Gate at Victory Park. Gates and arches in Russian cities. Marble Arc de Triomphe in London

Since time, the most striking victories of the Russian people have been celebrated with some kind of majestic structure that will remind of the country’s feat. The Arc de Triomphe or the Moscow triumphal gate, erected in the early thirties of the 19th century in honor of the victory over Napoleon Bonaparte, is precisely such a monument.

History of the monument

The history of the monument goes back to the first half of the 19th century to the distant Tverskaya outpost, where it was originally erected, not from stone, but from wooden materials. The architectural structure was crowned by a chariot of glory; the cornice rose on monumental columns, which represented a majestic gate decorated with statues of liberators and images of the departure of enemy troops. But, since the monument quickly deteriorated and became unusable, they soon decided to replace the wooden arch with a stone one in order to preserve it for a longer period.

Initially, the idea of ​​​​creating the Arc de Triomphe belonged to the Russian emperor, who was inspired by the projects being built at that time in St. Petersburg, and wished to build something similar in Moscow. The project was entrusted to the most famous at that time Osip Ivanovich Bova. But lack of finance and lack of government assistance have been the centuries-old scourge of Russia, so construction was extended over several years. For more than a century, the legendary monument to the great victory of the Fatherland existed at the Tverskaya Zastava, and only in 1936, in connection with the reconstruction and expansion of Moscow streets and squares, a decision was made to move the famous gate.

Relocation of the Arc de Triomphe

The arch was carefully disassembled, the museum architects made careful measurements for subsequent restoration work, and the parts were placed in storage at the museum. It was not restored immediately, but only thirty years later. One can only imagine how complex and painstaking work fell to the architects and engineers of that time.

Using the remaining drawings, drawings and old photographs, it was necessary to restore the monument to its original form, filling in those details that had irretrievably disappeared. On the arch cornice alone, it was necessary to place more than a thousand independent parts! A huge team worked to recreate the lost fragments: using plaster casts, they re-cast the shapes of details of military armor and coats of arms of ancient cities. The panorama of the “Battle of Borodino” helped a lot in this process, some compositions from which were also used.

There was also a lot of controversy regarding the choice of location. Undoubtedly, when the arch was initially erected in the 19th century, it looked majestic anywhere in Moscow, since the nearby houses were not distinguished by their height, and after a century the capital had changed beyond recognition, and it was difficult to preserve the architect’s original idea among the high-rise buildings and highways.

The Arch was installed on Kutuzovsky Prospekt not far from Victory Park, where it fit perfectly into the bustle of Moscow life, reminding people of the great feat of the Russian people, who from time immemorial have stood guard over the Fatherland. The Arc de Triomphe is one of the most significant monuments of the Patriotic War of 1812, which silently recalls those great events sung by many writers of past years.

The construction of the stone memorial designed by Osip Bove lasted for several years due to lack of funds. The arch was decorated with Russian knights - allegorical images of Victory, Glory and Courage. Above them are high reliefs “The Expulsion of the Gauls from Moscow” by I.T. Timofeeva and “Liberated Moscow” by I.P. Vitali. On the cornice you can see the coats of arms of the administrative regions of Russia that participated in the war with Napoleon, figures of Glory and Victory. And the Arc de Triomphe is crowned by six horses with the goddess of victory Nike.

The inscription on the arch was chosen personally by Nicholas I: To the blessed memory of Alexander I, who raised this capital city from the ashes and decorated with many monuments of paternal care, during the invasion of the Gauls and with them the twelve languages, in the summer of 1812, dedicated to the fire, 1826. On one side of the arch the inscription was in Russian, and on the other - in Latin.

After reconstruction, the inscription on the main facade was changed. The new text was taken from a bronze foundation board embedded in the base of the Triumphal Arch: These Triumphal Gates were laid as a sign of remembrance of the triumph of Russian soldiers in 1814 and the restoration of the construction of magnificent monuments and buildings of the capital city of Moscow, destroyed in 1812 by the invasion of the Gauls and with them the twelve languages.

The words of M.I. are carved on the second memorial plaque. Kutuzova: This glorious year has passed. But the great deeds and exploits you have done there will not pass away or become silent; your descendants will preserve them in their memory. You saved the Fatherland with your blood. Brave and victorious troops! Each of you is the savior of the Fatherland.

