|
ALEXANDER COLUMN
From the creator of St. Petersburg's marvelous St.
Isaac's Cathedral came this monument to the Russian
military victory in the war with Napoleon's France. Named
after Emperor Alexander I, who ruled Russia in 1801-25
(during the Napoleonic Wars), the column is an excellent
piece of architecture and engineering.
The Alexander Column (Aleksandrovskaia Kolonna),
which is the focal point of Palace Square, was
designed by the French-born architect Auguste de
Montferrand and built in 1830-34. The monument is
155' 8'' high and on top of it there is a statue of
an angel with a cross (the face of the angel is said
to be modeled on the face of Emperor Alexander I).
The body of the column is made of a single monolith
of red granite which is 83' 6'' high and about 11'
5'' in diameter. Try to imagine that such a heavy
column (weight - about 1,322,760 pounds (600 tons))
was erected in only 1 3/4 hours at a time, when there
were none of the cranes or other machinery that we
are used to today.
The pedestal of the Alexander Column is decorated
with symbols of military glory. The monument is
particularly impressive on a sunny St. Petersburg
evening shortly before dusk, when the last beams of
sunlight are reflected in the polished red granite of
the column.
Metro: Nevsky Prospekt / Gostiny Dvor, exit to Kanal
Griboyedova and along Nevskiy prospect to the Palace
Square, opposite the Hermitage Museum
|
Articles 