Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Rastrelli's baroque style would go out of fashion quickly after Elizabeth's death.
But his legacy would endure, as he created some of the most stunning facades in the
city, thus contributing to the Italianate appearance of contemporary St Petersburg.
CATHERINE'S RETURN TO CLASSICISM
Despite her fondness for Elizabeth, Catherine the Great was not a fan of her prede-
cessor's increasingly elaborate and sumptuous displays of wealth and power. Cather-
ine's major philosophical interest was the Enlightenment, which had brought the neo-
classical style to the fore in Western Europe. As a result, she began her long reign by
departing from baroque architecture and introducing neoclassicism to Russia.
The first major neoclassical masterpiece in Catherine's St Petersburg was the
Michel Vallin de la Mothe. Catherine employed a wide range of architects, including
foreigners such as Vallin de la Mothe, Scot Charles Cameron and Italians Antonio
Rinaldi and Giacomo Quarenghi, and home-grown architects such as Ivan Starov and
Vasily Bazhenov.
While wandering down Nevsky pr, don't miss the beautiful equestrian
sculptures on the Anichkov Bridge and check out for yourself a local le-
gend that says the sculptor portrayed a man he didn't like (some say it
was Napoleon, others say it was his wife's lover) on the testicles of one of
the stallions.
Catherine's plan was to make the palace embankment the centrepiece of the city. To
this end, she commissioned the Little Hermitage by Vallin de la Mothe, followed by
the Winter Canal. These buildings on Dvortsovaya pl were followed by Quarenghi's
ment west of the Winter Palace, now the English Embankment (Angliyskaya nab),
creating a marvellous imperial vista for those arriving in the city by boat.
Etienne-Maurice Falconet, an equestrian statue dedicated to Peter the Great. It is
perched atop an enormous 1500-tonne boulder, known as Thunder Stone, which is
from the Gulf of Finland and is supposedly the largest stone ever moved by man.
