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Admiralteyskaya naberezhnaya 2
Bus: 7, 10, K- 129, K- 147
Tram: 1, 5, 7, 10, 17, 22
Since 1718, the Admiralty Board was located here (since 1827 -
the Admiralty Council), in 1709-1939 - the Model Chamber (since 1805
- the Maritime Museum). Since 2012, the Main Command of the Russian
Navy has been located here.
The ship on the spire of the
building is considered as one of the historical symbols of the city
along with the Bronze Horseman and the angel on the spire of the
Peter and Paul Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The
Admiralty needle is depicted on the medal "For the Defense of
Leningrad".
Initially, the St. Petersburg Admiralty was built as a
shipyard according to drawings signed personally by Peter I. It was laid
down on November 5 (16), 1704, about which the following entry has been
preserved:
They laid the Admiralty House and were in the osteria and
had fun, the length is 200 fathoms, the width is 10 fathoms.
—
Peter's travel journal
The preparatory work was completed in a
record short time: at the beginning of 1705, the main buildings were
erected at the shipyard and the first ships were laid on the sheds.
Since in the conditions of the Northern War it was necessary to
protect the shipyard, in 1706 the admiralty was a fortress: the
buildings were fenced with an earthen rampart with five earthen
bastions, ditches filled with water were dug along the perimeter, and a
mound of glacis was made. Esplanade - a vast meadow free of buildings
for viewing the area of fire in the event of a surprise attack by the
enemy, extended to the modern Malaya Morskaya Street.
On May 10
(April 29), 1706, after the construction of the pram with 18 guns was
completed, the first launch of the ship took place.
By 1715,
about ten thousand people worked in this division of the Admiralty
Order. At that time, the Admiralty was a one-story mud hut building,
located in the form of a strongly stretched letter "P", opened towards
the Neva. The building housed warehouses, workshops, forges, as well as
services of the admiralty department. The yard was occupied by
boathouses for the construction of sailing ships, along its perimeter
there was an internal channel (filled in 1817). The Admiralty Canal had
both defensive and transport functions: connecting with the Admiralty
Canal, it was integrated into the network of city canals, timber from
New Holland and other building materials were delivered through it.
In 1709, by order of Peter I, a model-chamber (Dutch model-kammer - room of models, storeroom of samples) was founded in the Admiralty, where ship drawings and models were stored. According to the “Regulations on the management of the Admiralty and the shipyard” of 1722, models of all ships built here were stored in the model chamber: with a drawing for the descent of the ship, to give it to the Admiralty Board. In 1805, the model chamber was transformed into the Maritime Museum (since 1908 - named after Peter the Great), which existed here until 1939.
In 1711, the first restructuring of the Admiralty was carried out. In 1719, the idea of a vertical dominant was realized: a metal spire with a ship was installed above the gate, hoisted by the Dutch master Harman van Bolos.
The ship on the spire of the building is one of the
symbols of St. Petersburg.
It is most likely that the battleship
Ingermanland, the most modern at that time and the most beloved warship
of Peter I, built in 1712-1715 and sailing under the standard of Peter
I, became the prototype of the ship. In addition to the historical
importance of Ingermanland, in favor of the version of that that it was
he who served as the prototype of the Admiralty ship is the complete
similarity of their silhouettes, rigging and gun devices. The outdated
version that the Oryol frigate served as the prototype of the Admiralty
ship is refuted by the inconsistency of the ship’s architecture (for the
Oryol frigate, the main and mizzen masts were located close to each
other, and not at a proportional distance, as on the Ingermanland and
the Admiralty ship ). Also, it is unlikely that the "Eagle" was used as
a prototype due to the lack of its reliable images (except for a single
small engraving) and the inglorious death of the frigate.
According to legend, three flags on the masts of the ship were made of
pure pure gold, and the personal compass of Peter I was kept in the bow.
