Monument to Savva Mamontov

Guests of the city who arrived by train are greeted right at the station by a monument to Savva Mamontov, a man who built a railway from Moscow to Yaroslavl, and then to Arkhangelsk with his own money; a great philanthropist and not too successful industrialist. The monument was unveiled in 2008 to mark the 140th anniversary of the Northern Railway. Sergei Skala, a Moscow sculptor with a talking surname, depicted the entrepreneur in full height, leaning on a small table. He holds a watch and a pair of compasses in his hands as symbols of changes in time and space with the advent of the railway.

Next to the monument you will see two granite slabs, on one of which the words of the industrialist are carved, on the other is a map of the Moscow–Arkhangelsk railway line from the time of its opening. There are bronze panels around the high pedestal, which indicate the years of Mamontov's life and depict the most important points of the Northern Railway: in Yaroslavl, Rybinsk and Vologda. The general memorial complex also includes a map of Russian railways located on the wall of the station building behind the monument.

Savva Mamontov lived a bright life. In his early twenties, he began to engage in a very profitable and innovative activity at that time – the construction of railways. However, this did not stop him from spending a lot of money on art. He maintained a theater and an opera, and discovered Chaliapin's talent for the world. The great Stanislavsky called Mamontov his teacher. The industrialist helped Repin, Vasnetsov and other artists (by the way, the famous "Girl with Peaches" is Savva's daughter, Vera Mamontova, who posed for Serov at her father's estate "Abramtsevo").

At the end of his life, the entrepreneur went bankrupt. He was in debtors' prison on suspicion of embezzlement of railroad money. While he was passing the time, he sculpted sculptures of the guards from memory. Although the investigation did not find any embezzlement and the philanthropist was acquitted, his railway became the property of the state, the property was sold off, and his business reputation was lost forever. Nevertheless, Mamontov's contribution to the industry and culture of Russia is great, and the monument in Yaroslavl is proof of this.