Description of the attraction
In the summer of 2008, a monument to Catherine II was erected in the city of Sevastopol. By the day the city was founded (225 years old), a bronze statue of the empress took its place on Ekaterininskaya Street (now it is Lenin Street).
The role of Catherine II in the fate of the city, and indeed of the entire Crimean peninsula, is very great. It was she who signed a decree on the name of the city in 1784, otherwise Sevastopol would have had a different name. The reign of Catherine II was marked by the victories of the Russian army over Turkey, and Russia received the long-awaited access to the Black Sea and Crimea.
Where the monument to the queen is now located, in 1854-1855 there was the residence of the Hero of the First Defense of Sevastopol, military leader and lieutenant general Eduard Totleben. He was also an important figure in the history of the city.
The monument to the queen is made in the form of a figure mounted on a round column, the base of which is a square. The monument has a height of -6, 35 m. The upper part of the column is made in the form of a hexagon and there is an image of the monogram of the queen, the Sevastopol Bay, together with the decree on the founding of the city. The queen is dressed in ceremonial clothes, in her right hand is a scepter - a sign of royal power, a scroll with decrees is in her left. Her face reflects greatness and peace.
The authors of the sculpture - Stanislav Chizh, together with the architect Grigory Grigoryants - used different materials for their masterpiece. For example, the hexagon and plinth are made of brown granite, the column is made of dirty green granite, the cartouche and the sculpture itself, which weighs 940 kg, is made of bronze.
The idea to erect a monument to the queen came from the City Council of Veterans. In 1997, the authors prepared a draft of the monument, and it was presented to the general public. Residents of the city expressed their approval on this issue. Due to the high cost and some political reasons, the project was realized only in 2008.
