The northernmost love legend - a monument to Karl and Emilia

For the first time in literature, this legend was recounted in the memoirs of the writer Lev Uspensky. According to the version in the author’s "Notes of an Old Petersburg Resident," in one of the German colonies located in the suburb of the city—Lesnoy—there once lived two families. One belonged to a young man named Karl, the other to the beautiful Emilia. The young people were madly in love with each other, but the girl’s parents, upon learning of their love, refused to consent to their marriage—Karl, in the mother’s opinion, did not earn enough yet. Ten years passed, Karl and Emilia again asked for parental consent to marry, but were refused once more. Another twenty years passed, and the lovers again asked the girl’s parents for permission to marry, but again heard a firm "no." Then, desperate to gain the parents’ consent, Karl and Emilia took each other’s hands and threw themselves into a pond. When the drowned were pulled from the water the next day, everyone saw that even in death, Karl and Emilia continued to hold hands. Not even death could separate them. On the advice of the local pastor, the parishioners named a street in the settlement after them to commemorate such an amazing love and no less amazing obedience to parents...

The grave of the romantic lovers, which served as a pilgrimage site for young people, existed until the 1930s. Nearby ran Karl and Emilia Street. Later, the grave disappeared, the street was renamed Tosnenskaya, but the beautiful legend continued to live on. At the end of the 20th century, the idea arose to erect a monument to Karl and Emilia. This initiative was proposed by the researcher of Petersburg Germans, Venedikt Böhm. (https://reveal.world/story/prodolzhenie-legendy-o-lyubvi-mogila-karla-i-emilii)

Gradually, the desire to immortalize the legend of Karl and Emilia grew into the idea of creating a monument to all lovers. It was never possible to erect it near the historic site of the tragic death of Petersburg’s Romeo and Juliet (the presumed location of Karl and Emilia’s grave is 1.5 km northwest—near the building of the Institute of Cytology of the Russian Academy of Sciences at 4 Tikhoretsky Prospect).

However, a kind of “memory relay” was taken up by the municipal authorities in Grazhdanka. At the end of July 2006, a competition was announced for the best design of a monument to lovers. In fact, there was no real competition, as only one application was submitted. Nevertheless, the candidate for the creator of the local landmark, young sculptor Matvey Vainman, who was finishing the Academy of Arts, justified the most optimistic expectations.

The monument to lovers created by him has no direct relation to the specific legend of Karl and Emilia, and perhaps that is for the best. It turned out modern, very touching, and at the same time mysterious: a young man and woman embrace under an open umbrella.

“I believe that I created truly Petersburg lovers—a guy and a girl under an umbrella,” says Matvey Vainman. “There is a Petersburg mood in this—we live in the city of rains.”

The sculpture is made of artificial stone and installed on a granite base. The monument is small, just a bit taller than human height, and represents a classic example of park sculpture. Only it stands not in a park, but in a courtyard, among ordinary new buildings in Grazhdanka...

The square near house number 22 on Butlerova Street, where the monument was installed, was once successfully defended by local residents from infill development. The municipal authorities of the Grazhdanka district improved the square and then decided to make it a romantic corner by installing a monument to lovers, evoking memories of the old legend.

The unveiling of the monument was timed to coincide with the 180th anniversary of the founding of the Grazhdanka colony, which is celebrated, at the initiative of the Grazhdanka Municipal District, in the fall of 2007.

Previously, the lovers stood under an umbrella, but it was, of course, quickly broken off...

Sources:

livespb.blogspot.com/2008/05/blog-post_11.html

benzo-pila.ru/index.php?S=854&ID=172748&PG=120