Triumphal Arch (Moscow)

The Moscow Triumphal Gate is a triumphal arch first built in 1829–1834 to a design by architect Osip Bove on Tverskaya Zastava Square, in honor of the Russian people's victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. The idea of commemorating the victory with a permanent monument belonged to Emperor Nicholas I, who expressed it in April 1826 by analogy with the triumphal gates then being erected in St. Petersburg. Bove's final design was approved on 26 April 1829, and the ceremonial laying of the arch's foundation took place on 17 August of that year in the presence of the Moscow Governor-General Dmitry Golitsyn; Metropolitan Filaret, however, refused to consecrate the structure because of the statue of the pagan goddess of Glory adorning it.

The walls of the arch were faced with white stone from the village of Tatarovo near Moscow, while the columns and sculptural decoration were cast in iron after Bove's drawings by sculptors Ivan Vitali and Ivan Timofeev. Due to a shortage of funds, construction dragged on for five years and was completed only after the architect's death by his brother Mikhail; the ceremonial opening of the gate took place on 20 September 1834. In 1899, Moscow's first electric tram, running from Strastnaya Square to Petrovsky Park, passed beneath the arch.

In 1936, as part of the reconstruction of the square under Moscow's General Plan, the arch was dismantled under the direction of architect Alexei Shchusev; before demolition the structure was carefully measured and photographed, and some of the sculptures and bas-reliefs were transferred to the Museum of Architecture on the grounds of the former Donskoy Monastery, where they are still kept today. The cast-iron columns lay on Miusskaya Square for almost two decades, and all but one were melted down during the Great Patriotic War.

In 1966–1968, by decision of the USSR Council of Ministers, an exact copy of the arch was recreated at a new location — on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, next to the Borodino Battle Panorama Museum; the reconstruction used the measurement drawings made in 1936, but reinforced concrete and Crimean limestone were used instead of the historical materials, and more than 150 sculptures were recast anew. The gate reopened at its new location on 6 November 1968. In 2012, for the 200th anniversary of the victory in the Patriotic War, the arch underwent a large-scale restoration, with the facing, sculptures, and lighting renewed; today the Triumphal Gate remains a cultural heritage monument of regional significance near Poklonnaya Hill.