Monument to the Water-Carrier

At the entrance to the old water tower on Shpalernaya Street, home today to the 'Universe of Water' museum, stands a bronze sculpture of a water-carrier — a profession that vanished entirely from city life almost a hundred years ago. The monument depicts the worker full-length, pulling a two-wheeled barrel behind him, with a small dog trotting ahead.

The idea of commemorating the water-carriers' work belonged to the management of the city's Vodokanal utility, who felt it important to remind citizens of the people who had supplied St Petersburg with water for decades before the advent of a centralised water supply. The composition was created by the sculptor Sergei Dmitriev, with the architectural part of the project designed by V. Vasilyev. By the sculptor's own account, he deliberately avoided drawing on the comic water-carrier character from the film comedy 'Volga-Volga', studying instead a substantial body of historical material in order to more accurately convey the appearance and equipment of a mid-19th-century tradesman.

The figure is cast in bronze at life size and captured in the midst of motion: the water-carrier, leaning forward, hauls a heavy wooden barrel on two wheels, while beside him a dog runs along as though showing the way. The sculpture stands on a small paved area in front of the tower's central entrance, allowing it to be viewed from all sides and making it part of the overall experience of visiting the museum complex.

Until the mid-19th century St Petersburg had no regular water supply system, and providing the city with drinking water rested entirely on the water-carriers: they rolled their barrels over the cobbled streets, drawing water directly from the branches of the Neva and the city's rivers, which were then still considered clean. On 10 October 1858 Emperor Alexander II approved the charter of the joint-stock company of St Petersburg waterworks, and five years later the city's first water tower rose on Shpalernaya Street, opposite the Tauride Palace. As the central water supply developed, the need for manual water delivery gradually disappeared, and by the 1920s the profession of water-carrier had vanished from the city entirely. The monument was installed in 2003, when the tower opened to visitors as a water museum.

Today the water-carrier sculpture has become one of the recognisable examples of the city's small-scale public art and an integral stop on the route of every visitor to the 'Universe of Water' museum. A tradition has taken hold among residents and tourists: for good luck, one is supposed to stroke the bronze dog and thank it for its faithful service — from constant touching, the dog's nose has been polished to a noticeable shine.

The monument to the St Petersburg water-carrier is a rare example in the city of a sculpture dedicated not to a particular individual or event but to an entire vanished profession. Standing beside the 19th-century water tower, it recalls the labour and the path by which water came to St Petersburg, a resource that has become one of the symbols of the city's engineering history.