Rostral columns are a symbol of naval victories. Marine figure, freeze where you are! Status of sea deities on the arrow

One of the most important projects in the life of the architect and draftsman Jean François Thomas de Thomon was the creation of the ensemble of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island with the majestic Exchange building and rostral columns. The portal "Culture.RF" recalls the most interesting facts about the construction and decoration of the spit.

Photo: Andrey Kekäläinen / photobank “Lori”

Exchange Giacomo Quarenghi. The history of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island began long before the building by Thomas de Thomon appeared here. In the 18th century there was already a Stock Exchange on this site. In the 1730s it was built of wood, and in the 1780s they decided to rebuild it in stone. The construction of the new Exchange was entrusted to Giacomo Quarenghi. He planned an oval-shaped building with two porticoes, to which granite stairs would lead. However, construction work proceeded very slowly. 10 thousand piles were driven into the ground, on which they managed to build a basement and walls, and the process stopped there. The treasury did not have enough funds, and the merchants, who also participated in the financing, categorically did not like the new Exchange. The main complaint was that the building did not fit into the urban landscape. Quarenghi offered to make changes to the building, but he did not want to indulge “rude tastes.”

Coffee as a source of inspiration. In 1805, Jean François Thomas de Thomon was commissioned to develop a new design for the Exchange building. Before this, the architect had not built anything so monumental, but in addition to the building, he had to design the ensemble of the entire Vasilievsky Spit. According to legend, Thomas de Thomon was unable to complete his architectural project for a long time. And supposedly the idea for the ensemble came to the architect over morning coffee. His wife set the table and placed two cups symmetrically on an oval tray, with a coffee pot between them. So Jean-François Thomas de Thomon imagined in front of him the entire geometry of the future square with the Exchange building and two rostral columns on the sides.

"The Plagiarist" by Thomas de Thomon. Thomas de Thomon was inspired by his own albums with sketches of Roman monuments, which the architect made during his trip to Italy. Thomas de Thomon also rethought some unrealized projects of fellow architects, for which he was even reproached for copying other people's ideas. When designing the Exchange building, Thomas de Thomon took into account the architectural trends of the time - the dominance of classicism, the wishes of merchant customers who saw the Exchange building as a symbol of Russia's trading power, and the peculiarities of the St. Petersburg climate. The monumental building was built taking into account possible flooding, so it was raised on a powerful stylobate - a pedestal. Thomas de Thomon's calculations came true. During the severe flood of 1824, when the city embankments were badly damaged by the Neva flood, the water reached almost the level of the stylobate, but did not break inside the building on the spit of Vasilievsky Island.

Quarenghi's brainchild - into bricks. Thomas de Thomon's design for the Exchange did not include the preservation of the old building. The architect proposed to completely demolish it and use construction waste to fill the embankment. The venerable architect Quarenghi, the author of the Hermitage Theater and the building of the Academy of Sciences, was furious when he found out about this. To reconcile the architects, Count Alexander Stroganov, head of the Academy of Arts, proposed holding an auction. He hoped that someone would want to buy Quarenghi's unfinished building. However, there were no takers, and the old Exchange was dismantled. At the same time, it was possible to save two million bricks that were used in the construction of the new building.

St. Petersburg Parthenon. Jean François Thomas de Thomon wanted to build a building similar to the monument of ancient architecture - the main temple of the Acropolis, the Parthenon. Thomas de Thomon turned his majestic Exchange with its façade towards the Neva. The rectangular building was surrounded by a colonnade of 44 columns. Wide stairs led to the granite stylobate on which the Exchange stood. Most of the internal space was occupied by a huge main hall with an area of 900 square meters. One of Thomas de Thomon's contemporaries wrote: “The inner hall is one of the most beautiful in the capital in terms of its vastness and proportions”.

Construction of the switch. Jean François Thomas de Thomon supervised not only the construction of the Exchange, but also the entire architectural ensemble of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island. The cape was completely “refurbished”. A semicircular square appeared in front of the Exchange, soil was added to the coastline of the cape, and a semicircular ledge was built on it. The arrow was decorated with granite slopes to the Neva, they were decorated with large stone balls. According to legend, master stonecutter Samson Sukhanov, who participated in the decoration of the entire architectural ensemble, cut them out by eye.

