The Morea Column is a monument in the Catherine Park of Tsarskoye Selo, erected in honor of the victories of Russian troops on the Morea Peninsula (Peloponnese) in 1770 during the First Archipelago Expedition of the Russian fleet in the course of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774. The monument is designed in the neoclassical style and represents a rostral column made of marble. It was constructed according to the project of the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi in 1771.

At the beginning of 1770, during the Archipelago Expedition to the Mediterranean Sea amid the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, the Russian fleet reached the Morea Peninsula (Peloponnese) and landed troops on its shores. The Greek population of the peninsula (primarily the Maniots, inhabitants of the Mani region) rose against Ottoman rule in alliance with Russian detachments, initiating the Peloponnesian uprising. During February–April 1770, the combined land forces, including two so-called Spartan legions, with naval support, inflicted a series of defeats on the Turks. In 1771, in honor of these victories, the Morea Column was erected in the Catherine Park of Tsarskoye Selo by the will of Catherine II.

The Morea Column is a type of rostral column, like the Chesme Column. The use of rostra (ship prows) as decorative elements was largely an innovation by Rinaldi, since, for example, among foreign monuments, rostral column projects did not exist in the early 1770s (a few such projects appeared in France in the 1780s–1790s). However, there is also an opinion that the idea of the Morea Column might have been borrowed from English architecture. The column honoring the victories in Morea is even called the first example of a rostral column in Russian architecture.

The column was manufactured at the St. Isaac’s Cathedral Construction Office and installed on October 4, 1771. The installation work was supervised by architect Neelov. The column became the first military memorial in the Catherine Park.

The monument was placed in the formal part of the Catherine Park, in the so-called Old Garden. The shore of the first Lower Pond gently slopes down to the location of the bridge; the column stands slightly above the bridge, creating the illusion of a peninsula jutting forward, which may have been intended as a reference to the Morea Peninsula. Originally, a bronze plaque with a commemorative inscription was affixed to the column, but over time it was lost and, according to early 20th-century sources, replaced by a copper plaque. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, the Morea Column, along with the Kagul Obelisk, was among the first objects in the Catherine Park to be restored—in 1949, on the 150th anniversary of Pushkin’s birth.

The Morea Column is also known as the Small Rostral Column to distinguish it from the Large Rostral Column—the Chesme Column. The stylized ship prows—rostra—are meant to show that the victories commemorated by the monument were achieved with the help of the fleet. Thus, the column is considered one of the "naval" monuments of Saint Petersburg. Commemorative events related to the history of the Russian fleet are sometimes held at the Morea Column.

The monument stands at the intersection of three alleys in the formal part of the Catherine Park, closing their perspective. One alley runs from the staircase of the Cameron Gallery past the "Grotto" pavilion; the second, at a 45° angle to the first, runs from the Hermitage; the third, laid out at a 45° angle to the second, comes from the park boundary along Sadovaya Street, visually continuing Konyushennaya Street in the city of Pushkin.

The column is clearly visible from various locations within the Catherine Park. It can be seen against the backdrop of the Old Garden trees from paths running along the cascading Lower Ponds on their southern shore toward the Admiralty, as well as from the so-called Trifon Hill located there. From the dam between the first Lower and the Large Ponds, both Tsarskoye Selo rostral columns—the Morea and Chesme—are visible.

Stylistically, the Morea Column belongs to the neoclassical monuments. Its height is 7 meters. It is installed on a low two-step stylobate of gray marble with veins, which looks like a small square platform. The pedestal is made of red (dark pink) granite, also square in plan, which together with the stylobate—differing in color and texture from the other marbles of the monument—provides a richer color scheme in the lower part of the monument, a feature characteristic of Antonio Rinaldi’s works. On the western side of the pedestal, a bronze or copper plaque with the inscription is affixed:

“On February 17, 1770, Count Fyodor Orlov, with two Russian warships, sailed to the Morea Peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea near the port of Vituli, landed the land forces ashore, and proceeded himself to Modon, joining with the Christians of that land. Captain Barkov with the Eastern Spartan Legion took Passava (Greek) Russian, Berdoni, and Sparta; Captain Prince Dolgorukov with the Western Spartan Legion subdued Kalamata, Leoktari (Greek) Russian, and Arcadia; the fortress of Navarino surrendered to Brigadier Hannibal. The Russian troops numbered six hundred men, who did not ask whether the enemy was numerous, but where he was; six thousand Turks were taken prisoner.”

The pedestal itself is a quadrangular prism, square in plan, with sides shaped as rectangles, featuring a profiled cornice at the top. It is made of gray marble with white veins (or white marble), according to some sources the so-called "Siberian" marble (i.e., quarried in the Urals), according to others, Olonets marble. Catherine II wrote to Voltaire about the materials used for the Tsarskoye Selo memorials: “All this is made from the finest marbles, which even the Italians marvel at. They are obtained from the shores of Lake Ladoga and from the Siberian city of Yekaterinburg. This is how we use them!”

The column is of the Roman-Doric or Tuscan order. The plinth and base of the column, as well as its capital, are made of white Carrara marble. The polished shaft of the column is carved from the same material as the pedestal—gray marble with veins (blue or gray-blue with white veins) of Siberian or Olonets marble. Because the base and capital have profiles, there is no color dissonance between them and the shaft, ensuring a harmonious transition from the pedestal to the column shaft. Finally, the monument is topped by a small conical obelisk made of pink Tivdian (also called Belogorsky) marble. It is decorated with two decorative rostra, giving the monument a recognizable silhouette, and a relief in the form of a winding ribbon.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_Column