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Duke de Richelieu Monument
From 2odessa.com The most comprehensive guide to Odessa, Ukraine
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History of Richelieu
| Famous Odessites | |
| This is one of the articles on famous Odessites. See the entire list of Famous figures of Odessa. |
Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu (Russian: Ришельё, Арман Эмманюэль дю Плесси) (25 September 1766 - 17 May 1822) was Odessa's first mayor. Legend has it that the Duke wanted to build a new city as beautiful as his native Paris.
The Duke was born in Paris to an aristocratic family in 1776. The Duke emigrated from France during the French revolution, settling in Russia. In 1790 he joined the Russian army in the Crimean war against Turkey, where he met De Ribas (See Deribasovskaya Street for more on De Ribas). After the war he went back to France but soon he returned to Russia and reenlisted in the Russian Army.
Czar Alexander appointed Richelieu governor of the Novarussia (new Russia) Area,
which included Odessa, on January 27, 1803.
When the duc arrived, he had difficulty finding lodgings among the earthen huts, in which many citizens still resided. He finally temporarly settled into a single-story house, but had to wait patiently for six weeks until furnishings-including chairs-could be found for him at Kherson.
A Russian historian has called Odessa in the days before Richelieu "more like a pirate colony than a well-built city." 61 The government buildings, erected only a few years before, were falling apart, the cathedral unfinished, port facilities inadequate, and the houses sunk in mud.[1]
He was the governor of Odessa between 1803-1814.
During his governership, the first educational systems were established and the first museum was built (the Archeology Museum).
In order to make the downtown area more attractive, in 1811 the duc arranged for its illumination by two hundred street lights. Richelieu was not unmindful that the theater attracted rich Polish landlords into the city. Those who came to play might stay to trade.[2]
Richelieu also laid out the wide boulevard at the very edge of the promontory overlooking the sea, todays Primorsky Boulevard. The great merchants allegedly raised loud protests, as their houses now had to be built far back from the promontory's edge; they could no longer view with satisfaction their ships coming into port. But the citizenry as a whole was given ready access to a splendid view over sea and harbor.[2]
Richelieu felt planting trees was important for Odessa. Trees would offer protection against sun and wind, reduce dust, and give the city a little of the qualities of an oasis, arising out of the treeless steppe. A Frenchman, the Chevalier de Rosset, is supposed to have planted Odessa's first tree, a poplar near the quarantine.[2]
The duc himself imported acacias from Vienna at his own expense, and gave them free to all who promised to plant and care for them. Should a citizen fail to water the trees in front of his house, the watchful duc would call upon him to remind him of this civic duty. Colonists who received twenty-five desiatinas of land near Odessa had to plant three hundred trees within two years. To this day, Odessa is known as city of the white acacias.[2]
In 1812 an epidemic plague enveloped the city and one fifth of the population died, Richelieu visited infirmaries and helped bury the dead. (See Plague hill)
In his personal relations, the duc was friendly and approachable, but avoided passionate attachments or aversions to favorites or foes. No shadow of scandal touches his life. A contemporary described him as tall and lean, with fine curly hair; he had "dark, kind eyes, and a very pleasant white face without a beard, like a woman." The Duc seems to have been near-sighted. According to his friend Sicard, the duc would always ask a companion if he should greet an oncoming woman on the street, as he could not tell whether he knew her or not.[1]
At the end of his service Richelieu reported to the emperor that the population had grown five times in ten years to 35,000 and that trade turnover had reached 25 million rubles.
When Napoleon was exiled to Elba in 1814, the Duke ended his service to Odessa and returned to France.
Odessites loved their first mayor. When Richelieu left Odessa on September 26, 1814, 5,000 people followed his carriage, almost the entire city saw him off. The Duke then served twice as Prime Minister of France.
| "[Duke Armand Emmanual Richelieu] lavished most of his fortune on Odessa, the city he ruled and loved… The duke was discerning and reverent of Odessa, and guarded his interests as though they were his private affairs. The duke proved a capable leader and expanded trade and agriculture during his administration. "
"The Story is told by [Odessites] that the duke returned to his beloved city of Odessa after having bid France farewell for the last time, and then lived most of his remaining days in the city and spent the last of his wealth there on worthy projects. With his wealth gone, penniless, the duke, with only the clothes he wore and aged in years, slowly descended the great staircase to the sea without the acknowledgement of assistance of the local citizens and left his beloved city for that of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula. There as the story goes, he died in poverty [in 1822], and when the people of Odessa discovered what had transpired, they were filled with great sorrow and mournful of their neglect of their beloved governor, and as a measure of their remembrance to him, they generously contributed funds which they used to build and erect his monument overlooking the splendid stairway to the sea." --Lydle Brinkle, Guide to the Soviet Union |
Construction
Lietenant General Ivan N.Inzov commander of Novorussiia for almost a year, initiated a fund-raising campaign to errect the bronze statute of Richelieu.[3]
The Roman-toga figure was designed by the Russian sculptor, Ivan Petrovich Martos. The statue was cast in bronze by Yefimov in 1826-1828, and unveiled in April 1829. It is the first monument erected in the city.
The Duke sculpture is made of bronze and has three bas-reliefs symbolizing trade, justice, and agriculture.
| Bas-reliefs symbolizing
trade | Bas-reliefs symbolizing
justice | Bas-reliefs symbolizing
agriculture |
| The metal plaque states:
To Duke Emmanual De Richelieu who had governed the Novorossiysky Krai (Territory) from 1803 to 1814 and had set the basis of Odessa's well-being. The people of all classes from this city and from Ekaterinoslavskaya, Khersonskaya and Tavricheskaya Guberniya (Province), are grateful for his unforgettable achievements, have erected this monument in 1826 in the time of Novorossiysky Governor-General Count Vorontsov. |  |
Corner blown off
| In 1854, during the shelling of Odessa by the French and English in the Crimean War, the corner of the granite pedestal was blown off by a cannon ball. The damage was later hidden by an iron panel. A copy of this naval shell was later imbedded in its pedestal, and can still be seen today.
(See the Crimean War Cannon, for more information on the shelling of Odessa during the Crimea War) |  |
Historic photos
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Photos
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Architectural description on the Monument's base |
Older architectural description on the Monument's base |
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Notes
- ^ a b Herlihy, Patricia (1987, 1991). Odessa: A History, 1794–1914. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-916458-15-6, hardcover; ISBN 0-916458-43-1; p. 34.
- ^ a b c d Herlihy, p. 35-36
- ^ Herlihy, p. 117
Continue your virtual tour by walking to the Potemkin Stairs
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