Architecture

Architecture of Saint Petersburg

In 1990, the historical center of St. Petersburg and the Palace and Park ensembles of the suburbs were included in the list of UNESCO world heritage sites. About 8 thousand architectural monuments are protected by the state. In 2005, the St. Petersburg strategy for preserving cultural heritage was adopted. The majestic appearance of the city is defined by architectural ensembles, strict straight streets, spacious squares, gardens and parks, rivers and numerous channels, embankments, bridges, patterned fences, monumental and decorative sculptures.

Architectural ensembles of the XVIII-XX centuries: Peter and Paul fortress, Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Smolny Institute, Palace square with the Winter Palace, Admiralty, Nevsky Prospekt, Strelka Vasilievsky island with the Exchange building, Senate square with the monument to Peter I, Architect Rossi street and Ostrovsky square, Arts square, St. Isaac's square and, formed in the XX century, Vosstaniya square.

The rapid development of St. Petersburg has become a challenge to the traditional idea of a city with a long history, which is growing and developing slowly[193]. Peter I conceived the city on the model of Venice and Amsterdam: instead of streets paved with stone, the city had to cover a network of channels, through which residents would move on light ships. Although Peter's dream was not to come true, it was foreign experience that formed the basis for further development. The author of the first General plan of the city in 1716 was the Italian architect Domenico Trezini: straight perpendicular streets, wide "proshpekty" became a characteristic feature of the new capital.

This layout is seen on the example of Vasilievsky island and Trident: Admiralty-Nevsky Prospekt, Gorokhovaya street, Voznesensky Prospekt. Almost all the buildings in the Central part of the city appeared later, but geometrically defined squares and streets have defined the appearance of the city to this day. The decisive role in this was played by the personality of Peter I. he personally chose the place of Nevsky Prospekt, the Admiralty, and the Peter and Paul fortress, and introduced strict urban planning discipline.

All buildings by his decree were to be built of stone (at the same time in all other cities of Russia it was forbidden to use stone as the main building material). At that time, the style of Peter's Baroque, whose representatives are the Italians D. Trezini, J. G., was widespread. M. Fontana, N. miketti, Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Leblon, Germans A. schlueter, G. Mattarnovi, Russian M. Zemtsov. Several buildings built in this style have been preserved in the city: the Peter and Paul fortress with the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the Summer Palace, the Kunstkamera, the building of the Twelve colleges, and the Menshikov Palace. In the middle of the XVIII century, the style of Elizabethan Baroque began to prevail, represented by architects F. B. Rastrelli (Winter Palace, Smolny monastery, Great Peterhof Palace in Peterhof, Great Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo) and S. I. Chevakinsky (St. Nicholas sea Cathedral).

In 1844, Emperor Nicholas I issued a decree prohibiting the construction of civil buildings in the city above the cornice of the Winter Palace. From the second half of the XVIII century, classicism became predominant in the city's architecture. The main architects of this style are: V. I. Bazhenov (Mikhailovsky castle), J.-B. Wallen-Delamot (Academy of arts building, Bolshoy Gostiny Dvor), A. Rinaldi (Marble Palace), I. E. Starov (Tauride Palace, Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra), and J. A. Starov. Quarenghi (Smolny Institute building, Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo), CH. Cameron (Pavlovsk Palace); and later (early XIX century) in all its varieties, of the Russian Empire style: A. N. Voronikhin (Kazan Cathedral), A. D. Zakharov (Admiralty building), Jean Thomas de Thomon (spit of Vasilievsky island), Carlo Rossi (the Mikhailovsky Palace, General staff building, the Alexandrine theatre, Senate and Synod), V. P. Stasov (Transfiguration Cathedral, Trinity Cathedral), Auguste Montferrand (Saint Isaac's Cathedral).

In the middle of the XIX century, eclecticism began to prevail in architecture: A. I. Stackenschneider (Mariinsky Palace, Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace), A. P. Bryullov (Lutheran Church of Saints Peter and Paul), K. A. Ton (Moscow station building), A. A. Parland (Church of the Savior on spilled Blood). Since the middle of the century, construction of new embankments and bridges has begun, and large-scale construction of apartment buildings is underway. It was during this period that Liteyny, Vladimirsky and Zagorodny avenues were formed.

At the beginning of the XX century, art Nouveau buildings appeared in the city, including the house of the singer company, the Eliseevsky store, the Astoria hotel, and the Vitebsk railway station. During this period, the decoration of apartment buildings, private mansions and public buildings with stained glass Windows became widespread.

Next came the neoclassical style ("House with towers" on Leo Tolstoy square), which was replaced with constructivism in the 1920s (the Palace of culture named after am. Gorky, Bolshoy Dom na Liteyny Prospekt) and Stalin's Empire (ensembles of Moscow square, Moskovsky Prospekt, Stachek Avenue, Kalinin square, the first stage station of the Leningrad metro). Since 1923, housing construction begins in new areas on the principle of integrated development ("housing Estates"). Since the early 1960s, the mass construction of khrushchevok", and since the 1970s, "houses-ships". At the same time, there are buildings built on individual projects: the Yubileyny sports Palace, the Victory square ensemble, the Pribaltiyskaya hotel, and the sports and concert complex. V. I. Lenin, the building of the Pulkovo airport.

Recently, there has been a demolition of buildings in the historical center: the barracks of the Preobrazhensky regiment (one of the oldest in Russia) and the sapper battalion (Kirochnaya street), 5 houses on Nevsky Prospekt, the building of the XVIII century and the interiors of the Chicherin house, several houses on Vosstaniya street and Liteyny Avenue, a house on Voznesensky Avenue, a number of buildings on the Petrograd side, and more. Some of the demolished houses had the official status of architectural monuments.

In 2008, changes in legislation came into force that lifted the ban on the privatization of Federal monuments that had been in effect in Russia since 2002. This list of privatization can include about 650 buildings of the city that are still on the Federal list of protection.

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