[2] At the personal request of his successor Alexander II, Nicholas was represented as a prancing knight, "in the military outfit in which the late tsar was most majestic".

The statue faces Saint Isaac's Cathedral, with the horse's posterior turned to the Mariinsky Palace of Nicholas's daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna.

[7] Contemporaries have noticed that this monument is aligned with the statue of the Bronze Horseman, and is almost an identical distance from Saint Isaac's Cathedral.

There is also a city legend, which claims that the day after the monument was unveiled, on a foot of the horse there was found a wooden tablet on which had been written: "you will not catch up!".

On the basis of this legend in the 19th century in St. Petersburg there was a saying: "the Fool of the clever catches up, but the monument to it disturbs" Russian: Дурак умного догоняет, но памятник ему мешает!

[8] Russian: В нём (Николае I) много от прапорщика и мало от Петра ВеликогоTranslated: In him (Nikolas I) there is a lot from an ensign and little from Peter the Great[8] In the Soviet era there was a legend about the uniqueness of the design of the monument, that its axle load distribution was executed by lead shot.

Architect de Montferrand received the commission to present "reasons about a monument to Nikolay I" (Russian: соображения о памятнике Николаю I).

In May 1856 de Montferrand's project was confirmed and in June the monument installation site was defined: "opposite to the Mariinsky Palace, faced to the Isaakievsky cathedral" (Russian: напротив Мариинского дворца, лицом к Исаакиевскому собору).

The author planned by means of a mimicry and gestures to reflect character of the emperor, but this variant was rejected by de Montferrand for the reason that could not serve the primary purpose of association of spatial ensembles.

[5] On de Montferrand's drawing sculptor Robert Salemann executed the monument's model "in 1/8 full sizes with all architectural parts and ornaments" (Russian: в 1/8 натуральной величины со всеми архитектурными частями и украшениями).

Registration Base of a statue have added with graceful lanterns-floor lamps with fixtures, they are made on de Montferrand's plan, the project was executed by architect Robert Veigelt.

[2] The monument's technical proficiency was cited as a reason why this statue — the only one from a cluster of outdoor sculptures representing 19th-century Russian royalty — survived the Soviet period virtually intact.

[2] Russian: Есть подозрение, что нарушилась герметичность блоков мрамора и известняка, под мрамор попадает влага, а это очень вредно для постаментаTranslated: There is a suspicion that hermetical tightness of marble and limestone blocks has been broken, and the marble is getting moist within, which is very harmful for a pedestal.