The monument to Peter the Great known as the Bronze Horseman is located in the centre of Senatskaya Square (the former Decembrists' Square).
There are two buildings adjacent to Senatskaya Square: the former Senate (the Supreme Court) and the former Synod (the administrative body of the Orthodox Church). Nowadays both buildings are occupied by the Russian Constitutional Court.
The square used to be named after the armed uprising on the 14th of December, 1825, which was suppressed by the troops. Its participants (revolutionary military units whose commanding officers were members of a secret society) wanted to abolish serfdom and autocracy, but as a result, their leaders were hanged and the rest - sentenced to different terms of hard labour in Siberia.
The monument to Peter the Great was unveiled in 1782 by the order of the Empress Catherine II to the design by Etienne Maurice Falconet. It was set up to commemorate 100th anniversary of Peter's ascension to the throne. The monument is a symbolic one: the pedestal has a shape of a sea wave, it emphasizes the fact that it was Peter the Great who restored the Baltic Lands to Russia; the serpent writhing under the horse's hooves represents the obstacles surmounted by Peter and the enemies he had to fight against; the laurel wreath stands for his glory and success in his beginnings.
The rock for the pedestal was found near the city. The local people called it "thunder rock" as it had been split by lightning. The inscription on the pedestal reads: 'Petro Primo Catharina Secunda MDCCLXXXII' in Latin and 'Петру первому Екатерина вторая, лето 1782' in Russian, both meaning 'Catherine the Second to Peter the First, 1782'.
It's customary for newly-weds to come here after the wedding ceremony to pay a tribute to the founder of the city.
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