Monument to Peter the Great (Saint Michael Castle)
This monument depicts Peter the Great, first Emperor of Russia, perched on a horse. It was designed by Italian sculptor Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli, father of famous architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
The equestrian statue, completed in 1747, was erected only in 1800 in front of Saint Michael Castle. Paul I had an inscription added on the pedestal. It says ”To the grandfather from the grandson”. His mother had engraved the words ”To Peter the Great, Catherine II” on the statue of the Bronze Cavalryman (equestrian statue of Peter the Great on the Senate Square).
Dismantled during the siege of Leningrad and hidden, the statue was put back on its pedestal at the end of World War II.