In 1778 – 1787 the northern part of the Peter and Paul Fortress was faced with granite. The legend says that once Catherine II looked out of the window of the Winter Palace and was badly surprised by a simple look of the Fortress walls. So she ordered to decorate them as soon as possible. Her wish was fulfilled but everything that was not seen from the Winter Palace remained at the same condition.
In 1724 the Mint was transferred from Moscow to Saint-Petersburg and was originally located in the Naryshkin and the Trubetskoy Bastions of the Fortress. In 1799 – 1805 a special building was erected to the design by Antonio Porto. Still today coins, medals and badges are produced here.
The Peter and Paul Fortress didn’t take part at any military event but soon became the state prison for the charged with crimes against the State (Russian prototype of French Bastille). Among its prisoners there were Peter’s son – Tsarevich Alexey (imprisoned for the betrayal and sentenced to death, died before the sentence was executed) and Princess Tarakanova who pretended to be the daughter of Elizabeth I. At first the prisoners were put in the Fortress casemates; in December 1796 Paul I ordered to erect a new building with more comfort for the prisoners (the former premise was in decay, the cells were damp, narrow and stuffy). In a year the building was constructed to the design by P. Paton inside the Alexey Ravelin – the Secret House (the Decembrists were imprisoned in its walls) which has not survived up to nowadays). In 1870 – 1872 a new prison premise (originally there were 71 single cells, but two of them were turned into punishment cells) was constructed in the Trubetskoy Bastion. Among its prisoners there were: Alexander Radishchev (put in prison for the publication of the novel Travel from Petersburg to Moscow), Fyodor Dostoyevskiy (for the participation in the group of M. Butashevich-Petrashevskiy, the members of which planned to establish the republic in Russia), Mikhail Bakunin and Nikolay Chernyshevskiy (in prison he wrote his famous novel What to Do?), Lenin’s older brother, Lev Trotskiy and Maxim Gorkiy.
The Fortress became the museum in 1924. The Museum of Space Exploration and Rocket Building is located in the St John Ravelin where there was a laboratory for the development of rocket engines in 1931 – 1933. In June 1991 the Monument to Peter the Great was placed in front of the Guardhouse by the noted Russian artist and sculptor Mikhail Shemyakin (Peter’s head was made from a cast taken from the wax figure of Peter the Great by B.-C. Rastrelli which in turn had been produced from his death-mask).
The Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral
Святых Петра и Павла
On 29 June 1703 a small wooden church dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul was built in the centre of the Fortress, and on 1 April 1704 it was consecrated. On 30 May 1712 when the capital was moved from Moscow to Saint-Petersburg D. Trezzini started the construction of a big stone church around an old wooden one. On 30 May 1714 the ceremony of the church consecration was held. The construction was started from the belfry – that was the order of the Tsar and could be easily explained – the belfry was a good place to watch the enemy attack from Sweden. During voyages to Europe Peter saw a lot of chimes that decorated some cathedrals and wished to have something like that in Saint-Petersburg. Three chimes were bought in Amsterdam, and one was brought to a new capital to be placed at the half finished belfry in 1720.
The spire was created in 1717 – 1720 to the design by architect Van Boles. D. Trezzini suggested to decorate it with the figure of angel holding the weather-vane in his hands. The Cathedral building was quite unusual for that time – the walls were thinner, windows were larger, there were high narrow pylons and there was only one dome instead of traditional five. The building became an exemplary for other church buildings in Russia up to mid. 18th cent., when 5 dome-form was reanimated. On 29 June 1733 the Cathedral was solemnly consecrated in the presence of Empress Anna Ioannovna.
The interior decoration was quite extravagant as well: before only biblical plots had been allowed inside the church – in the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral interior painting décor one could see the secular motifs as well. The wall painting was accomplished by Russian artists Vorobyov and Negrubov, the plafonds were executed by Pyotr Zybin. On the walls there are large paintings on Gospel subjects executed in 1729 – 1732 by A. Matveyev, V. Ignatyev and G. Gsell, seven of them survived up to nowadays. The chief adornment of the Cathedral interior is the carved gilded iconostasis (created in Moscow) and the canopy above the altar – the gift from Peter I and his wife Catherine I. The frames of the iconostasis contain 43 icons created in 1727 – 1729 by Moscow icon-painter A. Merkuryev: among the images one can see Russian nobles canonized by the Orthodox Church, the Apostles Peter and Paul, and a group of saints with the same names as the ones of the royal family members.
