Monument to Vitus Bering

It is a two-meter metal column, approved on a small basement, resembling an gun barrel , ending with a capital ; the abacus (the upper plate of the capital) is crowned with a lotus flower , in the open petals of which lies the cannonball. On the four sides of the metal base are framed bas-relief images of laurel wreaths with two crossed torches. The monument rests on a massive base of hewn stone, to which is attached a cast-iron plate with the inscription "To the founder of Petropavlovsk in 1740, navigator Vitus Bering ."

The gun barrel and core, separated by a lotus flower, are symbols of courage, aspiration and purity of motives.

The monument was erected in honor of the navigator Vitus Bering, the leader of the Second Kamchatka expedition . The need for a wintering place for the expedition team served as a reason for laying Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in 1740. The monument was first mentioned by Frederick William Beachy , who visited the port of Pertopavlovsk-Kamchatka in 1827:

“... in the governor’s garden there is a monument to our compatriot captain Clerk. It is on one side of a wide path covered with gravel at the end of the alley. On the other side is a monument in honor of Bering. ”

During a previous visit to the port, Beeche does not mention this monument, which suggests that the monument to Bering was erected at this time.

In the following years, for various reasons, the monument was repeatedly transferred - first to the territory of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, then in the 1930s the monument was placed opposite the Polyarnaya Zvezda movie theater (now Leninskaya Street). At the current place, the monument was erected in accordance with the order of the Executive Committee of the Peter and Paul City Council of October 16, 1945.

• Martynenko V.P. Monuments of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky . - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky .: Far Eastern Book Publishing House. Kamchatka Branch, 1989 .-- ISBN 5-87750-032-5 .