the Bronze Horseman. According to Falconet’s idea, it was supposed to be made in the shape of a wave.

A suitable stone was found near the village of Lakhta: it is possible that this is exactly the stone that Peter climbed more than once during the Northern War in order to see the location of the troops better.

The motif of the Bronze Horseman is placed by Russian literature at the very center of the “mystical Petersburg text” that is imbued with duality and surrealism.

The Bronze Horseman owes its name to the poem of the same name by A.S. Pushkin. Having lost his beloved Parasha in the flood of 1824, clerk Yevgeny wanders unconsciously around St. Petersburg. Having stumbled upon a monument to Peter the Great, the hero realizes that it is the tsar who is to blame for his grief – he founded the city on a flood-prone place and in a hostile environment. Yevgeny threatens the monument and the Bronze Horseman jumps off his pedestal and rushes after the madman. It is unclear whether the bronze idol chases him for real or not.

Ballet “The Bronze Horseman” can be enjoyed at the Mariinsky Theatre.