Rostral columns - lighthouses or monuments of maritime glory. The rostral columns on the spit of Vasilyevsky Island were built simultaneously with the Exchange building in 1805–1810. They got their name due to the fact that they contain decorative images of the bow parts of the ship - “rostrums”. Triumphal columns have traditionally been decorated like this since the times of Ancient Rome. It is believed that the rostral columns were originally conceived as lighthouses - resin was to be poured into a bowl at the top and set on fire, which would indicate the path to ships heading to the trading port. However, it is possible that the rostral columns always served only as a triumphal monument, in which the torch burned only on holidays.

Sculptural design of the ensemble. Initially, Fedos Shchedrin and Ivan Prokofiev were invited to create sculptures for the architectural ensemble, but the artists asked too high a price for their work. As a result, the Exchange was decorated by lesser-known masters, whose names remained unknown. Above the main entrance of the building there is a sculptural group “Neptune with two rivers”, on the opposite facade - “Navigation with Mercury and two rivers”. The sculptural design of the neighboring rostral columns was carried out by Joseph Camberlain and Jacques Thibault - they created four allegorical figures of Russian rivers -

Category: Curious St. Petersburg Tags:

19. View of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island. I.V. Czech. 1810s State Hermitage Museum.

20. Sculpture of the “sea deity” at the foot of the Rostral column. Photo: G.N. Popov.

21. One of the granite balls by Sukhanov on a postcard by A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, 1942. Ill.: babs71.livejournal.com.

The magnificent architectural ensemble on the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island is one of the most beautiful and recognizable places in St. Petersburg. The eastern cape of the island, washed by the Bolshaya and Malaya Neva, is called the arrow. Since the times of Peter the Great, a commercial seaport has been located here, to which hundreds of overseas ships came with goods.

The Strelka received its completed form as a result of its creation in 1804–1811. designed by architect J.F. Thomas de Thomon, a grand ensemble in the style of classicism: with a new Exchange, rostral columns and a semicircular embankment. All masonry work during the construction of the architectural complex was carried out by Samson Sukhanov’s artel. Field examination by A.G. Bulakha showed that Finnish coarse-grained rapakivi granite in pink and rare gray colors was skillfully used here in large quantities.

The main part of the ensemble is the colossal Exchange building, built in the form of a peripterus - an ancient temple, surrounded on all sides by a colonnade. The rectangular building rests on a high, powerful stylobate (the stylobate is the surface on which the colonnade was built) with a wide grand staircase. There are gentle ramps on its sides. Using Sukhanov stonemasons, the walls of the stylobate are lined with large rectangular blocks of “Finnish sea granite” in four rows: gray granite for the top two rows, pink granite for the bottom rows. The wide steps of the staircase are carved from the same stone in two colors (pink at the bottom of the staircase, gray at the top). For the columns, Sukhanov carved huge bases with a diameter of about two meters from monoliths of gray “Finnish sea granite”. All “sea Finnish granite” was mined in quarries near Vyborg. Sukhanov is credited with the execution of sculptural groups (“Neptune with two rivers” and “Navigation and Mercury with two rivers”) on the attic of the Exchange building based on the models of J. Camberlain.

At the same time, according to the design of the architect J.F. Tom de Thomon and engineer I.K. Gerard, a square with a semicircular embankment was built in front of the Exchange, intended for the construction of the main pier of the seaport. To level the contours of the coast and create a pier with a deep fairway, thousands of piles were driven into the river bottom, a huge mass of soil was poured, as a result of which the coastline extended 123.5 m into the Neva bed.

The construction and decoration of a two-tiered horseshoe-shaped embankment with a length of 561 m, covering the banks of the Big and Small Neva, was carried out by Sukhanov’s artel.

In 1807–1808 Granite stonemasons built a semi-circular retaining wall with a parapet from blocks of pink “Finnish sea granite”. It is decorated with a symbolic grotto in the form of an arch and decorated with 12 lion masks carved from granite with bronze mooring rings. From the outside, the wall is surrounded by slopes - ramps made of granite slabs laid at an angle, smoothly leading down to the pier site. On the sides of the pier, huge granite balls by master Samson Sukhanov are placed on massive cubic stone pedestals. The created granite embankment “of amazing purity, durability and beauty in decoration” harmoniously fit into the architectural ensemble of Strelka.

