To the Space Pioneer: restoration of Yuri Gagarin monument kicks off in Moscow

Moscow has started restoration of the Yuri Gagarin monument on Leninsky Prospekt to renovate the stylobate and base faced with stone slabs by the end of the year, while in 2024 and 2025 architects are going to restore the pedestal, sculpture and the Vostok spacecraft model.

“We examined the monument in 2022. Its stylobate, ribbed pedestal and the Yuri Gagarin and Vostok model sculptures were in poor condition. The detected defects affect both the monument’s look and technical state. All the work will be supervised by experts from the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage and will last at least two years. The monument in fact is a cultural heritage asset,” said Alexey Yemelyanov, Head of the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage

The stylobate, base and facing slabs of the pocket will be restored this year, the surfaces to be cleaned of dirt, stains and paint; architects will also restore all lost fragments and recover chips and cracks. Labradorite facing stone slabs will be polished so that they can again sparkle in the sun. Next year, they will start restoring the pedestal and the cosmonaut’s sculpture, with scaffolding to be erected along the entire height of the 42-meter monument.

In 1968, Kaluzhskaya Zastava Square on Leninsky Prospekt became known as Gagarin Square in honor of the pioneer cosmonaut’s space journey. Then, in July 1980, the authorities erected a monument to Yuri Gagarin here, the place chosen deliberately. In fact, it was along Leninsky Prospekt on April 14, 1961 that the first cosmonaut was heading from Vnukovo Airport to the Kremlin with a report on his flight and was greeted by jubilant Muscovites.

The monument is a 14-meter figure of the cosmonaut looking up, which is set on a high ribbed pedestal cluing the space rocket launch. On the site next to the monument there is a model of the Vostok spacecraft bearing the inscription: “On April 12, 1961, the Soviet spacecraft Vostok with a man on board flew around the globe. The first human being to get into space is the citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin”.

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The sculpture’s main part is made of titanium, a very strong metal used in spacecraft building, and consists of 239 elements cast from titanium and fastened with bolts.

The monument was created by sculptor Pavel Bondarenko, architects Yakov Belopolsky and Fyodor Gazhevsky, and designer Alexey Sudakov.

Restoration and preservation of cultural heritage sites are among the priorities for the Moscow Government, 139 monumental artworks having been restored in the city since 2011.