Description of the attraction
The monument to the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812 in Polotsk is one of several monuments installed by order of the Russian Emperor Nicholas I in the places of the most important battles of the Napoleonic war.
200 years ago, on October 18-20, 1812, an important battle took place in Polotsk, during which Russian troops under the command of Wittgenstein defeated the French troops under the command of Marshal Saint-Cyr.
In 1834, a competition was announced for the best design of a monument to the battles of 1812. The competition was won by the St. Petersburg architect Antonio Adamini. The chapel monument looked like a truncated octahedral pyramid, crowned with a dome-onion with an Orthodox gilded cross, typical for Orthodox churches. The middle part of the pyramid was surrounded by eight columns with Russian two-headed eagles.
Cast at the Lugansk plant, the monument was erected on Korpusnaya Square in Polotsk under the direction of the architect Fixen. The opening of the monument took place on August 26, 1850.
After the revolution in 1932, the monument to the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812 was destroyed and sent for melting down in order to cast a monument to the leader of the world proletariat from the resulting metal.
By the 200th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812, it was decided to restore all the monuments-chapels, about which an agreement was concluded between the Republic of Belarus and Russia.
In Polotsk, the restored monument was unveiled on May 21, 2010. Many eminent guests from among political and religious figures gathered at the grand opening, the brass band of the Belarusian Ministry of Defense played, reconstruction clubs performed, demonstrating the scenes of the famous battle in Polotsk.