In 1810, the workers of Sukhanov completed the construction of the Rostral columns on the sides of the semicircular square at the descent to the Neva. The bases of the columns were carved from slightly pinkish, the pedestals from gray “Finnish sea granite”, and the fustas (trunks) of the columns of the Roman Doric order were made of brick. Rostral columns, symbolizing naval victories and serving as lighthouses, were decorated with metal rostras - the bows of ships and topped with tripod lamps. The height of the columns reaches 32 m. At the foot of the columns there are huge figures embodying, according to the plan of Thomas de Thomon, “the deities of the sea and commerce”, and now traditionally considered allegories of the Russian rivers Volga, Dnieper, Volkhov and Neva. They were performed in 1810–1811. Samson Sukhanov based on models by sculptors J. Thibault and J. Camberlain from Pudost stone. Perhaps the final “finishing” was done by the sculptors themselves.

When creating the ensemble of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island, the architect especially noted among the contractors the St. Petersburg merchants Samson Sukhanov, who headed the stonemason artel, and Ivan Zherikhov with a team of carpenters, who “compared to other contractors to the treasury during the execution of the work.” “For creating figures for lighthouses” Samson Sukhanov was awarded a caftan with gold braids (braid is a braided cord, tassel or fringe used to decorate clothes).

P.P. Svinin in 1817 described the new Exchange in an elegant style: “The Bordovo Exchange, considered the most magnificent in Europe, should now be inferior in beauty and enormity to the new St. Petersburg Exchange, which, in addition to the advantages of architecture, has a most charming and advantageous location.< …>The building consists of an oblong quadrangle with a length of 55, a width of 41, and a height of 14 ½ fathoms. It is surrounded by a number of Doric columns, which formed a beautiful open gallery around it, having 14 pillars on the long sides and 10 on both facades. These latter are surrounded from above by sculptures representing allegorically the Baltic Sea and the Neva.< …>This building stands in an open place. On the Collegium side it is separated by an area measuring 148 fathoms in length and 125 in width. In front of the main facade, facing the Neva, there was a large semicircular area for storing goods. Its banks are lined with granite slabs and have two round slopes leading to the surface of the river. At the ends of the square rise two majestic pillars, decorated with statues and ship prows< …>, of which the most remarkable is the colossal figure of Neptune with a trident, the work of the sculptor Thibault from Pudost stone. There are steep stairs inside the pillars, along which you can climb to the very top, which contains fairly wide platforms with iron railings. From here, in clear weather, the most beautiful views can be seen from all sides.”

This is one of the articles in issue No. 119 of the charity wall newspaper “Briefly and clearly about the most interesting” - “The Art of Stonemasons.” The reason for creating the issue was the 250th anniversary of the birth of stonemason master Samson Sukhanov. His name is not particularly well known now, despite the fact that Sukhanov and his artel built almost half of St. Petersburg in the first third of the 19th century. The issue continues the series "Stone decoration of St. Petersburg".

Thank you for your interest in our project.

St. Petersburg, like other European capitals, has dreamed of maritime greatness for centuries. Therefore, some of its corners are inhabited by statues of water gods, ancient and Russian, and there are such. And in terms of marine figures, the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island can compete even with world-famous celebrities: the Roman Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona.

Trevi Fountain, Italy

This is Rome. On its streets and avenues, on its piazzas and piazzettas, in its parks and squares, bronze and stone sea figures froze, as if in a child’s game: Neptunes and Poseidons; newts and naiads; sturgeons and dolphins; seahorses and seahorses; water snakes and water lizards; crabs and turtles. The tone and style of this figurative splendor was set in the mid-17th century by the sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini. He worked under the auspices of three Roman popes at once, each of whom he glorified with a magnificent fountain. And funds for construction were obtained by collecting extremely unpopular taxes on bread and wine.

