Russian women are installing on the pedestal a statue of Flora in Pavlovsky Park after the liberation of Pavlovsk from the German invaders.
The bronze statue of Flora in Pavlovsky Park is a national copy of the Roman statue of the goddess of flowers and spring, located in the Capitoline Museum in Rome. Together with other statues of Roman deities and muses in the 1790s, she was transported from Tsarskoye Selo to Pavlovsk Park to create the landscape area of Old Silvia (Twelve paths). During the Great Patriotic War, Flora, together with other statues, was buried in the earth at a height of five meters to keep it from being destroyed by Nazi vandals. Despite the fact that with the outbreak of the war part of the art treasures were evacuated or buried, Pavlovsk suffered greatly during the German occupation of 1941-1944. In the park, over 70,000 trees were cut down, a number of pavilions were destroyed, and the palace was set on fire. Photographs of Pavlovsk, made in 1944, were presented as accusatory documents at the Nuremberg trial.
Location: Pavlovsk, Pushkin district of Leningrad, USSR
Date: 1944