Fodor's Expert Review Monument to Scuttled Ships

One of the most famous monuments of Sevastopol, this column, which stands on an artificial rock among the waves, was the state emblem of the city in the Soviet times. It commemorates the scuttling of the Russian Navy (so that the ships would not fall into enemy hands and so that they would block entry into the harbor) after a year-long siege by French and British troops during the Crimean War. On top of the column is a bronze, two-headed eagle holding a laurel wreath in its beak.