Neptune fountain

The most magnificent water monument erected by Bernini in the name of papal grandeur is the Fontana dei Fiumi (Fountain of the Rivers) in piazza Navona. The cyclopean-sized structure, on top of which the sculptor erected a multi-meter Egyptian obelisk, symbolizes the four main rivers known at that time - the Ganges, La Plata, Danube and Nile. The main roles of the rivers are played by muscular stone men with tousled hair and beards, seated at the foot of the obelisk. On Piazza Navona there are two more fountains, although not as multi-figured as the central one, but no less outstanding, including the fury of the struggles. Bernini also had a hand in them: in the bowl of one, the mighty Neptune fights with an octopus, in the middle of another, a hefty Moor defeats a dolphin. Rome also owes the appearance of its most famous fountain to the genius of Bernini - the architectural complex on Piazza Trevi was built many years after the death of the great sculptor Nicola Salvi. Salvi did not hide the fact that his work is an imitation of the maestro’s work. Indeed: Neptune and the two newts bridling the water stallions belong to the same family of marine figures as the naked men from piazza Navona.

Spit of Vasilyevsky Island, St. Petersburg

But St. Petersburg is a city that dreams of greatness no less than Rome. At the beginning of the 19th century, Swiss architect Jean François Thomas de Thomon, commissioned and for the glory of Emperor Alexander I, erected an impressive complex decorated with sea figures on the marshy spit of Vasilyevsky Island. In the center of the ensemble is the Exchange building, built on the model of the Temple of Poseidon in Paestum and therefore surrounded by a Doric colonnade - so to speak, the temple of trade and market relations emerging in that era. From the portico above the façade, Neptune's chariot, drawn by hippocampi (sea horses), drives towards the Neva. Holding a trident in his left hand, the sea god extends his right hand over the city, and he guards northern Petersburg as vigilantly as southern Rome. The role of the Russian watchman's retinue is not tritons, but the powerful figures of the Neva and Volkhov. So we have our own figured geography of seas and rivers.

Rostral column

Peter I planned to move the city center to Vasilievsky Island, but did not have time. A century later, by the will of the emperor, the talent of the architect and the efforts of tens of thousands of serfs, the arrow became even more pointed. Countless wooden piles were driven into the shifting soil, and the cape was moved more than a hundred meters to the east through gigantic embankment work. As a result, the architectural complex is opposed to the flow of the river and seems to divide the Neva channel into two branches. The correctness and smoothness of its flow is checked by two huge Rostral columns, with trunks decorated with copper images of the bows of ships. These columns formerly served as lighthouses of the St. Petersburg port; hemp oil was burned on their tops. Now, on holidays, gas burners are lit in lamp bowls.

fountain of the Rivers Rostral columns: Dnieper and Neva

Marine figures settled in pairs at the foot of the Rostral. The architect Thomas de Thomon considered four statues made of Pudost stone as deities of the sea and commerce, but in literature they are called allegorical images of the main navigable Russian rivers - the Volga and Dnieper, the Neva and Volkhov. From a distance, the figures look no less impressive than the men from the Roman fountains, but upon closer inspection, the grandeur is slightly lost. The fact is that there was little money in the imperial treasury for sculptures; marble and bronze had to be abandoned; they made do with stone from the outskirts of Gatchina. Fragile and not very ductile, limestone is easy to process, but difficult to preserve. It was not possible to hire an academic sculptor; craftsmen of a lower rank, the French Joseph Camberlain and François Thibault, took up the making of the models. Soft stone sculptures often had to be restored, but in the 20th century they lost their ceremonial appearance. The figures were updated carelessly; for the October anniversaries they simply covered them with oil paint; breakage areas were covered with plaster or plaster; It even happened that steel pins were driven under the ribs to strengthen the structure. In the end, out of despair, Neva’s left hand broke off, and Volkhov lost his right hand. It was only in the late 1990s that the figures were restored following the entire scientific procedure, and now they finally look fresh.
At the Fountain of the Rivers in Piazza Navona, puny American students often wander around, studying Rome based on the text of Dan Brown's novel Angels and Demons. The famous writer also did not ignore the fountain dei Fiumi, in the bathtub of which the decisive battle of the main character Robert Langdon took place with a religious fanatic, who drowned a cardinal with the football surname Baggio at the feet of the Ganges and Danube. Nothing like this has happened at Vasilievsky Spit yet; it is still waiting for its hero and its writer. Our naval figures will probably also have something to tell the world about.

