English Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson died in the famous naval battle at Trafalgar, having managed to defeat the combined fleet of Emperor Napoleon. In memory of the heroic officer and the victory, a huge monument with a five-meter figure of Nelson himself appeared in London's Trafalgar Square almost 40 years later. But it turns out that the monument to the legendary naval commander stands not only in London, and it is much earlier made. Although not as famous and popular as the British "relative".
Victory of Nelson
On September 28, 1805, a battle took place in which a British fleet of 27 ships, led by the flagship Victory, defeated Napoleon's armada, destroying nearly half of the 38 Spanish-French ships. It turned out to be so striking that its protagonist Horatio Nelson simply deserved the highest award of the British Empire. Alas, there was simply no one to present the order or something else: Nelson, injured on board the Victoria from a bullet by a French soldier, soon died, returning to his native England in a cognac barrel sealed for the safety of his body. Therefore, the decision of the British authorities to erect a monument on Trafalgar Square, the capital of the empire, became an honorable award, even after many years. The figure of the undefeated admiral rising over London instantly turned the monument into the main attraction not only of the city, but also of the country.
Not London alone
Most residents of the capital of England rightly consider Nelson's Column to be a masterpiece. And they don't even want to hear that their bronze "admiral" could be or even ended up somewhere overseas. Nevertheless, "alternative" monuments do exist, they are in Montreal. Moreover, the Canadian "Nelson" rushed into the sky even before the British, just four years after the death of Horatio. But he never received worldwide fame, unlike English. True, there is now a duplicate on the Jacques Cartier Square in Montreal. The original, built in 1809, which at one time suffered in a clash between the Canadian British and the French, is kept in the city museum.
Theoretically, a monument to Horatio Nelson, and just a real one, could appear in the United States and Germany. The first option looks like a ridiculous scam of the enterprising British swindler Arthur Ferguson, who in 1925 "sold" a huge column to a naive American millionaire. Moreover, the deal also included Buckingham Palace and Big Ben. But the transfer to the capital of Nazi Germany was more real. In the event that Hitler's army was able to occupy England.
Align South
The construction of a huge column, the 56-meter "height" of which later decreased by five points, began in 1840. William Railton became the head of the team of authors and the main architect of the monument, the total cost of which was approximately six million dollars. The five-meter Nelson was created by Edward Hodges Bailey. In addition to them, five sculptors worked on the manufacture of four bronze panels depicting the admiral's victories, and four British lions. A copy of the monument, reduced by a factor of 22, is housed in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
It is known that they were cast from the French naval guns captured by Nelson's sailors and melted down. The British winning guns were also useful to the authors. Several tools were used to decorate the top of the monument with bronze leaves. And from three dozen ship trunks taken from the famous "King George" (Royal George), made the inner base. Railton & Co. should be commended for the location of the admiral's figure in the "right" direction. After all, the fleet commander always looks now only to the south, to the admiralty in Portsmouth. It was here that Nelson's Victory found its final harbor. A monument to the brave naval commander was unveiled in 1843. And it was finally completed only 24 years later. Thanks to the gold that came from tsarist Russia.
