Monument to the Sunken Ships
Not far from Nakhimov Square in Sevastopol, there is a monument to sunken ships, erected in honor of the heroic defense of Sevastopol (1854-1855) during the Crimean War.
The monument was erected in 1905 to mark the 50th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol, when to prevent the storming of the city from the sea, guns were removed from warships and all civilian and combat vessels were flooded during the year. Thus, Prince Alexander Sergeevich Menshikov closed the entrance to the Sevastopol Bay to the Anglo-French fleet, which was also under the protection of coastal batteries. In total, almost 90,000 soldiers participated in the defense of Sevastopol, and there were about 180,000 people and a fleet on the side of the coalition. During fierce fighting on August 27, 1955, the remaining soldiers fled the city under cover of the night, burning the powder magazines and the remaining warships behind them. In total, during the defense of Sevastopol, losses on each side amounted to more than 100,000 people killed and wounded.
It is worth noting that with the advent of Soviet power, the monument was not touched, although at that time many monuments were redone or destroyed because they had symbols of imperial power on them. Nevertheless, there were proposals to redo the monument to the sunken ships, they even suggested putting a star instead of a crown. In the early revolutionary years, the monument lost only the cross above the crown, which was restored in 2003. Otherwise, the monument was not touched. And in 1969, the image of the monument appeared on the coat of arms of Sevastopol. Also, the monument to the sunken ships was not damaged during the Great Patriotic War, when the city was bombed by hundreds of German planes.
The height of the monument to the submerged ships is 16.7 meters, the column itself accounts for 7.1 meters, the rest falls on the pedestal and the rock. On the column there is a double-headed eagle with the crown of the emperor and outstretched wings with a span of 2.67 meters. On the eagle's chest is a shield with St. George the Victorious depicted on it. The pedestal is decorated with a bas-relief depicting the scene of the sinking of ships in the fairway.