On Friday in my Blog: See St. Petersburg - and fall asleep soundly. The art of hostels.

- this is the spit of the Neva, the eastern tip of Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg. On the arrow there is Birzhevoy Square.

In front of the spit of Vasilyevsky Island there is the widest place on the Neva - here it is over a kilometer. Currently, the spit of Vasilievsky Island is one of the main attractions of the city; it is very popular among city residents and tourists. City-wide holidays, folk festivals and concerts are held on Birzhevaya Square.

History of Strelka

Construction of the spit began under Peter the Great. The Exchange building, customs, warehouses were built here, Gostiny Dvor was erected, and a port was organized on the very spit of the island. The space of the arrow was empty for a long time and only in 1767 it was decided to organize a horseshoe-shaped square here.

From 1783 to 1797, the main building of the Academy of Sciences, as well as the concave part of the northern warehouse, were built.

In 1805-1810, a new Exchange was built and Rostral columns were installed. The customs houses, southern and northern warehouses were built in 1826-1832.

In 1896, a park was laid out along the perimeter of Birzhevaya Square.

In 2003, a memorial sign “Anchor of the Peter’s Era”, raised from the bottom of the Neva near the Shkipersky channel, was installed in the park.

The architectural ensemble of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island consists of:

Exchange building
Exchange Square
Exchange Square
Rostral columns
Memorial sign "Anchor of Peter the Great's era"
Memorial stone “Here was the largest center of foreign trade of the Russian Empire”
Strelka embankment
Square

Statues of sea deities on the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island

On the spit of Vasilievsky Island there are 4 sculptures - sea deities made of Pudozh stone, which are allegories of rivers.

There are four sea deities in total, representing rivers:

Neva,
Dnieper,
Volga,
Volkhov.

However, there is not a single historical document that would indicate that sea deities are allegories of rivers.

Photo -

Rostral columns

Arrow VO. Birzhevaya sq., 4kh

1805-1810 - architect. Thomas de Thomon J.-F.

1926-1928, 1947-1949, 1997-1998 - restoration

Rostral columns - one of the symbols of St. Petersburg - are an integral part of the ensemble of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island. Built according to the design of architect. J.-F. Thomas de Thomon at the same time as the central building of the Exchange in 1805-1810. (the grand opening of the Exchange took place in 1816). Two monumental columns of the Doric order are installed at the descent to the Neva, on the sides of the semicircular square in front of the Exchange building. They were supposed to serve as beacons and at the same time emphasize the importance of the Exchange Building as the center of the St. Petersburg port. The rostral columns are also a monument to the naval glory of Russia.

To draft the new look of the Strelka VO, Thomas de Thomon needed several years of searching. While working on the architectural ensemble, he created several different versions of her image. The compositional idea of the centrally located Exchange building and the Rostral columns flanking it arose already in 1801. The architect worked long and carefully to adjust the proportions of the Rostral columns. In the original design, the columns were decorative in nature and were small in size. Subsequently, the Rostral columns were moved away from the Exchange building, their size was increased, and sculptural decor was introduced. The final project was approved on February 26, 1804. After approval of the project, the “Commission for the construction of the exchange building and lining the Neva bank with stone” was created, headed by N.P. Rumyantsev. The monumental structures of the rostral columns were given great importance. This is evidenced by the fact that all work on their design and construction was carried out under the leadership of the Council of the Academy of Arts, headed by A.D. Zakharov.

Rostral columns (from Latin rostrum - bow of a ship) are monumental monuments symbolizing naval victories and the country's maritime power. The tradition of installing Rostral columns dates back to Ancient Rome. Rostral columns in Russia became widespread during the period of classicism.

Rostral columns appeared on the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island in 1810. It is believed that one of them was a lighthouse for ships on the Malaya Neva, the other indicated the way to the Bolshaya Neva. The lighthouses were lit at night and in fog, and served until 1885, when the trading port was transferred to Gutuevsky Island.

