Description of the attraction
Perhaps nowhere else, except in St. Petersburg, you can see so many interesting and original monuments and sights. The flight of thought of St. Petersburg sculptors and architects is impressive: here you will come across monuments to a huge number of people and animals that existed in real life or on the pages of the books of great writers. Among those honored in stone or bronze are birds and cats, dogs and horses, photographers and kings, the Little Prince, and many, many other characters from history and literature. But among all the literary characters, there was one that stands out from the usual row. This is one of the main characters of Nikolai Gogol's story - Nose. And the Nose is located exactly where his owner lived, the collegiate assessor and, as he called himself for the sake of importance, Major Kovalev.
The monument to the hero of the fantastic story was erected on the facade of house number 11 on Rimsky-Korsakov Avenue in 1995, when the city was hosting the "Golden Ostap" (international festival of satire and humor). The nose is immortalized in pink marble quarried in Ukraine, Gogol's homeland, and mounted on a slab of gray limestone. The slab is 60 cm high and 35 cm wide.
Amazing things happen to the heroes on the pages of the works of the genius Gogol. The monument to Nose did exactly what Nose himself did in the story. Once, in 2002, one September morning, Petersburgers did not find Nose in the place where he was supposed to be. He seemed to go for a walk. And, after unsuccessful searches, a copy of the monument was made, which was somewhat different from the previous Nose (slightly smaller than the original and with a wart carved on the tip of the nose). A copy was already being prepared for installation, when suddenly Nose decided to return. And in the summer of 2003, the monument was found on Srednaya Podyacheskaya Street, at number 15, on the landing of the staircase. So, the real Nose returned to its rightful place, and it was decided to hang its understudy on the facade of the building of house No. 2 in Chernoretsky Lane (one of the buildings of the Museum of Urban Sculpture). Thus, two monuments to an unusual literary character appeared in St. Petersburg at once.
The idea of creating a monument to the Nose belongs to Vadim Semyonovich Zhuk - an actor, screenwriter, playwright. As for the author of the original sculpture, his fame can easily rival that of the prototype of the monument. The sculptor of the monument is a man of multifaceted talent who has brilliantly shown himself in many creative professions, such as a screenwriter, artist, director, costume designer, of course, a sculptor and others. His name is Rezo Gabriadze. Among his works - scripts for such famous films as "Mimino", "Do not cry!", "Kin-dza-dza". Gabriadze is also the author of the equally famous (and even, in some way, cult) monument to Chizhik-Pyzhik, a kind of symbol of St. Petersburg. In recognition of the artist's merits, Rezo Gabriadze was awarded numerous prizes and awards (USSR State Prize, Nika Prize, Golden Mask, Triumph, etc.). Rezo Levanovich is also the holder of the title of Chevalier of the Order of the Second Prize of the French Republic.
The story of the disappearance of the monument to the Nose, its return to its original place and the appearance of the second Nose would not be complete without mentioning the construction of another unusual monument to the Nose in 2006. This time, a monument to the Nose (N. V. Gogol!) Was erected in Kiev, on the facade of a house on Andreevsky Spusk. Indeed, according to literary scholars, the idea of Gogol's story was born in the brilliant head of Nikolai Vasilyevich in Kiev. Now "Gogolevsky Nose" is one of the main Kiev sights.
