An impressive monument to the founder of St Petersburg - Peter the Great - stands on Senatskaia Ploschad' (Square), facing the Neva River and surrounded by the Admiralty, St. Isaacs' Cathedral and the buildings of the former Senate and Synod - the civil and religious governing bodies of pre-revolutionary Russia.

The monument was meant to be a tribute by Catherine the Great to her famous predecessor on the Russian throne. Being a German princess by birth, she wanted to establish a line of continuity with the earlier Russian monarchs. For that reason an inscription on the monument reads in Latin and Russian: Petro Primo Catarina Secunda - To Peter the First from Catherine the Second.

An equestrian statue of Peter the Great, created by the famous French sculptor Etienne Maurice Falconet, depicts the most prominent reformer of Russia as a Roman hero. The pedestal is made of a single piece of red granite in a shape of a cliff. From the top of this "cliff" Peter shows the way for Russia, while his horse steps on a snake, which represents the enemies of Peter and his reforms. Ironically, the "evil" snake serves as a third point of support for the statue.

According to a 19th century legend, enemy forces will never take St. Petersburg while the "Bronze horseman" stands in the middle of the city. During the Second World War the statue was not taken down, but was protected with sand bags and a wooden shelter. In that way, the monument survived the 900-day siege of Leningrad virtually unhurt.