RUSSIA

NEVSKY PROSPECT

The Nevsky Prospekt is the main thoroughfare of St.Petersburg that starts from the Admiralty Prospekt and ends at the Alexander Nevsky Square. It is 4.5 km long and 25 - 60 meter wide. The part between the Square of Insurrection and the Alexander Nevsky Square is traditionally called Old Nevsky Prospekt. The Moyka River (the Narodny Bridge), the Fontanka River (the Anichkov Bridge), and the Griboedova Canal (the Kazansky Bridge) cross Nevsky Prospekt.

The Nevsky Prospekt appeared in 1710 as two roads in boggy forest leading from the Admiralty and from the Alexander Nevsky Monastery to the Old Novgorod high road. The part from the Admiralty to the present Square of Insurrection was known as a Big Prospect which was the main entrance to the city. In the thirties of the 18th century the road was called the Neva Prospect. In the sixties of the 18th a singe thoroughfare was formed which from the end of the 18th century acquired the present name of Nevsky Prospekt.


ST. ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL

The weighty mass of St. Isaac's Cathedral dominates the skyline of St. Petersburg. Its gilded dome, covered with 100 kg of pure gold, soars over 100 meters into the air, making it visible far out onto the Gulf of Finland. The Cathedral was commissioned by Alexander I in 1818 and took more than three decades to complete.

St. Isaac's Cathedral

Its architect, August Monferrand, pulled out all the stops in his design, incorporating dozens of kinds of stone and marble into the enormous structure and lading its vast interior with frescoes, mosaics, bas-reliefs, and the only stained glass window in the Orthodoxy. By the time the cathedral was completed in 1858, its cost had spiraled to more than twenty million rubles--as well as the lives of hundreds of laborers. Both the exterior and the interior of the cathedral deserve prolonged observation, and the view from the dome is stupendous.


THE KAZAN CATHEDRAL

Kazan Cathedral is one of the grandest churches in the city. The Cathedral was built to house the venerated icon, Our Lady of Kazan, and was named after it. The Cathedral was constructed on the Order of the Russian Emperor Paul I, being modeled on St. Peter’s in the Vatican (arch. A.Voronikhin). It is a monument, commemorating the Russian victory over France in the Russo-Napoleonic War of 1812-1814. The Cathedral became the burial place of the Field-Marshal Kutuzov, who was at the head of the Russian Army during the War, the character of Tolstoy’s novel "War and Peace". It was also here that the numerous trophies were brought including keys of European cities surrendered to the Russian Army. During the Soviet period the cathedral housed the Museum of History of Religions and Atheism. At the present time the museum’s display is dedicated to the history of Orthodox Religion in Russia, the history of Western Christianity and religious art. It possesses an enormous collection of cult objects and paintings.


MENSHIKOV PALACE

The palace of the first Governor of St. Petersburg, built in the early XVIII century was the first stone building in St. Petersburg (architects G. Fontana and I. Schedel), first residential structure on Vasilievsky Island and the finest one in the city, surpassing even Peter’s Summer Palace. The Tsar had no objections, preferring to entertain at Menshikov’s Palace, which was furnished to suit his tastes. In the building, the fragments of the original interiors of the XVIII century has been preserved, among them the famous Dutch tiles. Exhibition of the State Hermitage Museum, dedicated to Russian culture of Peter’s time open to the public.


DECEMBRISTS SQUARE

The second of St. Petersburg's great squares is named for the unsuccessful Decembrists' revolt on December 14, 1825. The rebels were attacked, captured, and later executed or exiled in Siberia.

The Bronze Horseman

Peter the Great Statue (The Bronze Horseman) stands at the river end of the square. The monument was commissioned by Catherine the Great and sculpted by the Frenchman Etienne Falconet. This striking statue has long been one of the most symbolic monuments in St. Petersburg. In 1833 Pushkin immortalized it in his masterful poem The Bronze Horseman, in which the statue comes to life to pursue the poor clerk Yevgeny through the flooded streets of the city.


THE AURORA CRUISER

It was founded in 1897 and launched in 1900. It is named after the Aurora frigate that defended Petropavlovsk on Kamchatka during the War of 1853-56. The cruiser participated in the Tsusima battle. From November 17 1948 the cruiser became the monument of the October revolution. It is located near Petrogradskaya Embankment of the Bolshaya Nevka River. Form 1957 it is an affiliate of the Navy museum.


ENGINEER’S CASTLE

Paul I began the heavily fortified castles shortly after he assumed the throne, in an attempt to allay his fear of being assassinated. In January 1801 the imperial family moved onto it. On the night of March 12, 1801, only 40 days after he had moved in, Paul I was assassinated in his bedroom by conspirators. In 1819 the building was handed over to the School of Military Engineers, hence the name. F. Dostoevsky, famous Russian writer, graduated from the School as a fortification engineer. Since the Revolution, it has been used to house various libraries and record officers and most recently the restorers’ workshops of the State Russian Museum. In 1991 it was transferred into the complete possession of the Museum. At present it houses the collection of the Romanov Portrait Gallery in some restored halls.


ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS

The building is one of the most outstanding samples of Rusian 18th century architecture designed by A.Kokorinov and Vallin de la Mothe (1764-1788). The names of many outstanding Russian artists are associated with the Academy of Fine Arts that was established in 1754. It boasts an impressive roll call of graduates, including architects Zakharov and Voronikhin, sculptor Pyotr Klodt, painters Karl Bryullov and Ilya Repin. The last has given his name to the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture that now occupies the building, whose museum displays graduates’ works collected over the years and replicas of masterpieces painted as teaching aids in the early 19th century.


MARBLE PALACE

The architect A. Rinaldi in the second half of the 18th century and its outward appearance has remained almost unchanged ever since designed the splendid Marble Palace. Both the interior and exterior are fronted in 32 different kinds of marble, hence the name. Catherine the Great ordered the Marble Palace to be built as a present for her lover, Count Orlov. After his death in 1783 the palace was acquired into the Treasury. It used to be the residence of S.Poniatovsky, the last king of Rech Pospolita. Later, up to 1917, it was owned by several Grand Dukes in succession.

The Marble Palace

By the mid-nineteenth century, the palace was in ruins, only restored and refurbished by its owner, Grand Duke Constantine Nickolaevich, a poet and playwright. His translation of Shakspeare’s Hamlet was considered to be the best one at the time. He was the author of the tragedy "Czar Judaic". Some interiors, in the southern wing of the palace, where he lived with his family, have been restored and open for public. Formerly home to the Leningrad branch of the Central Lenin Museum, it is now used for a subsidiary art gallery for the Russian Museum, which puts on temporary and permanent exhibitions entitled "The twilight zone between oblivion & remembrance", " Foreign artists in Russia" (VIII- XIX cent.) and "Peter Ludvig Museum in the Russian Museum ".