Good afternoon, dear readers. We continue our journey through St. Petersburg and today we will look at the 10 most beautiful buildings in the city.
The architectural masterpieces of the northern capital are beautiful not only from the outside, but also from the inside.
Church of the Resurrection
The Church of the Resurrection of Christ was erected on the very spot where Alexander II was mortally wounded in 1881. It took 24 years to build, largely due to the extremely intricate interior decoration.
Its walls are covered with 7,000 square meters of mosaics depicting Orthodox saints and the heavenly patrons of the Romanov family, which are the work of several famous Russian artists.
Initially, the temple was not intended for mass visits, which is probably why its interior decoration is so magnificent. Inside the temple, to this day, there is a section of the sidewalk on which the monarch died — a special chapel was built on this site.
The temple became public after the revolution. Now it is one of the main attractions of the city.
Yusupov Palace on the Moika
The palace belonged to one of the oldest and most influential aristocratic families in Russia — the Yusupov princes.
Its interior decoration, probably, could only be compared with the imperial residences, for which it was called the «encyclopedia» of the St. Petersburg aristocratic interior, and later — the «museum of luxury.»
The palace has almost 30 halls with magnificent interiors: huge tapestries, massive crystal chandeliers, old large books, the finest plaster, works by Italian and Russian masters, a rotunda with frescoes, and even its own home theater with a baroque stage.
Although it is just one of 57 family-owned palaces across Russia, the neoclassical building on the banks of the Moika River is today’s most famous. It was here in 1916 that the young Felix Yusupov and his comrades killed the favorite and close associate of the last emperor, Grigory Rasputin.
Museum of Applied Arts of the State Academy of Art and Industry named after A.L. Stieglitz.
The building was built at the expense of the largest merchant of that time Alexander Stieglitz in the late 1870s. In it he founded an art school. Years later, there is an amazing collection of works of art bought at European auctions and donated by Russian aristocrats, diplomats and entrepreneurs. However, the interior design and decoration of the building itself deserves no less attention.
The house was designed by renowned architect Maximilian Messmacher, who also built the palaces of many grand dukes in St. Petersburg.
Prior to that, he toured European capitals and studied their experience in building museum spaces. As a result, the Stiglitz Museum has become a completely new type of museum building for Russia — with a well-planned lighting system and a clear symmetrical layout.
Its heart and compositional center is the Grand Atrium exhibition hall, reminiscent of the courtyard of an Italian palace, with a very progressive building for the 19th century — a spectacular glass dome.
Great Catherine Palace
This summer imperial residence near St. Petersburg is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places associated with the Romanovs. Beautiful outside, no less solemn inside: the interiors are gilded, the walls are lined with Chinese and Lyon silk.
In each front suite there is a fireplace with painted faience lining, made especially for the palace.
Indeed, today all this splendor is the result of tireless work on the restoration of an architectural monument.
During the Second World War, the palace was badly damaged, including the most famous amber hall. This is the famous Amber Room, the interior of which mysteriously disappeared during the war, and no one still knows where it is hidden. Over the past decade, Russian craftsmen and scientists have brought the room «home» by recreating its exact replica.
Mariinskii Opera House
The Mariinsky Theatre, the «showcase» of the St. Petersburg theater and ballet in tsarist times, was the main meeting place for aristocrats and courtiers of the imperial court. This majestic building has been restored and changed its appearance many times, but to this day the large stage of the Mariinsky Theater, as it is called by the people, is the epitome of imperial luxury.
The architect of Italian-Russian origin Albert Cavos focused not on the facade or the main staircase, but on the concert hall, which is rightfully considered one of the most beautiful in the world.
Its walls are covered with velvet panels, and the chairs are aquamarine, which deviates from the traditional layout of the Imperial Theater, which is dominated by red motifs and gold.
Particular attention is drawn to the ceiling with 12 nymphs surrounded by cupids and 12 medallions with portraits of playwrights. The visiting card of the theater is a 1860 chandelier with 23,000 crystal pendants!
Shuvalov Palace
Another extraordinarily beautiful building in St. Petersburg. The palace appeared at the end of the reign of Catherine II on the banks of the Fontanka River and quickly gained a reputation as a popular secular place. Today it is the historical center of the city, but then the Shuvalov Palace was located on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, and the Fontanka delineated the border of the city.
Each of the halls of the neo-Renaissance palace has a unique layout. One of the most beautiful is the Column or Ballroom. It is decorated with marble columns, and the upper part of the walls is decorated with a sculptural panel depicting scenes from the Trojan War.
Today, the Shuvalov Palace is something like an “ark” for decorations. Its luxurious interior houses the private Faberge Museum.
Russian National Library in St. Petersburg
This is one of the largest libraries in the world and the first national library in Russia. Initially, the Founder and the organization were faced with the task of collecting all (!) books printed in Russian, published both in Russia and abroad.
They were also interested in books about Russia published in foreign languages. However, the library impresses not only with the scale of its collections. Its oldest building, built by the Italian Carlo Rossi, overlooks Catherine’s Garden (initially, the empress personally supervised the construction of the library) and combines several halls with an individual layout.
The most notable of these is Faust’s Study, also known as the Gothic Hall. Built in a medieval style with colorfully painted cruciform arches, it resembles a 15th-century European monastery cell.
Hermitage
The main building of the Hermitage is the famous Winter Palace, which for centuries was the main residence of Russian monarchs. That is why its 1084 rooms of incredible beauty and splendor, starting with the granite Jordanian main staircase (from which the liturgical procession to the Neva began, where a hole was drilled in the ice to illuminate the cross) and ending with the private rooms of members of the royal family, amaze with their decoration.
Over the past years, the halls, in the interior of which there were precious stones, have changed their appearance more than once. During the Second World War, the palace was seriously damaged after 17 artillery shells and two aerial bombs fell on it, and shells exploded in the vicinity, causing damage to the historical halls.
However, to this day the palace has retained its true image and interior decoration. In order to save all these treasures, museum staff and volunteers performed a feat in their time and spent many sleepless nights in the dungeons of the Hermitage.
Grand Peterhof Palace
The magnificent palace was designed by the favorite architect of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and the creator of the Winter Palace, Italian Bartolomeo Rastrelli. However, over the course of several centuries, this summer residence has been rebuilt several times in accordance with modern architectural fashion, so different styles and tastes are clearly visible in its interior.
There is also a baroque gallery with gilded carvings and mirrored panels (to make the halls appear larger, which are actually too narrow), and Peter the Great’s oak office with his personal effects and elements of rococo as well as discreet classicism.
Everything that can be seen today in Peterhof is the result of painstaking work over several decades. During the war, the palace was burned down and blown up. In fact, it was restored from ruins.
Saint Isaac’s Cathedral
At the time of construction, St. Isaac’s Cathedral was the most expensive temple in Europe, because 100 kg of gold was used only to cover the domes. The idea was that the cathedral would become «the main Orthodox shrine of the empire.» Note that there are more and more “applicants” for this status.
And the 101-meter cathedral in the city center eventually became a monument of the era. The arrangement of its interior was approached with the same piety as the construction of the front facade.
Its ceiling of 816 square meters was painted by the best portrait painter of his time, Karl Bryulov. Inside the temple is decorated with expensive marble, lapis lazuli, malachite and beautiful mosaics.
The gilded massive chandeliers-candlesticks are impressive — they weigh 3 tons each. The ceiling of the cathedral also attracts attention: in its very center there is an image of a dove — a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
Here are some buildings worth visiting in St. Petersburg. What else have you added to this list?