Peter I Monument in Taganrog

The Peter I Monument in Taganrog is a monument to Peter I of Russia in Taganrog.

Peter the Great Monument

Памятник Петру I Памятник Петру Великому
close-up (2006)
Location	Historical Boulevard, Taganrog
Designer	Mark Antokolski
Completion date	1901
Opening date	1903
Dedicated to	Peter I of Russia

History of the monument

The idea to open a memorial to Peter I of Russia, who founded Taganrog in 1698, came to Achilles Alferaki, Mayor of Taganrog 1880–1887. The Russian Emperor Alexander III of Russia gave his permission on June 5, 1893.

In 1897, Taganrog City Council (Duma) issued a resolution to request the sculptor Mark Antokolski to produce a memorial to Peter I The Great. In April 1898, Anton Chekhov met with Mark Antokolski in Paris, France to arrange the production of a bronze statue. The statue was molded in the atelier of Thibaut Brothers in Paris. The pedestal for the monument was made in 1901 by the artist Eduards, owner of an atelier in Odessa. The monument was delivered from Marseilles to Taganrog on July 27, 1901 by the steamboat Despino.[1]

Petrovskaya Street near the central gates to the Municipal Park was selected as the site for the monument. The memorial to Peter I The Great was solemnly inaugurated on May 13, 1903 on Petrovskaya Street at the crossing with Campehnausen Street. The inscription on the pedestal reads: To the Emperor Peter I, Taganrog 1698-1898.

January 25, 1924 the monument was dismantled and placed in the Chekhov Museum, which was at that time located at Chekhov Library.

In 1933 the monument was enclosed into a wooden box in the court of Chekhov Museum.

In 1940, the Rostov Oblast government decided to re-inaugurate the monument, though not at its historical location on Petrovskaya street, but on Komsomolsky Blvd near the Taganrog seaport. The preparations began, but the start of the World War II prevented these plans from realization.

July 18, 1943 during Occupation of Taganrog, it was re-inaugurated by Nazi Germany authorities in front of the central entrance to the Gorky Park.[2][3]

In September 1948, during the celebrations of the city's 250th foundation, the monument was placed on Komsomolsky Blvd.

Old and modern views of the Peter the Great Monument in Taganrog

• 
  The monument on an old postcard (1907).
• 
  The Peter the Great Monument in the city of Taganrog (sculptor Mark Antokolski) as appears on a 19th-century postcard.
• 
  The Peter the Great Monument in the city of Taganrog (sculptor Mark Antokolski) as appears on a 19th-century postcard.
• 
  The monument sometime in 1942 on Historicheski Boulevard during occupation of Taganrog.
• 
  July 18, 1943, Peter I Monument re-inaugurated by occupation authorities
• 
  The Peter the Great Monument in the city of Taganrog (photo 2008).

External links and references

• Энциклопедия Таганрога. — Ростов-на-Дону: Ростиздат, 2003

1. Чеховские места в Таганроге. Путеводитель. Таганрог, 2004
2. Г.Н.Орлов, Л.И.Найговзин, А.А.Цымбал "Памятники Архитектуры, Истории и культуры Таганрога на старых открытках и фотографиях", Таганрог, "Лукоморье", 2008
3. "Епископ Таганрогский Иосиф", И.П.Павленко in the newspaper Юг Православный, №5 (146), May 2010