The height of each column is 32 m. The columns are decorated with metal sculptural images of rostra - the bows of ships and images of anchors. There are 4 sculptures at the foot of the Rostral columns. The sculpture is made of Pudost stone. On the tops, on square platforms, metal tripods with bowl-lights are installed. Access to the bowls is via spiral staircases located inside the columns. The columns rest on stepped granite bases, which simultaneously serve as pedestals for stone sculptures.

There is no consensus in determining the names of the figures at the foot of the Rostral columns. The assertion that allegorical images representing four Russian rivers are presented here (the southern ones are “Volkhov” and “Neva”, the northern ones are “Dnepr” and “Volga”) is not supported by documents and arose relatively recently. Thomas de Thomon himself wrote that “the base of each column is decorated with huge figures that symbolize the deities of the sea and commerce.” The attributes of the sculptures are quite meager, and none of them can confirm or completely refute the version that we have before us allegories of specific four rivers. Only thematic coordination with the sculptural design of the Exchange and some attributes speak in favor of this point of view - one of the male figures with his right hand squeezes the steering oar, and his left rests on a vessel from which water flows. The man at the second column leans on the lot with his left hand. Both women are depicted with seafaring attributes; one of them also holds a cornucopia filled with fruit.

Tomon intended to cast all the decorations of the Rostral columns in cast iron, but no one took on such a complex job. Therefore, in 1809 it was decided to make sculptures from Pudost stone and trophies from iron. Pudost stone was mined in quarries near St. Petersburg, not far from Gatchina, in the town of Bolshaya Pudost. The structure of this stone does not allow detailed elaboration of small volumes and surface polishing.

To create the sculptural decoration of the Rostral Columns, the “Commission...” turned to the Academy of Arts. The Council of the Academy of Arts decided to entrust this order to the sculptors V. I. Demut-Malinovsky, S. S. Pimenov, A. S. Anisimov, I. A. Kashchenkov, I. I. Vorotilovau, I. I. Terebenev, P. P. Sokolov , M. P. Alexandrov and I. M. Moiseev. But the price they asked seemed high to the academy, and a competition was announced. There were people willing to make sculptural groups for a lower price. Later it was possible to identify the authors of the sculptures. The allegorical statues were made according to the models of the sculptor from Antwerp I. Camberlain (Dnieper) and the Frenchman J. Thibault (Neva, Volkhov and Volga), with whom Thomas de Thomon was well acquainted. The male figure on the northern column - the work of J. Camberlain differs from the others in its greater dynamism and complexity of the silhouette. ? Execution in 1809-1811.

Triumphal columns are traditionally associated with power and strength. The personification of these qualities were the monumental figures placed at the foot of the columns. The composition and plasticity of the figures, designed to be viewed from afar, is noteworthy. All the figures sit in a distinctly frozen pose, only restrained internal dynamics can be discerned. The forms are identified in general. The composition of the figures retains the feeling of a stone block, which emphasizes the monumental nature of the figures.

The brickwork of the Rostral columns and masonry work during the construction of the Rostral columns were carried out by the team of master S.K. Sukhanov. The production of anchors and ropes was entrusted to the blacksmiths Shapov, Vasiliev and Korolkov.

The main decoration of the Rostral columns are the rostra. Since ancient times, anchors and rostra served as trophies obtained in naval battles. On the trunk of each column, 8 ship rostra with various decorations are mounted symmetrically in 4 tiers. The largest pair of them is located at the bottom of the column. One bow faces the Exchange and the other faces the river. The rostra is decorated with the figure of a river deity - a naiad. Another pair of rostra is located perpendicular to the first, it is decorated with the image of a crocodile’s head, seahorses and fish. The third pair of rostra is decorated with the head of a merman, and the fourth is decorated with images of seahorses. (newt, wolf)

The columns are also decorated with relief anchors.

At the tops of the columns there are metal tripods with bowls: in the 19th century. oil was poured into them, which was lit at dusk, and the Rostral columns served as beacons when approaching the St. Petersburg seaport. Access to the bowls was via spiral staircases located inside the columns. The lighthouses served until 1885; they were lit in fog and at night. Inside the columns there are spiral staircases leading to the upper platforms, where tripods with braziers intended for signal lights are placed. At first, hemp oil was burned in braziers, but the hot splashes fell down on the heads of passers-by. Then the resin was poured. In 1896, electric lamps were supplied to the lamps, but due to the high costs of electricity, this method of lighting was rejected.

