Reading the statue

Kozlovsky did not sculpt a portrait so much as an idea. Suvorov appears in the allegorical guise of Mars, the Roman god of war: a heroic, semi-nude figure in classical armour and helmet, a naked sword raised in his right hand and a shield bearing the Russian coat of arms in his left. The face is deliberately idealised rather than a faithful likeness, meant to embody the unconquered warrior.↗

At the figure's side stands an altar enriched with gilded bronze bas-reliefs of Faith, Hope and Love, modelled by the sculptor Fyodor Gordeyev. On it rest the papal tiara and the crowns of Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia, trophies of the Italian campaign, sheltered beneath the general's protective shield. The statue was cast in bronze by Vasily Ekimov in the foundry of the Imperial Academy of Arts, and the reliefs and inscription letters were fire-gilded.↗↗↗

The pedestal carries the dedication "The Prince of Italy, Count Suvorov-Rymniki, 1801," set in a cartouche upheld by figures representing the Genius of Glory. The standing bronze reaches 3.37 metres above a pedestal of 4.05 metres, so the commander towers over passers-by from his island of granite and iron.↗↗↗

From the Field of Mars to the Neva

The monument was first raised in the southern part of the Field of Mars, then known as the Tsaritsyn Meadow, near the Moyka River, enclosed by a cast-iron fence modelled on cannon barrels topped with flaming shot. In 1818, Emperor Alexander I, wishing to give the city's great commanders more distinguished settings, had it moved at the instigation of the architect Carlo Rossi to a newly laid-out square facing the Neva, and the place took its name from the statue.↗↗↗

The original marble pedestal, designed by Andrey Voronikhin, began to crack, and between 1836 and 1838 it was rebuilt in polished red granite by the master Visconti, faithfully preserving the earlier form. Today the square is crossed by the approach roads to the Trinity Bridge, with the Saltykov Mansion to the east and a service wing of the Marble Palace to the west, and the monument sits at its centre, a federal heritage site under state protection.↗↗↗

The siege and the symbol

During the blockade of Leningrad in the Second World War, authorities tried to hide the statue in the cellar of a nearby house, but the window opening proved too narrow and the plan was abandoned. The monument stayed exposed in the open square and emerged undamaged, taking on the role of a talisman of Russian arms. The poet Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky captured that sentiment in a 1941 poem that recalled Suvorov rising "as the god of war" above the wide Neva.↗↗

Visiting Suvorov Square

As an outdoor monument on a public square, the statue is open around the clock and free to view, so it fits easily into a walking tour between the Winter Palace and the Field of Mars. From the embankment, the figure makes a striking silhouette against the sky and the line of the Trinity Bridge.↗↗

The monument sits on a traffic island in the middle of the square, so approach with care and take in the detail from the pavement rather than darting into the road. The surrounding ensemble is part of the appeal: the baroque Saltykov Mansion on one side, the Marble Palace on the other, and, a short walk across the bridge, the spires and embankments of the city's grand centre. Pair the stop with a stroll through the Field of Mars just behind the square to follow the monument's own history from its first location to its present one.↗