The Cathedral was seriously damaged in 1756 when on the night of 29 April the lightning stroke at the spire. The belfry was completely ruined and was being reconstructed for 20 years. In the reign of Peter III the money for the Cathedral reconstruction was not given; in the reign of Catherine II a special architectural competition on the best project was organized. Finally the Empress ordered to reconstruct the Cathedral according to Trezzini’s design. The Dutch craftsman Barend Krass produced new chimes and brought it to Saint-Petersburg in 1761, though it was installed only in 1776 under the supervision of Viennese clockmaker J. Ridiger.
A new spire was largened from 112 to 117. Unfortunately the second golden angel was damaged after the hurricane of 1778, and the project of the third angel was worked out by A. Rinaldi. He somehow changed the position of the angel – he was not flying anymore but was sitting at the cross and didn’t serve as the weather-vane. In mid. 19th cent. the spire was reconstructed one more time. At that time its height raised up to 122.5 m. In 1858 the chimes was also redesigned – the minute hand was installed and the clock began to ring out the church anthem How Glorious and the State anthem God Save the Tsar. It fell silent in 1917 and rang out again only in 1952 performing the melody of the Soviet anthem. In 2002 the restored chimes began to ring out God Save the Tsar twice a day and How Glorious each two hours. A year later the carillon of the Cathedral was restored, the bells being made in Holland.
The Cathedral became the burial place of the members of the Royal Family in the reign of Peter I (nowadays there are 32 tombstones). After Peter’s death (on 28 January 1725) on 10 March his coffin was placed in a temporary wooden chapel created by D. Trezzini within the unfinished Cathedral. The coffin stood beneath the canopy of black cloth surrounded by candles, coats-of-arms and banners for 6 years before being committed to the ground on 29 May 1731. In 1865 – 1867 all the tombs were replaced with new white Carrara marble ones designed by A. Poiraux and A. Gun. On the lid of each sarcophagus there is a large gilded bronze cross; at the head end, on the side wall there is a bronze plaque with the name of the deceased, his or her title, date and place of birth and death, the date of accession. The tombstones of the rulers also have bronze coats-of-arms of the Russian Empire on each of the four corners. In 1887 by order of Alexander III richer and more attractive tombs were placed over the graves of his parents – Alexander II and Mariya Alexandrovna. In February 1906 new sarcophagi produced from green Altay jasper and pink Urals rbodonite were installed there. The remains of Emperor Nicholas II and the members of his family shot in 1918 were buried in the St Catherine Side-Chapel of the Cathedral in 1998.
In 1873 the eastern façade of the Cathedral was decorated with the fresco designed by Giovanni Boldini and depicting Christ and the Apostles Peter and Paul. In 1896 – 1908 the Grand Ducal Burial Chapel designed by D. Grimm, A. Tomishko and L. Benois was built to give more space for new burials. Outside the east end of the Cathedral there is the Commandants’ Cemetery dating back to 1720. After the Revolution the Cathedral interior was severely damaged; in 1930s the bol’sheviks discussed the idea to replace the figure of angel by a ruby star.
The Admiralty. Адмиралтейство
Construction of the first Admiralty (a fortified shipyard) dates back to 1704, when Peter I, paying much attention to the Russian Navy, signed an order to establish a college to train qualified personnel for the Russian Fleet. Carpenters and shipbuilders from Vologda and Archangels were brought to the banks of the Neva.
The plan of the Admiralty shipyard was drawn by the Tsar himself, and on 5 November 1704 the Admiralty was founded. It soon became the centre of the shipbuilding that provided Russian Fleet with the military ships. In the reign of Peter I 262 military vessels were built at the Admiralty, the first one being ready on 29 April 1706.
In 1719 the Admiralty was rebuilt under the guidance of craftsman Herman van Boles. Some new elements were added, among them the tower with a tall spire built in the centre of the main façade and crowned with a small ship on the ball at the top of the spire. Since 1886 the original ship (1.92 m wide, 1.58 m – high, 65.2 kg weight) has been kept at the Navy Museum, and its copy was fixed on the Admiralty spire.
The edifice of the Admiralty was rebuilt for the third time between 1732 and 1738 designed in stone by I. Korobov. The fourth rebuilding of the Admiralty took place in 1806 – 1823: the existing Admiralty building was put up to the design by A. Zakharov. The architect included the Korobov’s creation in a new building. In mid 19th cent. the territory of the former shipyard was taken up by residential buildings which shut the Admiralty off from the Neva embankment.
