Architecture

Take a Tour of St. Petersburg’s Architectural Gems

An architectural tour of St. Petersburg

September 16, 2015

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At the center of Palace Square stands the Alexander Column, constructed of a single piece of red granite and erected in 1834 in honor of Russia’s victory over Napoleon. In the background is the General Staff Building.
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Architect Carlo Rossi was commissioned by Alexander I to design the General Staff Building, a bow-shaped structure built in the Empire style and completed in 1829. The double arch at its center is crowned with a Roman quadriga.

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The Winter Palace, photographed here from Palace Square, was the official residence of the Russian monarchy from the 1760s until 1917.
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A view from courtyard of the Hermitage looking at Palace Square.

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The courtyard entrance to the museum.
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The Russian Museum was founded in 1895 and occupies Mikhailovsky Palace, a neoclassical residence built for Grand Duke Mikhail at the beginning of the 19th century.

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Much of St. Petersburg’s architecture is Baroque and neoclassical, but the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, begun in 1883 under Alexander III and completed under Nicholas II in 1907, celebrates medieval Russian architecture.
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Exterior detail of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.

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A mosaic of Christ under the church’s central dome.
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Kunstkamera, a natural-science museum seen in the center of this photograph, was established by Peter the Great. The Baroque-style building was designed by Georg Johann Mattarnovy and completed in 1727.

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Typical neoclassical buildings seen from the Neva River. Yellow and white is a popular exterior palette in St. Petersburg; during the dark winter months, the yellow suggests golden sun and warmth.
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The Russian cruiser Aurorarepresented the pinnacle of military design when it was completed in 1900. The ship saw action during the Russo-Japanese War and is now a popular museum.

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The Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange sits on Vasilevsky Island, just across the Neva River from the Winter Palace. The Rostral Columns serve as twin beacons for ships navigating the river.
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In the early 1700s, Peter the Great commissioned the Peter and Paul Fortress at the river delta to defend the city against attacks by the Swedes. The structure later became a prison, which held a long list of famous detainees, among them Dostoyevsky, Gorky, and Trotsky.

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St. Isaac’s Cathedral, designed by French-born architect Auguste Montferrand, was intended to be the main church of the Russian Empire. The red columns at the entrance are each made of a single 80-ton piece of granite. Construction of the cathedral took 40 years, and it was completed in 1858.
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The coffered entry vault, supported by single-piece red granite columns.

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A 300-step staircase inside the cathedral leads to a magnificent view of the city from the gold cupola.
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Interior of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, detailed with malachite and lapis lazuli columns.

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Example of the rich detailing in St. Isaac’s Cathedral.
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In 1909 an architectural competition was held to create a great Russian department store. Austrian architect Otto Wagner lead the jury and selected the design of German firm Wayss & Freytag. The result, DLT, is as grand as any department store in the world.

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The Moskovsky District and Moskovskaya Square on the south side of the city were developed in the 1930s in Stalin’s preferred stripped-down neoclassical style. The House of Soviets, with its monumental architecture, was intended to be the new center of St. Petersburg, replacing the tzar-associated Palace Square.
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An excellent example of Soviet-era art is the sculptural obelisk called* The Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad*, erected in the early 1960s to celebrate victory in World War II.

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Even St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport is interesting. A new terminal designed by the British firm Grimshaw Architects and completed in 2009 recalls a high-tech version of Russian constructivist art.