Samson Fountain, Razvodnaya St., 2, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 198516
The conceptual center of the Grand Cascade is the sculptural group "Samson tearing open the lion's jaws" – a monument to the great Russian victories. It was installed in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava – the decisive battle of the Northern War. On June 27, 1709, the day of the memory of Saint Sampson the Hospitable, considered the patron of the Russian army, the Swedish army was defeated.
Peter I was compared during his lifetime to another Samson – the biblical hero whose first feat, described in the 14th chapter of the "Book of Judges," was the victory over a young enraged lion. The lion, as part of the Swedish coat of arms, symbolized Sweden and its king Charles XII. These significant coincidences formed the basis of the monument's symbolic design. A three-meter rock serves as the pedestal for the sculptural group. With a powerful and calm motion, the hero stops the leap of the beast, which has settled on its hind legs, and tears open its snarling jaws, from which, in powerless rage, bursts out a powerful water column 20 meters high, like a final roar. Eight dolphins, symbolizing the calm sea, frolic around Samson, celebrating with the hero and spraying water jets upwards, forming a sparkling wreath. The lions, embodying the cardinal points, peek out in amazement from the rock niches, listening to the noise of the struggle that decides the fate of Russia and Europe.
The Samson Fountain is the compositional dominant of the Grand Cascade and one of the most recognizable symbols of Peterhof. The magnificent sculpture was created in 1735 by order of Empress Anna Ioannovna, who wanted to solemnly commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava. The sketches were developed by Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli himself:
· initially, Samson was clothed in a cloak and had a beard;
· the sculptures of the eight dolphins decorating the composition symbolize the calm Baltic Sea;
· the gilded lions represent the four cardinal points;
· Samson’s water column can reach the height of an 8-story building without the help of pumps; the flow is provided solely by the pressure difference.
A special wooden aqueduct was laid to the new fountain from Babigon. The square pedestal of Samson, created according to Zemtsov’s drawing, was made of brick and faced with hewn stone. At its base, eight fountain dolphins were placed. The history of Samson is truly unique. The fountain changed its appearance three times. At the end of the 18th century, the sculpture lost its shine and luster, so it was decided to replace the lead with bronze. The reconstruction project was led by Mikhail Kozlovsky, who tried to preserve the conceptual idea of the fountain as much as possible. The statue was cast in bronze in 1801 by the master of casting and chasing, Yekimov. Kozlovsky repeated Rastrelli’s sculptural group composition but gave it a new plastic interpretation.
During the Great Patriotic War, the statue was stolen. In the 1950s, sculptors Vasily Simonov and Nikolai Mikhailov took up the restoration of the fountain masterpiece, using pre-war photographs and drawings. Today, Samson dazzles us with its magnificence, and when you look at it, you will undoubtedly see the reflection of several eras.
The sculptural group, cast in lead from Rastrelli’s model and installed in the basin in 1735, lost its shine by the end of the 18th century due to the fragility of lead. In 1802, it was replaced by a bronze sculpture created by Kozlovsky, who preserved the original conceptual idea and composition. During the Great Patriotic War, Samson was lost. After the liberation of Leningrad, sculptor Simonov with assistant Mikhailov recreated the monument based on pre-war photographs and old images. The new Samson was installed on the pedestal in 1947, becoming not only a symbol of victory over the enemy but also a world-famous calling card of Peterhof.
The monument created by Kozlovsky fully preserved the conceptual content of the previous sculpture as a monument to Russia’s victory in the struggle against the Swedes. According to Voronikhin’s design, a new pedestal was built in the form of a quadrangular plinth on a granite base. From the four semicircular dormers of the base, bronze lion heads cast from a model sculpted by Dumnin looked out.
Sources:
https://inpeterhof.ru/dostoprimechatelnosti/fontany/
https://trave-l.ru/fontany-petergofa/