The three-storied Admiralty with a façade of more than 400 m long is a magnificent example of the Russian Empire Style. Its graceful tower is topped with a gilded spire (72.5 m high), and the weathervane in the shape of a caravel on its top. The central and side façades are decorated with multi-columned porticos. An integral part of the Admiralty’s architecture is its sculptured décor – navigation and shipbuilding. The central relief on the attic entitled the Establishment of a Fleet in Russia (I. Terebenev) represents Neptune who is handing Peter I the trident – the symbol of power over the sea. The central arch is decorated with two sculptural groups of sea nymphs supporting the Earth’s sphere. On the top corners of the tower’s lower cubes are four statues of classical heroes and military leaders: Achilles, Ajax, Pyrrhus and Alexander the Great (T. Shchedrin). The upper cube is embellished with the statues personifying the four elements – fire, water, air and earth; four seasons of the year: spring, summer, automn and winter; and the four winds: south, west, north and east. Also placed here are the figures of Isis – the patroness of seafaring, and Urania – the goddess of astronomy (S. Pimenov, F. Shchedrin).
Shipbuilding in the Admiralty went on till 1844. Later only some departments concerned with the Navy remained in the building, since 1925 the Admiralty houses the Higher Naval Engineering School.
The Summer Gardens Летний сад
The Summer Gardens were laid out in spring 1704 in the formal style and became a magnificent example of Russian architecture and landscape gardening of early 18th cent. Peter I personally participated in the original design. Having summoned the best architects, sculptors, gardeners and fountain-makers to lay out the Gardens he drew up the plan for paths and beds, grottoes and cascades. In 1704 – 1705 work on layout of the gardens and the erection of the fountains was supervised by architect I. Ugryumov. Soon the Summer Gardens became an island being surrounded by the Neva, the Moyka, the Fontanka and the Lebedinka River transformed into the Swan Canal.
Rare trees and flowers were brought in from different pats of Russia and from the Netherlands. The Summer Gardens were planned in the geometric style with carefully clipped trees and shrubs, numerous summer houses, trellises, mazes, sculptures (more than 150), fountains (more than 50, some copies of those located in Peterhof), pavilions and artificial ponds. As a result the park could be a rival of the elegant gardens of Versailles Peter I appreciated so much! The overall territory of the palace and park ensemble originally included the First and the Second Summer Gardens, the Third (nowadays Mikhaylovskiy) and the Big Meadows (nowadays the Field of Mars).
Soon the Summer Gardens became the Emperor’s residence. Between 1710 and 1712 the Summer Palace of Peter I was built in the Gardens to the design by D. Trezzini (the exterior and interior décor was completed only in 1724 by A. Schluter). Its façade is decorated with 29 bas-reliefs depicting allegories that honour Russian victories in the Swedish War. On the roof one can see a gilded weather-vane depicting the ancient protector of Russian warriors – St George the Victorious. Peter I lived there since early spring to late automn. The Emperor himself occupied the first floor (the rooms belonging to Peter I were quite narrow and low, for he could not stand and spacious premises with high ceilings and if he had to stay at a house with high ceilings he asked to make them lower by tightening a canvas), while his wife dwelled on the second one.
From May to September all royal celebrations and assemblies were held in the summer residence of the Emperor. One of the greatest wonder of the Gardens was the collection of Italian marble statues most of which were made by Italian sculptors of the Venetian school (A. Tarsia, M. Gropelli, G. Zorzoni, A. Tagliapietra). Among them there were figures of Minerva and Flora, muses, spirits of the Times of the Day (Aurora, Noon, Sunset, Night) by G. Bonazza, allegorical statues: Truth and Justice, Sincerity and Charity, Architecture and Navigation, the group Eros and Psyche.
In front of his Palace Peter I set up the sculpture Peace and Abundance which symbolized the victory over Sweden: a seating woman with a torch in hands symbolizes the end of war, while the horn of abundance personifies Russia, under her feet there are numerous spoils of war. Peace is personified by a winged goddess Victory with a palm branch in hands. She is trampling on a dying lion (depicted on the Swedish coat-of-arms) and crowns Russia with a laurel wreath. The essence of Peter’s message addressed to the enemy that agreed to conclude an armistice is carved in Latin on the pedestal:
Great is he who gives; great is he who receives;
But greatest of all is he who can accomplish both.
By mid. 18th cent. the Summer Gardens lost their significance as an official royal ground and became the park visited by the nobility. Formal parks were out of fashion having made way for the landscape ones. Pushkin recollected that so called bride parades were held there on Sundays: young well-dressed ladies all in jewels, accompanied by their mothers stood on both sides of alleys while young gentlemen were walking along appreciating the wealth of every maiden. The Summer Gardens were also used for sports competitions (running in particularly) as the documents affirm.
In 1771 – 1784 the railings designed by Yu. Velten and P. Yegorov in the style of Russian Classicism and made at the Tula Works were put up along the Neva river frontage of the Summer Gardens. The flood of 10th September 1777 destroyed most of the constructions located in the garden that were not reconstructed afterwards. On 7 November 1824 the Gardens were attacked by another flood (nowadays on the façade of the Summer Palace one can see a bronze plate at a height of the first floor window that shows the level of water).