Peter the Great Garden is located in the historical center of Taganrog. In 1698 Tsar Peter ordered to found a city on this place. At the very edge of Cape Taganiy Rog (Taganiy Horn), he began the construction of the Trinity Fortress and a trading port. Now there is a small garden on the site of the fortress and a Monument to Peter I, the work of the famous Russian sculptor Mark Antakolsky, is installed.
Taganrog is the first city founded by the Russian tsar in the south of Russia. Before it, only the Azov fortress appeared in these lands, but it was built by the Turks, then passed into the hands of the Zaporozhye Cossacks. Peter I captured it in 1796 during the Azov campaign. Under the protection of the Azov Fortress, Peter I immediately began the construction of the Taganrog commercial port. Then Peter I switched the main forces of the Russian army to a more priority direction – the struggle with Sweden for access to the Baltic Sea.
After the unsuccessful Prut campaign of Peter I in 1711, all the lands on the shore of the Sea of Azov, including Azov and Taganrog, passed back to Turkey. Under the terms of the peace treaty, the Russians destroyed the Trinity Fortress in Taganrog. In 1739, following the results of another war, the Azov fortress became part of Russia forever. However, the full restoration of Taganrog and its commercial port began only in 1769. At that time, there was no need for the Azov or Trinity fortress.
Sculptor Mark Antakolsky began working on the sculpture of Peter I in 1872 in Rome. The work was quite difficult, but in the end he made a small sculpture, which is now in the Russian Museum of St. Petersburg. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of Taganrog, residents decided to install a monument to Peter I in the city. Different options were considered, but in the writer Anton Chekhov remembered the sculpture of Antakolsky and a monument in bronze was ordered for him.
The casting of the monument to Peter I was made in Paris, and Antakolsky was very pleased with the result. In 1903, it was installed in Taganrog. While there was no Peter I Garden, the monument was moved several times to different places in the city. In 1958, it was finally installed in Peter the Great Garden in front of the viewing point, which offers a beautiful view of the Sea of Azov. The Taganrog Port is located at the foot of the garden.
The height of the sculpture of Peter I is 3.4 meters. Its weight is 1.2 tons. The sculpture is mounted on a granite pedestal. This sculpture has several copies. Two monuments were erected in Peterhof and Shlisselburg, but they have not been preserved. Two copies have been preserved in St. Petersburg. In 1914, the same monument to Peter I was erected in Arkhangelsk. He is depicted on a 500-ruble bill.
