What Tenerife and the Russian Empire have in common? The answer is: Agustín de Betancourt y Molina, a famous engineer who was born in Puerto de la Cruz in 1758. After working in Spain and France, he moved to the cold and faraway land called Russia to serve tsar Alexander I and to play a very important role in the development of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

His Russian career began in 1808 when he joined Russian service in the rank of Major General, assigned to the Directorate of Communications. His first work was the famous fountain Girl-with-a Pitcher in Tsarskoye Selo (sculpture by Pavel Sokolov) which was immortalized by Alexander Pushkin in his poem “The Tsarskoe Selo Statue”. 

Photo: Mrkhlopov https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%9F._%D0%9F._%D0%A1%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2.jpg#mw-jump-to-license

In 1816, Betancourt was promoted to head the Commission for Construction and Hydraulics, a national institution targeted primarily at Saint Petersburg development; since 1819 he also headed the Directorate of Communications. He recruited and trained such prominent architects as Auguste de Montferrand and Leo Carboniere.

Betancourt built Saint Petersburg's first bridge across Malaya Nevka, connecting Kamenny Island with Aptekarsky Island that is now known as Kamennoostrovsky Bridge. This seven-span wooden bridge, named after Betancourt, served for a record fifty years and was the only wooden bridge that survived the disastrous 1824 flood. Later, he designed similar bridges for Warsaw, Tula and Peterhof.
 
In 1816, Alexander I of Russia assigned Betancourt to find an architect to build Saint Isaac's Cathedral. Betancourt promoted Montferrand and in February 1818 the Tsar approved Montferrand's fifth draft. Betancourt provided Montferrand with an efficient, thoroughly calculated dome design utilizing three interconnected steel domes without any masonry vaults.

In Moscow, Betancourt supervised construction of the famous Moscow Manege. The building, 166 meters long and 44.7 meters wide, required a single-span roof without any internal columns. Betancourt personally designed the wooden roof trusses and completed the whole project in six months.

Betancourt died in Saint Petersburg in 1824 and was buried there at the Smolensk Lutheran cemetery. His tomb was designed and made by Auguste de Montferrand. Later, his grave was relocated to the Lazarevskoe Cemetery in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
This bust of "the father of modern engineering" was erected in Betancourt’s memory in his hometown. On the right side of the piedestal a double-acting steam engine designed by Betancourt is carved.

Bonus fact: the bust is located opposite Hotel Monopol which was built on the site of Betancourt’s birthplace.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agust%C3%ADn_de_Betancourt