Before a vast assembly, it took almost 3,000 soldiers and workers an hour and 45 minutes to lift and place a 600-ton monolith onto the pedestal. Not manually, of course. They used 60 capstans and many blocks and ropes. The world’s largest such column, 47,5 meters high, is supported on the pedestal only by its own gravity. It is crowned with a “life-like” angel holding a cross cast by the sculptor Boris Orlovsky, as some of poorly educated tour guides claim. The angel’s face resembles Alexander I and the serpent that the angel tramples under the cross, which cannot be seen from below is akin to Napoleon. It is no wonder, as the architect Auguste de Montferrand erected the monument as a memorial to Russia’s victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. It was officially unveiled to the day, on 11 September 1834, exactly two years after the lifting of the column.