Peter the Great Statue, Moscow, Russia

[post_ads]Peter may have been great, but many Russians think his statue is terrible. Unveiled in Moscow in 1997, the statue weighs 1,000 tons, stands 322 feet high, and is the eighth tallest in the world. However, it was also voted the 10th ugliest building in the world by Virtual Tourist in 2008, one of the world’s ugliest statues in 2010, and many Muscovites questioned why a statue of Peter the Great would be built in Moscow in the first place since the leader loathed Moscow and moved the Russian capital to St. Petersburg. To address this last issue, the statue was offered to the city of St. Pete, but it was refused. Adding another wrinkle to this tale, the structure’s design (which features Peter riding atop an enormous ship) was allegedly originally intended to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ first voyage, but a customer for the project could not be found and it was repurposed with a Russian theme. For what it’s worth, designer Zurab Tsereteli denies this claim.