In 1936 A.V. Shchusev, in accordance with the General Plan of Moscow 1935, developed a project for the reconstruction of Tverskaya Zastava Square. No place was found for the Arc de Triomphe.

The memorial obstructed traffic and was dismantled. Some of the sculptures were transferred to the Museum of Architecture on the territory of the Donskoy Monastery. Then some elements were mounted into monuments on the Borodino Field, and part of the decor of the Arc de Triomphe is still kept in the Museum of Architecture.

At first they wanted to restore the arch on Tverskaya Zastava Square, but in 1966-1968 the monument was recreated on Kutuzovsky Prospekt using old drawings and photographs. Thus a historical incident arose that the Arc de Triomphe began to greet Napoleon entering Moscow.

Triumphal Arch in Moscow, or, more correctly, the triumphal gates were erected on the current Tverskaya Zastava square in honor of the great victory of the Russian people in the Patriotic War of 1812.

The idea of ​​​​building this monument belongs to the Russian Emperor Alexander I. It was he, during his coronation at the Mother See in 1826, who expressed the idea of ​​​​building the Triumphal Gate. It is worth noting that an example was a similar structure erected in St. Petersburg on the Peterhof road by the architect Giacomo Quarenghi and rebuilt by the architect Vasily Petrovich Stasov.

After the decision was made, the design work was entrusted to the architect Osip Ivanovich Bova, who completed the task in the same year.

Photo 1. Triumphal Arch on Kutuzovsky Prospekt in Moscow

But the plan could not be implemented immediately due to the desire of the authorities to redevelop Tverskaya Zastava Square, which was the main entrance to the city from the capital of St. Petersburg at that time.

Bove worked on the new version for almost 2 years. The approval took place in April 1829 and already in the summer - on August 17 - the ceremonial laying of the monument took place. A commemorative bronze slab was laid into its foundation and, “for good luck,” several silver coins minted in 1829 were thrown there.

Meanwhile, due to insufficient funding and, to tell the truth, some indifference of the city authorities, the construction of the Triumphal Gate in Moscow lasted for five long years. The grand opening took place in 1834 on October 2 (old style - September 20).

The decorative sculptures were made by famous sculptors Ivan Timofeevich Timofeev and Ivan Petrovich Vitali, who worked from sketches by Osip Bove.

The arched walls of the Triumphal Gate (arches) were lined with white stone brought from the Moscow region (Tatarovo village), and the columns and sculptures were made of cast iron.

The memorial inscription on the attic of the monument to Victory in the War of 1812 was approved by Emperor Nicholas I. It was located on both sides of the arch and was written in two languages ​​- Latin and Russian.

The history of the Triumphal Gate on Tverskaya Zastava Square is connected with the city's first electric tram. It was under them that a line was drawn in 1899, which connected Petrovsky Park and Strastnaya Square (today Pushkinskaya Square).

In 1936, as part of the Moscow General Plan of 1935, completed under the leadership of architect Alexei Viktorovich Shchusev, the square was put under reconstruction. To carry out the work, the Arc de Triomphe was dismantled, and some of the sculptures were transferred to the Museum of Architecture, which was then located on the territory of the abolished Donskoy Monastery. At the end of the planned events, the monument was to be installed closer to the Belorussky railway station. Unfortunately, this was never done.

It is worth noting that we must thank cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin for the restoration of the Triumphal Gate, even if not in its original place. It was he who, speaking at the VIII Congress of the Komsomol in 1965, complained that we do not preserve historical monuments that carry a patriotic origin. Among those featured were the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the Arc de Triomphe in honor of the victory in the War of 1812.

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev made a response, promising Gagarin to accurately restore the arch and keeping his word.

The triumphal gates were recreated between 1966 and 1968. Their new place of residence was Kutuzovsky Prospect, not far from the Battle of Borodino panorama museum.

Changes were made to the arch design. In particular, vaulted brick ceilings were replaced with reinforced concrete structures. Some of the metal castings were reproduced at the Mytishchi plant, and the columns were cast at the Stankolit plant from fragments of one of the miraculously preserved ones (height - about 12 meters, weight - about 16 tons).

