Summer Garden > Collection of sculpture

The Summer Garden collection of sculpture

According to the European fashion of the 17th—18th centuries, the Summer Garden was decorated with sculptures representing antique gods, Roman emperors, allegories of virtues, elements, seasons and time of day.

Ninety-two marble sculptural monuments from the original collection of Peter the Great have been preserved to our time: statues, sculptural groups and busts.

Most of the statues were commissioned by Peter the Great Purchased by his trustees Savva Raguzinsky and Yury Kologrivov they were shipped to St Petersburg from Venice and Rome. Sculptures were created by famous Italian masters such as Antonio Corradini, Pietro Baratta, Giovanni Bonazza, Antonio Tarsia etc.

Among the first statues to decorate the garden were the sculptural portraits of the King of Poland Jan III Sobieski and his wife Marie Casimire.

The sculptural group “Peace and Victory” (“The Treaty of Nystad”) by the Venetian sculptor Pietro Baratta commemorates the victory of Russia in the Northern War. It was created following the order and “me programme” of Peter the Great.

The gem of the collection is the antique statue of “Venus” brought from Rome. It was put on the central gallery of the Summer Garden on the bank ofthe Neva. (Now the statue is known under the name or “Venus of Tauride” and is exhibited in the State Hermitage).

For almost 300 hundred years the collection of marble sculptures of Peter the Great was held in the open air.

In 2009—2010 replicas of the statues were created for the purpose of their preservation. The original sculptures were moved indoors to St Michael’ Castle and modem replicas took their place in the park.

Leading national experts in the field of preservation and replication of stone sculpture contributed to the project.