Monument to Dmitri Benardaki - one of the outstanding Russian figures of the 19th century – has been unveiled in St. Petersburg. He was a well-known Petersburg entrepreneur, patron of arts and a philanthropist.

The unveiling ceremony took place in the Necropolis of the Alexander Nevski Monastery of the State Museum of St. Petersburg City Sculpture.

Dmitri Benardaki, the native of Taganrog and a Greek by descent, was an honourable citizen of St. Petersburg and one of the biggest Russian industrialists of the 19th century. He was the owner of sixteen factories in six provinces, the founder of shipping companies on Volga River and the rivers of Siberia, the pioneer in development of gold mining, and the founder of the well-known Sormovsky ship-building factory in Nizhni Novgorod. The monument was designed by architect Gennady Peychev, and was cast in bronze by Petersburg sculptors Vasilisa Balashova and Andrey Shirokov.