The original ship stood on the spire until 1815, when it was
replaced with a new one during repairs, while the original ship of van
Bolos was lost. The second boat stood for 71 years: in 1886, during the
next repair of the spire, it was removed and replaced with an exact
copy; the original, whose weight is 65 kg, length - 192 cm and height -
158 cm, was placed on display at the Maritime Museum located here.
The Admiralty building made an impression on the people of that era:
On the Admiralty, a beautiful and huge building located at the end of
this road, there is a beautiful and rather tall Spitz, which goes
directly against the avenue
- Friedrich-Wilhelm von Berchholtz,
chamber junker in the retinue of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. Diary
entry dated June 23 (July 4), 1721
In 1732-1738, the architect I.K. Korobov built the
stone building of the Admiralty. The architect succeeded, having
preserved the previous plan, to give the building a monumentality that
corresponded to its city-forming function. In the center, above the
gate, a slender central tower with a gilded spire was built, later, with
the light hand of the brilliant A. S. Pushkin, called: “Admiralty
Needle” (according to some evidence, gold ducats received by Peter I
were used to gild the spire a gift from the United Provinces). A
ship-weather vane was raised to a height of 72 meters, and it remains
here to this day.
In the 1740s, the space around the Admiralty
was used for military exercises and as pasture for cattle. On holidays,
the Admiralty Meadow became a place for city-wide festivities and fairs;
carousels, booths, roller coasters were installed here.
The space
around the Admiralty was also streamlined: in the 1760s, architect
Andrei Kvasov determined the boundaries of the central squares
surrounding the Admiralty building.
The space to the south of the
Admiralty was called the Admiralty Meadow until the middle of the 18th
century. On the Admiralty Meadow, soldiers were trained and festivities
were held.
In the second half of the 18th century, the fortress
canal became heavily polluted and began to accumulate sewage dirty
water. In the middle of the 18th century, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna
ordered the canal to be cleaned regularly and the meadow to be paved.
The Admiralty Meadow was fully paved only towards the end of the reign
of Catherine II (in the last quarter of the 18th century).
By
this time, the southern part of the meadow was built up, and the
boundaries of the Admiralty Square in front of the main facade of the
Admiralty were determined.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the old building
of the Admiralty no longer corresponded to its central location in the
city. To the east, there was an undeveloped area that reached the Moika
River, along which Bolshaya Lugovaya Street ran. The three main
thoroughfares of the city (the idea of Field Marshal B.K. Minich and
architect P.M. Eropkin according to the plan of 1737) - (Nevsky
Prospekt, Gorokhovaya Street and Voznesensky Prospekt) - converged to
the Admiralty with three beams, but the silhouette of the old building
was insufficient for the role of high-rise dominant of the city center.
“It is the Admiralty, this huge, extended array, located in the middle
of the square, that holds the entire system of “three squares”, uniting
the embankment, Palace and Senate squares and radial highways of
avenues.”
In 1806, the architect Andrey Zakharov proposed his
project. After graduating from the Imperial Academy of Arts in St.
Petersburg, in 1782-1786 Zakharov studied in Paris with Jean-Francois
Chalgrin, was influenced by megalomania K.-N. Ledoux. The fortifications
near the shipyard were destroyed, and a boulevard was laid out in their
place (now the Alexander Garden is located on this site). Having
retained the configuration of the plan of the already existing building,
Zakharov planned a new, grandiose structure. Rebuilding the old building
erected by I.K. Korobov, Zakharov carefully preserved the idea of Peter
the Great's time - a gilded spitz with a boat.
The main facade of
the U-shaped building stretched for 407 m in line with the Winter
Palace, the side facades - for 140 m. on the mast of the golden ship.
The French poet, esthete and art critic Theophile Gautier, who visited
Russia twice, in 1858-1859 and in 1861, could not understand the idea of
hoisting a "Dutch mast on the roof of a Greek temple", he considered it
rude eclecticism. Zakharov really surrounded the tower with an Ionic
order colonnade. The lower "cube", cut through by the central arch, is
repeated in the composition of the side pavilions overlooking the Neva.