And many other cities where there are the same or similar structures. At the same time, the Moscow Arc de Triomphe, despite the external resemblance to them, upon closer examination turns out to be completely different: original, with its own zest and, of course, with its own unique history. It impresses with its beauty and grandeur. In these gates, even the most inexperienced tourist sees the embodiment of the high self-awareness of the Russian people, their pride in their sons, who defended the freedom of their native Fatherland on the battlefields.

A little background

In May 1814, Russian troops, having completely defeated the French, were returning home from Paris. The head of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Russian Empire, Sergei Kuzmich Vyazmitinov, ordered a ceremonial meeting of our units, sending out a corresponding decree to all provinces. At the same time, Emperor Alexander I officially notified the Governor-General of Moscow, Count Fyodor Vasilyevich Rastopchin, about the conclusion of the Paris Peace Treaty, which legally secured the defeat of Napoleon’s Grand Army and Russia’s victory in this bloody war.

The Moscow mayor ordered magnificent celebrations to be held in honor of the entry of the Allied troops into the French capital and the achievement of the long-awaited peace. By his order, in June 1814, the construction of wooden triumphal gates began at the Tverskaya Zastava. Why was this particular location chosen? There seemed to be no other options. When the emperor came to the Mother See, it was here that the leaders of Moscow met him along with a large retinue of representatives of the local nobility and merchants.

It should be noted that the mentioned gates were not the only ones installed along the route of Russian troops from defeated France. The construction of similar structures was carried out in two more places: at the Narvskaya outpost, at the entrance to St. Petersburg (near the Obvodny Canal), and in the capital of the Don Cossacks, the city of Novocherkassk.

At the same time, Emperor Alexander I was afraid that the solemn meeting of the victors could develop into popular unrest, and in connection with this, in early July 1814, he banned the holding of mass meetings and receptions. At that time, the Triumphal Arch in Narva was almost ready, only the external decoration work remained, which was completed by the end of the month.

Construction of the Arc de Triomphe in Moscow

The triumphal gates in the capital are perceived today as a kind of collective symbol of all our victories over foreign invaders who have ever set foot on our land and received a worthy rebuff. Meanwhile, the history of this landmark began with one victory - in the Patriotic War of 1812. The immortal feat of its heroes was intended to perpetuate this unique architectural structure.

The initiative to build an arch in Moscow similar to the one in St. Petersburg belongs to Emperor Nicholas I, who voiced it in April 1826 during the celebrations of his own coronation. The development of the project was entrusted to Osip Ivanovich Bova, the most authoritative domestic architect of that time. He completed the task in a short time, but it became necessary to make adjustments, which took much more time - two whole years. And so on August 17, 1829, after the final version was approved by the sovereign, the ceremony of laying the foundation of the Arc de Triomphe took place, arranged very solemnly. Governor-General of Moscow Dmitry Golitsyn and Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Filaret (Drozdov) were present.

It should be noted that the foundation ceremony was mostly a formality, since by that time the work on the construction of the gate was already in full swing. The foundation, which is based on a bronze slab, has already been brought to the surface level. 3,000 piles were also driven. Interesting fact: a handful of silver coins from the same year of minting were placed in the foundation, as they say, “for good luck.”

For the construction of the Arc de Triomphe in Moscow, a wide variety of materials from different places were used. The walls were lined with stone from the Samotechny Canal, which, coincidentally, was just being dismantled, and “Tatar marble” - stone imported from the village of Tatarovo, Moscow district. The columns and the sculpture crowning the structure were made of cast iron, but Ivan Timofeevich Timofeev and Ivan Petrovich Vitali worked on the sculptural decoration of the gate. The craftsmen were guided by the drawings of the “father” of the project, the architect Beauvais.

On the decorative attic crowning the Arc de Triomphe there is an inscription, the text of which was personally approved by the emperor in 1833. It is in two languages ​​– Russian and Latin, both versions are identical. The first could be read from the city side, the second - on the opposite side. From the inscription we learn that the triumphal gate is dedicated to the “blessed memory of Alexander I.”

The text also noted that the sovereign raised from the ashes and decorated with many monuments “this capital city during the invasion of the Gauls and with them twenty languages, in the summer of 1812 it was dedicated to fire.” And the year is indicated: “1826”. True, it does not correspond to the date of the official opening of the monument, which took place only in September 1834. Construction dragged on for two main reasons: lack of funding and indifference to the project on the part of the Moscow authorities.

