The obelisk in Alexander Garden has been restored to its original purpose, as a monument to the House of Romanovs, erected to commemorate the tercentenary of the royal family's rule. In 1918 it had a dramatic change in mission when it was recast as a monument to honour ‘outstanding thinkers in the struggle for the liberation of workers'. Nearly 100 years later – revolutionary thinking no longer deserving of memorialising – a replica of the original Romanovsky obelisk was restored, this time to celebrate the Romanovs’ 400th anniversary.
©Kira Tverskaya/Lonely Planet