Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
site of his father's 1881 assassination. Alexander III insisted the church be in the
Slavic Revival style, which explains its uncanny similarity to St Basil's Cathedral on
Red Square in Moscow. Architects Malyshev and Parland designed its spectacular
multicoloured tiling, the first hints of Russian Style Moderne, which by the end of the
19th century would take the city by storm. Painters such as Mikhail Nesterov and
Mikhail Vrubel contributed to the interior design.
That the ineffective and conservative Nicholas II presided over one of the city's
most exciting architectural periods was pure chance. As the city became richer and
richer during the 19th century, the industrialist and merchant classes began building
mansions in the feted art nouveau style, known in Russia as Style Moderne. The Pet-
rograd Side was the most fashionable of the era, so that is where the majority of Style
Moderne buildings were constructed. The back streets reveal many gems from the late
19th century and early 20th century, including the fabulous mansion of the ballet dan-
cer Mathilda Kshesinskaya, which now houses the Museum of Political History (
CLICK HERE
).
Arthur George's St Petersburg is the first comprehensive popular history
of St Petersburg and is a superb read for anyone interested in the city's
architectural development. Taking the reader from Petrine Baroque to Sta-
linism, George is an expert guide to the differing styles that so define the
city.
SOVIET LENINGRAD
As in all other spheres of Russian culture, the collapse of the tsarist regime in 1917
led to huge changes in architecture. In the beleaguered city, all major building projects
stopped; the palaces of the aristocracy and the mansions of the merchant classes were
turned over to the state or split up into communal apartments. As the Germans ap-
proached Petrograd in 1918, the title of capital returned to Moscow; the city went into
a decline that was to last until the 1990s.
The architectural form that found favour under the Bolsheviks in the 1920s was
constructivism. Combining utilitarianism and utopianism, this modern style sought to
advance the socialist cause, using technological innovation and slick unembellished
design. Pl Stachek is rich with such buildings, such as the Kirov Region Administrat-
