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The St. Petersburg Russia fortress was founded on Zayachij Island (the Island of Hares) in the mouth of the Neva upon the decree of Peter the Great on May 27, 1703. The fortress became Russia’s main bulwark in the northwest, providing for safe sea passage on the Baltic Sea and keeping the connection between Russia and Western Europe (“the window onto Europe”) open. The fortress, where Peter and Paul Cathedral was erected, was later named Peter and Paul Fortress. Domenico Trezzini supervised the construction works. Peter the Great wanted to have not only a convenient harbor, but also a new city & the new capital of Russia, that would be an equal of European capitals in its beauty and importance. The many construction works required qualified experts. By decree of Peter the Great, every year bricklayers, carpenters, joiners, tailors and merchants came to St. Petersburg Russia with their families to settle and the first dwelling houses were built. On Berezovy Island (Birch Island) a small pine-log cabin was built for Peter the Great. The tsar’s house was the first in the city. This cabin is the only wooden building that has survived in St. Petersburg Russia from the city’s foundation to the present day.
The first buildings were put up near Peter and Paul Fortress. The layout was very typical of Old Russia, with its crooked streets and separated subdivisions. However, this pattern didn’t last long. When St. Petersburg Russia became the capital of Russia in 1712, the principles of regular layout were enforced in further works of construction for the first time. In 1716, Domenico Trezzini developed the project of the city center on St. Basil’s Island, which was supposed to be divided by a grid of canals into rectangular blocks. Although this project was never realized it became the basis of the rigid geometrical layout, which is so characteristic of this part of St. Petersburg Russia. French architect J. B. Le Blonde developed the brilliant project of St. Petersburg’s layout. The stone buildings built according to this project still constitute the architectural base of many old districts in St. Petersburg Russia.
The city grew unbelievably fast. The Admiralty and the Shipyard were built; the Alexander Nevsky Monastery was founded (architect D. Trezzini); a road from the Admiralty to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery was built, the Great Nevsky Perspective (Nevsky Prospect). On the left bank of the river a summer palace for Peter the Great was built by architect D. Trezzini. Around the palace, the Summer Gardens were planted and separated by the Swan Canal from the Big Meadow, or Amusement Field (today the Field of Mars), where festivities and fireworks were held to honor war victories. On St. Basil’s Island architects D. Fontana and J. Schädel built a three-storied palace for General Governor A. D. Menshikov. The first factories, Shpalernaya and Shelkovaya, appeared as well as plants producing leather goods, sugar, glass and other goods. On the Moscow side, the Casting Yard opened, where a turnery, smithy, carpentry and soldering workshops were established. On the Spit of St. Basil’s Island, the Kunstkammer Building, which housed a museum, a library, a dissecting room and an observatory, was founded by architect G. Matarnovi.
In the second part of the 18th century, during the reign of Catherine the 2nd, the granite embankments of the Neva and the Fontanka rivers were created and stone bridges built. At the same time the Hermitage, one of the world’s largest museums, was founded. Architects Yu. M. Velten, A. Rinaldi, A. F. Kokorinov and J. Quarenghi designed the Hermitage buildings. F. Kokorinov and J. B. Vallin de la Mothe designed the Academy of Arts. Architect I. E. Starov designed the Tauride Palace. Architect A. Rinaldi designed the Marble Palace. At this time, The Bronze Horseman, a monument to the founder of the city, Peter the Great, was erected as well.
Extensive reconstruction works were carried out in the beginning of the 19th century. The concept of building ensembles showed in the work of the great masters of high classicism: A. N. Voronikhin, A. D. Zakharov, and J. Thomas de Thomon, and became most prominent in the Empire style. The work of C. I. Rossi served as the finishing touch to the center of the city with monumental buildings such as the General Headquarters, the Senate and the Synod buildings, as well as the Alexandrine Theatre and Mikhaylovsky Palace, all of which appeared in the central squares.
In the second part of the 19th century Russia saw the rising revolutionary movement. Nicholas the 2nd, the last Russian tsar, inherited the country torn by social controversy. In 1904-1905 the war between Russia and Japan broke out. The defeat in this war and the hardships of the World War I that followed only hastened the revolution. In March 1917 Nicholas the 2nd and his brother Michael abdicated from the throne and transferred their power to the Provisional Government. In October 1917 the revolution, headed by the Bolshevik party, led to the change in the Russian political system. Moscow became the capital of Soviet Russia, and after Lenin’s death, Petrograd received the name of Leningrad in 1924.
June 22, 1941, a tragic date for the Russian people, was the first day of the Great Patriotic War. In the war, Leningrad lost not only a great number of its citizens, but also some of its cultural heritage. During the siege in September 1941 – January 1944, bombs and shells damaged many of the buildings. Two thirds of the destroyed apartment buildings were later reconstructed, as well as the buildings of the Russian Museum, the Hermitage, and the Public Library.
In 1991 the city got its old name, St. Petersburg, back.
The city landscape developed gradually as the architectural trends and concepts of city layout changed. However, St. Petersburg Russia has a marvelous and unique artistic unity of the stern harmony of its monumental buildings and solemn grand ensembles in the historic center with its granite embankments, and bridges hanging above its rivers and canals. The complex history of the city is reflected in its palaces and churches, parks, wide avenues, and mazes of narrow streets pressed by tall 18th and 19th century buildings from both sides. Many famous people who contributed to the history and culture of Russia walked its streets: military men and court officials, princes and tsars, artists and poets, writers and adventurers. Come and visit this Northern Palmira of Peter the Great and his brilliant daughter Elisabeth; the city where Catherine the Great made the Russian Empire a great world power; the city where Lomonosov, Derzhavin, Pushkin, Gogol and Dostoevsky wrote their works. Come and learn the history of St. Petersburg Russia, see the White Nights of the mysterious “Northern Venice” and the spires of the Admiralty and Peter and Paul Fortress, shining in the dusk…
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The history of St. Petersburg