A historical event for the capital, such as the start of operation of the city's first electric tram in 1899, is connected with the Moscow triumphal gates, albeit indirectly - it passed right under them. The tram line ran from Pushkinskaya Square (it was then called Strastnaya) to Petrovsky Park, which is now adjacent to Leningradsky Prospekt. On the approach to the arch, the conductor invariably announced: “Tverskaya Zastava. Triumphal Gate. Alexandrovsky Station.

For the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino, which was celebrated in 1912, the capital's Arc de Triomphe was cleaned and restored. On the day of celebrations on the occasion of this epoch-making date, the Moscow leadership laid a wreath at its foot. The next time the monument was updated was after the October Revolution, in the mid-20s. The restoration work was led by the talented Russian and Soviet architect Nikolai Vinogradov.

Subsequently, however, the fate of the monument was unenviable. In accordance with the reconstruction plan for the square located on Kutuzovsky Prospekt - this is at its intersection with Barclay, General Ermolov and 1812 streets - in the summer of 1936, the triumphal gates were dismantled. Before dismantling, the architects carefully measured the arch, photographed it and made the appropriate drawings and sketches, since it was planned that it would be restored in the future in a new location, namely on the Belorussky Station Square. But since this was not done, the details of the gate and some of the sculptures remained where they were sent for storage after dismantling - in the Museum of Architecture, on the territory of the former Donskoy Monastery. The cast-iron columns of the gate lay on Miusskaya Square for several years, until during the Great Patriotic War they were melted down. All but one.

In 1965, the Soviet government finally recognized that the Arc de Triomphe has great socio-historical and artistic value, having adopted a corresponding resolution on its restoration. A group of architects was formed consisting of I.P. Ruben, D.N. Kulchinsky and G.F. Vasiliev under the leadership of the architect-restorer V.Ya. Libson, which built a new Arc de Triomphe within two years (1966-1968). A new place was found for it on Kutuzovsky Prospekt - next to the Battle of Borodino panorama museum, opened on the 150th anniversary of the largest battle of the Patriotic War of 1812.

Despite the fact that during the construction of the gate, sketches and measurement drawings made before dismantling were used, the resulting copy still differs from its predecessor arch. Here are the main differences: the walls, vaults and basement were made of reinforced concrete (on the previous gate they were brick), grayish Crimean limestone and granite were replaced with white stone on the cladding, and the gratings and guardhouses were not restored at all. The original parts that were kept in the former monastery were also not useful - the same statues and cast-iron reliefs. At the Mytishchi plant, more than 150 sculptures were cast from scratch, and at the Stankolit plant, 12 new cast iron columns were cast, using as a basis the only original column that survived the war. The height of each is no less than 12 meters.

The changes also affected the texts on memorial plaques. In particular, they contained lines from the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army M.I. Kutuzov dated December 21, 2012, in which he honors our victorious soldiers, indicating that future generations will keep their exploits in their memory.

And now the long-awaited day has come for the opening of the capital's new Arc de Triomphe. The ceremony took place on November 6, 1968.

Triumphal Arch in Moscow today

In 2012, Russia celebrated the 200th anniversary of the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. In preparation for the celebrations, it was decided to restore this unique monument. The leadership of Moscow, through the mouth of Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, officially announced that the Arc de Triomphe was in disrepair, which meant that the authorities were planning large-scale repair and restoration work.

Their implementation was carried out by the state government institution “Mosrestavratsiya”. The cladding, which had fallen into disrepair, was almost completely replaced, and the stone walls and sculptural groups were thoroughly cleared. The chariot with six horses and a sculpture of the goddess Nike crowning the arch was also removed (on May 31, 2012 they were returned to their original place). The restorers did not ignore even those elements of the gate that could not be dismantled and could still serve for some time.

The restoration of the triumphal gates cost the capital's treasury 231.5 million rubles. The renewed and rejuvenated beautiful arch was inaugurated on September 4, 2012 in the presence of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev - three days before the historical date of the 200th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Borodino. During this battle, as we know, neither side achieved a decisive victory, but the French, who received serious damage, failed to destroy the Russian army and force Russia to surrender on its own terms, which ultimately predetermined the defeat of Napoleon.

How to get there

The Triumphal Arch in Moscow is located at Pobeda Square, 2, k1.

You can get there by metro, reaching the Park Pobedy station on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line. From there you can walk.

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