Monument to Vitus Bering in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Metal column monument in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia

The Monument to Vitus Bering is a two-metre metal column resembling a cannon barrel, topped by a capital whose abacus bears a lotus flower with a cannonball resting in its open petals. The metal base has relief laurel wreaths with crossed torches on its four faces, and the whole stands on a massive cut-stone foundation with a cast-iron plaque reading "To the founder of Petropavlovsk in 1740, the navigator Vitus Bering." It stands on Leninskaya Street in the city centre.

The monument honours Vitus Bering, leader of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, whose need for winter quarters led to the founding of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in 1740. It is first mentioned by Frederick William Beechey, who visited the port in 1827 and saw it in the governor's garden opposite a monument to Captain Clerke. It was later moved several times, including to the city cathedral and, in the 1930s, opposite the Polyarnaya Zvezda cinema, before a 16 October 1945 order placed it on its current site.

The city's name comes from the two ships of Bering's Second Kamchatka Expedition, the Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which wintered here in 1740. The monument's cast-iron plaque calls him the founder of Petropavlovsk. Its cannon barrel and cannonball, separated by a lotus flower, stand for courage, purpose and purity of intent.

The monument stands on Leninskaya Street in the centre of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, on a massive base of dressed stone. It was moved to this spot by a decision of the city executive committee on 16 October 1945, after earlier locations near the cathedral and the Polyarnaya Zvezda cinema. Look for the cast-iron plaque on the base.

The navigator this monument honors died in 1741 on a small island during his return voyage from his second expedition, never making it back to the mainland. That island now bears his name and lies not far from the very coastline he had set out to explore.