Text 4. The Squares of St. Petersburg

Life, or perhaps death had frustrated Peter the Great’s plans to move the center of St. Petersburg to Vasilevsky Island. Instead, the center had developed spontaneously on the left bank of the Neva. In the early 1730s royal residences and mansions of the nobility were built along the left embankment. The steeple of the Admiralty and St. Isaac’s Cathedral also rose above the northern area of the city, while Nevsky Prospect stretched southeastwards to Alexander Nevsky Monastery.

Historians credit Peter Eropkin, a brilliant architect and builder, with the design of the central part of the city, the famous “Neva Trident”. This “Trident “ consists of three avenues forking out from the tower of the Admiralty like three rays. It was Eropkin’s idea that one should be able to see the gilded steeple of the Admiralty, crowned with the gilded ship, from any of these three prospects. The most important among them is Nevsky Prospect, the busiest avenue in the capital.

The Admiralty was founded by Peter the Great in 1704 and at first it was an earthen fortress. Then it had been reconstructed several times. It took seventeen years from 1806 to 1823 to construct the modern building of the Admiralty symbolizing Russia’s access to sea, and numerous sculptures are dedicated to the glory of the Russian Navy. In front of the Admiralty there once was a large square from which the “Neva Trident” forked out. Today this square is the Alexander Garden.

Walking down Nevsky Prospect from the Admiralty one can’t help admiring the main square of the city – Palace Square. During many years it was a miserable place, for there was neither time nor money for the Russian monarchs to rebuild the area around their chief residence. In the middle of the 18^th century cows grazed in the meadow there. Only in the spring of 1819 Rossi was commissioned to make a splendid and solemn square to glorify the leading country in Europe. The gigantic double arch of the General Staff Headquarters and a magnificent bow-shaped building emphasize the harmony and efficiency of the architectural ensemble that surround the Winter Palace.

To make it possible to see the Palace Square from the Neva Nicholas I ordered to pave a wide passage between the eastern wing of the Admiralty and the Winter Palace and to build a pier on the embankment. Rossi created a wide granite slope to the river and decorated it with iron cast lions. When the Palace Bridge was built over the Neva this pier was moved down the Neva current.

On August 30, 1834 Palace Square was crowded with people to unveil the Alexander Column. Two years had passed since the monolith was installed there, and now its granite base, bronze decorations and the statue on its top were finally being revealed to the public. The Alexander Column was not placed at the geometrical center of Palace Square; it was installed on the same axis with the grandiose Arch of the General Staff so that it appeared framed by the Triumphal Arch and can be seen from Bolshaya Morskaya Street.

Rossi demonstrated his unusual abilities creating the architectural ensembles of St. Petersburg. He laid out the whole area from Nevsky Prospect to the Field of Mars. One of his masterpieces is the Square of Arts where a splendid edifice of the Russian Museum is located.

Rossi’s first town-planning work in St. Petersburg was to reconstruct the Anichkov Palace and to create a harmonious square that faced Nevsky Prospect. He dreamed to design a square comparable with the square in front of the Kazan Cathedral. This square was planned to connect the first public library and the garden of the Anichkov Palace. The solution of the problem were pavilions, small in size but imposing and elegant, which connected the two ensembles. It is Ostrovsky Square now.

Carlo Rossi designed the building of the theatre which was called Alexandrinsky after Alexandra, the wife of Nicholas I. Alexandra played an outstanding part in the country’s public life. The most famous actors performed on its stage, such as Komissarzhevskaya, Savvina, Strepetova, Davydov. Pushkin, Gogol, Nekrasov and Belinsky attended its performances.

In the center of Ostrovsky Square, in front of the Alexandrinsky Theatre, there is a monument to Catherine II. It took twelve years to design and construct the monument, and it was finally unveiled in 1873. The sculptor managed to visually convey why Catherine was called the “Great”. The Empress is depicted in an ermine mantle, holding a scepter and a laurel wreath. The Emperor and members of the city government insisted on depicting her with her close associates, but choosing those who would be immortalized was not easy. Catherine was energetic, strong-willed, strong-minded, and diligent, and she chose gifted people for the realization of her plans. Around the pedestal there are figures of nine statesmen and military leaders of her time.

Another masterpiece of Carlo Rossi is Decembrist’s Square (originally Senate Square). It was called Senate because the buildings of Senate and Synod were constructed opposite the Admiralty. On August 18, 1782, the centenary of Peter the Great’s accession to the throne, the monument was unveiled before a huge crowd. The “ Bronze Horseman ” has immortalized the names of its creators ever since.

There is one more square in St. Petersburg which is worth mentioning. It’s St.Isaac’s Square. The greatest architectural ensembles here include the monument to Nicholas I, the focal point of the square, the Mariinsky Palace and St. Isaac’s Cathedral. Built to glorify the victory of the Russian Empire over Napoleon, the Cathedral with its gilded dome has also become one of the symbols of St. Petersburg. It is the third largest cathedral in the world with astonishingly beautiful interiors, 112 columns of varying sizes, and the bells cast from old Siberian five-kopeck coins. The dome of St. Isaac’s can be seen from practically any point in the city.

Commentary: to frustrate – расстраивать, срывать; steeple - шпиль; to credit – приписывать; trident – трезубец; to fork out – ответвляться, отходить; to graze – пастись, щипать траву; meadow – луг; be commissioned – получить заказ; to unveil – торжественно открывать; edifice – здание, сооружение; ermine mantle – горностаевая мантия; scepter - скипетр; laurel wreath – лавровый венок; to immortalize – увековечить, обессмертить; centenary - столетие; accession to the throne – восхождение на трон; focal – центральный; gilded – позолоченный; dome – купол