The main work on the construction of the stock exchange ensemble ended in 1810.

During the Great Patriotic War, the decorative decoration of the Rostral Columns was damaged by fragments of artillery shells and aerial bombs. The post-war restoration of the sculptural groups at the Rostral columns was led by the sculptor I. V. Krestovsky. In 1947-1949, all parts were replaced by duplicates made of patinated copper sheets.

In 1957, gas was installed to the lamp bowls. This year (belatedly) we celebrated the 250th anniversary of St. Petersburg. During the celebrations, gas torches were lit for the first time. According to tradition, they are lit annually on days of festivities and celebrations.

Restoration work was carried out in 1926-1928 and 1947-1949. The last ones took place in 1998-1999.

Pudost limestone, to a greater extent than other rocks, is susceptible to the destructive effects of temperature changes, precipitation, and industrial emissions. Therefore, sculptures made from Pudost stone have to be restored frequently.

In the second half of the 1920s. the authorities of Leningrad were forced to urgently begin the restoration of city monuments (including the Rostral columns), because by this time many of them were in a catastrophic state. Famous professional sculptors were invited to carry out restoration work. Supervised the work of the sk. I. V. Krestovsky. About the state of the monument, Krestovsky wrote: “The sculptures at the time of their restoration, carried out after the October Revolution, turned out to be painted with oil paint, and more than once, and each time with a new color. All the sculptures from Pudozh limestone were ugly smeared with plaster, cement or plaster, not only in places of breakage, but also in completely intact places. During the restoration of the stone figures of the Rostral columns, two or three loads of extraneous cement, plaster and plaster coatings were removed from each of the figures.” And in the future, the restoration of lost parts was carried out according to established traditions - from cement mortars with the use of iron fastening rods and brackets, which became the cause of new destruction of natural stone. During subsequent repairs, usually carried out in a hurry on the eve of anniversaries, iron pins and nails were driven into the stone in places of loss, which served as reinforcement for cement finishing. The destroyed parts of the figures were replaced with new ones, made of cement or carved from another type of stone, and everything was covered with paint.

In 1996, the question of another restoration arose. When restoring the sculpture of the Rostral Columns, a technique was used that was developed by the Spetsproektrestavratsiya Research Institute and tested by the Hermitage staff during the restoration of the Admiralty. First of all, the sculpture was washed, sooty contamination was removed, and then biological damage was neutralized. Later additions made from foreign materials, which contributed to the destruction of the sculpture, were removed. The cleaned stone was strengthened, and exact replicas of the lost parts were installed in the damaged areas, making them in Pudost limestone. The fastening of missing parts and the removal of chips and cracks were carried out with a special composition of lime and marble chips. Hollow corundum ceramic rods were used to secure the lost elements. The technology for manufacturing the rods was developed at the Institute of Refractories in St. Petersburg. Employees of the Spetsproektrestavratsiya Research Institute proposed using corundum ceramics in restoration practice. The restoration work was financed by Baltonexim Bank.

(O. Mozgovaya. Rostral columns are a symbol of naval victories. magazine. Science and Life. N 2. 2000.)

Now at night, the Rostral Columns and other structures of the Spit of Vasilievsky Island are illuminated by spotlights. In youth slang, the Rostral columns are called “Torches”.

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(Monumental and decorative sculpture of Leningrad. Art. Leningrad branch. 1991. P. 35, Mary)

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(I. Lisaevich. I. Betkher-Ostrenko. Sculpture of Leningrad. Publ. Art. Leningra. Moscow. 1965. P. 37-44., Mary)

(Lisovsky V.G. Architecture of St. Petersburg, Three centuries of history. Slavia., St. Petersburg, 2004.

Pukinsky B.. St. Petersburg 1000 questions and answers. Norint., St. Petersburg. 2007.)

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(based on media material, Mary)

(Restoration of historical and art monuments in Russia in the 19th-20th centuries. History, problems: Textbook. M., 2008.)