"On the shore of desolate waves he stood, full of great thoughts"—every Russian knows these lines from Pushkin. The Bronze Horseman—a monument to Peter I—has become a symbol of St. Petersburg and Russia itself. A granite rock, a rearing horse, the tsar's outstretched hand—an image that has defined the city's visual identity for three centuries.

Creation History

Catherine's Commission

Catherine II commissioned the monument in 1766. The pedestal inscription—"To Peter the First from Catherine the Second"—was a political gesture: the empress positioned herself as a continuer of Peter's reforms....