The Samson Rending Open the Jaws of the Lion group was intended to decorate the most powerful water-jet in the Lower Park. The decision of its construction was taken in 1734, when the 25th anniversary of the defeat of the Swedish troops near Poltava was celebrated. This major event in the Northern War took place on the feast day of St Sampson, and therefore the historic battle was represented allegorically as a fight of the Biblical Samson with a lion. The sculpture was supposed to symbolize the victory of Russia over Sweden (the lion is depicted in the Swedish coat-of-arms). To make the jet rise as high as possible, a special wooden pipeline, over four kilometres long, was laid, at the orders of the fountain-builder Paul Joseph Sualem, from the Bibigon Pool to the cascade. In 1736 the whole amount of work was completed and the fountain spurted a powerful water-jet to the height of twenty metres.