The Demidovsky Pillar in
Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl ( rus, Ярослáвль, p=jɪrɐˈsɫavlʲ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence ...
is a bronze
Doric column
The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...
set up as a memorial to
Pavel Grigoryevich Demidov
Pavel Grigoryevich Demidov (russian: Павел Григорьевич Демидов; 1738–1821) was a Russian traveller and patron of scientific education. He was from the Demidov family.
Life
A grandson of Nikita Demidov, he created the min ...
- founder of the Yaroslavl Demidov School of Higher Sciences. It was set up on 6 (18) March 1829 in Ilyinsky Square in Yaroslavl from funds given by the town's inhabitants and other voluntary donors. It is 12m high on a granite base, with its interior filled up with sand and its top crowned with a bronze
armillary sphere
An armillary sphere (variations are known as spherical astrolabe, armilla, or armil) is a model of objects in the sky (on the celestial sphere), consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centered on Earth or the Sun, that represent lines of ...
with a gilded eagle perching on it.
After the
February Revolution
The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...
the eagle (a symbol of autocracy) and sphere were removed and in 1931 the monument itself was finally dismantled. In 2004 the city history museum mooted the restoration of the pillar, an idea supported by the town's mayor V. Volonchunas, and this occurred in 2005 at the city's expense, with the re-opening occurring on 9 December 2005.
{{coord missing, Yaroslavl Oblast
1829 establishments in the Russian Empire
Monumental columns in Russia
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Yaroslavl
Buildings and structures in Yaroslavl Oblast
Monuments and memorials in Russia