In this motif, the influence of his teacher Chalgrin and the French
school of megalomaniacs is obvious.
The pavilions facing the Neva
echo the base of the central tower and are crowned with flagpoles with
statues of dolphins. The height of the tower is 72 meters, with 23
meters falling on the spire. The technique of combining cubic volumes
with arches is associated with the traditions of both Western European
and Old Russian architecture. We see powerfully thrown semicircular
arches in the works of Raphael (“The School of Athens”), the
architectural projects of Donato Bramante, and in the fantastic
engravings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, who sang the beauty of the
architecture of Ancient Rome. The composition of cubic volumes with
columned porticos, crowned with a tower with a spire, is typical of the
architecture of Russian classicism. It goes back to the ancient Russian
scheme of "an octagon on a quadrangle", which developed first in wooden,
and then in stone architecture.
In the development of the facades
of the building of the Main Admiralty in St. Petersburg, Andreyan
Zakharov found a successful technique: a complex rhythm based on a
different “step” of alternating the axes of window openings, piers and
columns of porticos. Together with the projecting risalits, this
syncopated rhythm creates a variety of sensations.
Stepan
Stepanovich Pimenov, Ivan Ivanovich Terebenev took part in the creation
of the sculptural decoration of the building. Vasily Ivanovich
Demut-Malinovsky, Artemy Anisimovich Anisimov, Feodosy Fedorovich
Shchedrin. When developing the project, the architect determined the
overall composition: the placement of sculptures and reliefs that reveal
the main theme: the power of the Russian navy.
The attic of the
central tower of the Admiralty building is decorated with the high
relief "Establishment of the Fleet in Russia", made by I. I. Terebenev.
On the sides of the main arch are the amazingly beautiful sculptural
groups "Nymphs Carrying the Heavenly and Earthly Spheres" - the idea and
sketch of the architect Zakharov, model of the academic sculptor F. F.
Shchedrin (1812-1813). Above the arch and figures of nymphs are the
flying geniuses of Glory by I. I. Terebenev. He also made high-reliefs
depicting the flying Slavs of the two Nevsky pavilions. On the keystones
of the window architraves there are mascarons of Neptune (the god of the
seas), naiads and tritons (his retinue, sculptor F. F. Shchedrin).
Flying Glories trumpeting victory are repeated on the symmetrical Neva
pavilions.
The figures of nymphs are carved from Pudost stone in
a powerful lapidary style, but with exquisite plasticity and "musical
movement". The architect and sculptor created an original composition
that combines different themes of classical art: the image of sea nymphs
and caryatids, female figures bearing the weight of the architectural
ceiling. However, the ancient caryatids, or bark, were never associated
with the depiction of the heavenly or earthly spheres. This theme is
associated with the ancient Greek myth of Atlanta, holding the vault of
heaven on his shoulders (the motif of Atlanta carrying the celestial
sphere is known from late antique sculpture from the Neapolitan Museum).
Russian artists combined this motif with images of graceful nymphs or
the three graces. As a result, the dissonance is witty played - the
fragile and delicate figures of the nymphs perform the hard work of the
Atlanteans. This contradiction is resolved through plasticity - a
circular movement, a round dance of nymphs, visually correlating with
the shape of the spheres on their shoulders.
