Monument to Romanovs unveiled in Moscow
Grand Duke Sergey Aleksandrovich and his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna were members of the murdered Russian royal family
A monument to 20th century Moscow governor Grand Duke Sergey Aleksandrovich and his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna was unveiled on Friday in Moscow. The unveiling was timed for the 160th anniversary of the grand duchess’ birth and the couple’s 140th wedding anniversary.
The monument, installed in a small park near the Tretyakovskaya metro station, depicts the couple on their wedding day in 1884. Elizabeth Feodorovna is presented in a wedding dress, and Sergey Aleksandrovich is dressed in the uniform of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment.
Granite steles with reliefs of saints can be seen behind the bronze figures of the couple. Architectural and artistic lighting means the monument will also be visible at night.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin and the St Elizabeth-St Sergius Educational Society Foundation initiated the construction of the memorial.
Born Elisabeth Alexandra Louise Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt in Germany, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna married Moscow Governor Grand Duke Sergey Aleksandrovich, the younger brother of Emperor Alexander III.
She converted to Orthodox Christianity and took the name Elizabeth Feodorovna.
The grand duchess was known for her charity work and after her husband was killed by a terrorist bomb in 1905, she opened the Convent of Saints Martha and Mary and became a nun.
The Grand Duchess refused to leave Russia after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, was arrested, and later murdered along with 17 members of the Romanov family.
The last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, his wife and five children were killed by the Bolsheviks on the night of 16-17 July, 1918 outside the city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. Elizabeth Feodorovna met her end not far from the nearby town of Alapayevsk the next day. She was thrown alive into an abandoned mine together with several other bearers of the Romanov name.
The duchess was declared a martyr and saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992, eight years before the canonization of Nicholas II and his family.
A range of events dedicated to the grand duchess and other members of the murdered royal family are also being held in Moscow.