Monument to Alexander III in Saint Petersburg.

On 23 May (5 June) 1909, the monument was consecrated and solemnly opened in the Highest Presence. The service was led by Metropolitan Anthony Vadkovsky, sculptor P. Trubetskoy at the opening of the monument was not, at the end of the ceremonial march, the members of the commission for the construction of the monument, headed by Witte and the chairman of the commission, Hofmeister Prince Golitsyn, have the honour of presenting themselves to their majesties.

The monument differed significantly from many official royal monuments, the sculptor was far from idealization, from aspiration to parade. Alexander III is depicted in baggy clothes, heavily seated on a heavy horse, did not conform to conventional ideas about emperors. As in many works, the author’s creative credo was vividly embodied here, saying that the portrait should not be a copy. In clay or on a cloth I convey the idea of a given person, that common, characteristic, that I see in him».

The bronze sculpture was made in Petersburg in the absence of the sculptor. Italian caster E. Sperati sculpted the monument in parts: the figure of Alexander III - in the workshop of the founder K. A. Robekka, the horse - at the Obukhovsky steel factory.

The pedestal, simplified from the original design, in the form of a rectangular parallelepiped, was made of Valaam red granite. The total height of the monument is 8.5 meters. The height of the figure - 5 meters, the base - more than 3 meters.