The mon­u­men­tal com­po­si­tion was con­ceived as a mul­ti-tiered image of a mar­itime pow­er with a ros­tral col­umn, a sail­ing ship, and the reformer at the helm. The struc­ture uses stain­less steel as the load-bear­ing frame with mount­ed bronze and cop­per ele­ments, while the cop­per sails have an inter­nal met­al frame­work to reduce weight. It stands on an arti­fi­cial island at the split of the Mosk­va Riv­er and the Vodootvod­ny Canal, framed by foun­tains that cre­ate the effect of a ship cut­ting through water. The cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing took place on Sep­tem­ber 5, 1997, dur­ing the city’s 850th anniver­sary cel­e­bra­tions with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of Pres­i­dent Boris Yeltsin and May­or Yuri Luzhkov. The total height is about 98 meters, with the emperor’s fig­ure about 18 meters tall, mak­ing it one of the tallest mon­u­ments in the coun­try. Engi­neer­ing com­plex­i­ty includ­ed wind-tun­nel tests of a scale mod­el and a pile-sup­­port­ed rein­forced con­crete foun­da­tion. Today the com­po­si­tion serves as a visu­al land­mark at a riv­er bend and a focal point for pedes­tri­an routes along the embank­ments and the arts park.

The mon­u­ment to Peter I by Zurab Tsereteli was erect­ed in 1997 by order of the Moscow Gov­ern­ment. The offi­cial name is “In Com­mem­o­ra­tion of the 300th Anniver­sary of the Russ­ian Navy”.

The mon­u­ment is locat­ed on an arti­fi­cial island, built at the junc­tion of the Moscow Riv­er and the Vodootvod­ny Canal. This is one of the tallest mon­u­ments in Rus­sia. The total height of the mon­u­ment is 98 meters, the height of the fig­ure of Peter is 18 m.

The com­po­si­tion has a com­plex and unique engi­neer­ing device. A col­umn on a gran­ite base holds a ship in which the fig­ure of Peter the Great is locat­ed. The sup­port­ing struc­tures of the mon­u­ment are made of stain­less steel, and bronze fac­ing ele­ments are fixed to them.

Peter I holds a gild­ed scroll in his hand. St. Andrew’s flags are mount­ed on bear­ings and serve as weath­er vanes, the cross­es on them are also gild­ed. Foun­tains are built into the rein­forced con­crete base, cre­at­ing the effect of a mov­ing ship cut­ting through the waves.

Inside the mon­u­ment there is a stair­case designed to mon­i­tor the con­di­tion of the mon­u­ment. The entrance hatch is locat­ed in the head of the fig­ure of Peter.