At the corners of
the lower cube of the central tower there are four seated figures of
ancient warriors: Achilles, Ajax, Pyrrhus and Alexander the Great (based
on models by F. F. Shchedrin). Above, on the colonnade, there are
statues of the four seasons, four winds and four elements, to which are
added the figures of the Egyptian Isis, the patroness of navigation, and
Urania, the ancient Greek muse of astronomy. All figures are repeated
twice, so that 28 statues are obtained according to the number of
columns (S. S. Pimenov, V. I. Demut-Malinovsky, A. A. Anisimov). The
allegorical figures of the “lying rivers” destroyed in the 1860s in
front of the porticos of the main facade and twelve months at the
corners of the triangular pediments have not been preserved. From the
pedestals in front of the Neva pavilions, temporary plaster models of
figures representing the four parts of the world: Asia, Europe, Africa
and America were removed (their restoration is planned). One can only
imagine what the building would be like if it were possible to fully
realize its sculptural decoration. The pre-war program of sculptural
decoration of the Admiralty building reflects the idea of Russia's
triumph on land and sea. After the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812,
this program acquired a new meaning. Hence the association of the
decoration of the building with the Empire style, although at first this
style was not meant. Even the "Peter's Spitz" in the new historical
context began to be perceived in an Empire style.
Of the
interiors of the building of 1823, the vestibule with the main
staircase, the assembly hall and the library have been preserved. The
harsh severity of monumental architectural forms is softened by an
abundance of light and exceptional elegance of decoration.
The construction of sailing ships at the Admiralty
shipyard continued until 1844. In the future, only the institutions of
the fleet remained in the building: the Naval Ministry, the Main Naval
Headquarters, the Main Hydrographic Department, the Admiralty Cathedral.
In 1709-1939 it housed the Naval Museum.
Since June 1917, the
Central Fleet was located here - the central democratic body of the
fleet, supporting the Provisional Government. As a result of the October
Revolution, it was dissolved, and on October 26, on the initiative of
V.I. Lenin, the Naval Revolutionary Committee (VMRK) was created, which
mobilized the forces of the fleet to create and strengthen the Soviet
state. The VMRK was located in the wing of the Admiralty, facing the
Bronze Horseman.
From 1925 to 2009, the Higher Naval Engineering
School named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky and the headquarters of the Red
Banner Leningrad Naval Base were stationed in the complex of buildings.
In 1932-1933, the Admiralty building also housed the Gas Dynamics
Laboratory, the first design bureau in the USSR to develop rocket
engines.
The building of the Admiralty was depicted on the signs
of the end of the Leningrad Mechanical Institute.
During the blockade of Leningrad, the spire of the Admiralty was sheathed; the cover was removed on April 30, 1945. Restoration work in the building was carried out in 1928, 1977 and in 1997-1998. In 1977, during the gilding of the spire, a special casket was placed in a ball under the boat, where they put the draft Constitution of the USSR.
In the post-Soviet period, various projects for the
new use of the premises of the Admiralty have repeatedly arisen. So, in
2006, a proposal was put forward to move here, to a limited area, the
Central Naval Museum, in the building of which the government of St.
Petersburg planned to open an oil exchange. In the autumn of 2007, a
proposal appeared to place the command of the Navy in the Admiralty.
Meanwhile, in the same year, the inhabitants of the city noticed that
the Admiralty tower had cracked. The situation is being investigated by
the KGIOP.
In 2009, the Naval School and the headquarters of the
Leningrad Naval Base moved out of the building (the headquarters of the
Leningrad Naval Base was transferred to Kronstadt). On October 31, 2012,
the Main Headquarters of the Navy officially moved to the Admiralty
building, on the same day the St. Andrew's flag was raised on the
building, officially symbolizing the presence of the high naval command
here. The decision to move the Main Headquarters of the Navy from Moscow
to the Admiralty building was criticized in January 2008 in an open
letter by 63 admirals and senior officers of the Navy.
On
December 25, 2013, in the Admiralty, in a tower with a spire at the
intersection of Admiralteyskaya Embankment and Palace Passage, the
church of St. Spyridonius of Trimifuntsky was opened (the cross of the
church will be the St. The opening of the temple was attended by the
command of the Navy, headed by Viktor Chirkov, in whose opinion, this
event was timed to coincide with the launch of the second missile
carrier of the Borey project.
At the end of January 2014, the
Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu approved the
concept of adapting the complex of buildings of the Admiralty for the
needs of the Navy: it is proposed to cover the courtyards of the
building with a transparent dome, and throw glass transitions between
the historical buildings.