The General Staff Building is a historic building located on Palace
Square in St. Petersburg. The construction of the building lasted from
1819 to 1829. Architect: K. I. Rossi. Sculptors: S. S. Pimenov, V. I.
Demut-Malinovsky.
In the western part of the building is the
command of the Western Military District of Russia. Since 1999, the
collections of the State Hermitage have been located in the eastern part
of the General Staff building. In 2013, the complete reconstruction of
the East Wing of the building was completed, which houses works of
Western European art of the 19th-20th centuries, as well as temporary
exhibitions of contemporary art.
In 1810, Alexander I instructed the architect of the Construction
Commission of the Imperial Cabinet A. A. Modui to develop a project for
the regulation and design of the territory in front of the imperial
residence, the Winter Palace, the Admiralty Meadow and St. Isaac's
Square. The submitted projects were approved, but the beginning of the
implementation of the projects was prevented by the change in the
international situation. They returned to the implementation of the
reconstruction project after the end of hostilities. In 1819, during the
construction of the building of the Main Admiralty, the task of
transforming the square in front of the Winter Palace was set (a work in
the Elizabethan Baroque style by B. F. Rastrelli; 1754-1762).
Reconstruction on behalf of Alexander I was carried out by the Committee
of Buildings and Hydraulic Works. The head of the Committee, A.
Betancourt, attracted Carl Rossi to participate in the work. On March
16, 1819, Rossi received an order to develop a project for the
reconstruction of old buildings for the General Staff. A year later, on
March 15, 1820, a decree was issued on the creation of a special table
as part of the Construction Commission of the Imperial Cabinet "On the
arrangement against the Winter Palace of the correct area and stone,
brick, pottery and lime factories" with the participation of Russia. The
table was directly subordinated to Betancourt. Construction work began
in 1819 with the reconstruction of the western wing, which included the
existing houses built by Yu. M. Felten. Their façade, which is
distinguished by gray granite plinth cladding, in contrast to the red
granite cladding of the east wing, has been partially preserved. Some
interiors and facades facing the courtyard have been preserved. The
researcher of the work of K. I. Rossi M. Z. Taranovskaya, referring to
archival documents, calls the date of commencement of construction work
1820.
The building of the General Staff and other military
establishments was rebuilt in rough form in 1823, and the construction
of the buildings of the ministries of foreign affairs and finance on the
square on the banks of the Moika River was completed in 1824. Then a
system of arches was erected, connecting both parts of the square's
development. Structural calculations of the arch were made by P. Jaco.
According to the first calculations of the structures of the metal
completion of the triumphal arch and the chariot with wars, their weight
was 80 tons. The director of the Alexander iron foundry, M. Clark,
proposed an original solution. He proposed to make only the frames of
the chariot and warriors from cast iron, which were proposed to be
overlaid with copper sheets. As a result, the weight of the sculptural
group has decreased five times. This option was accepted. Some
architects (including A. Maudui), and then Nicholas I, expressed doubts
about the reliability of the structures of the span of the Arc de
Triomphe, but Betancourt fully supported Rossi's project. To check the
calculations of the arch structures, a special technical commission was
created, which, after checking the calculations, came to the conclusion
that the proposed structures meet the requirements of a “good building
strength”.
Rossi's assistants in the construction were F. I.
Ruska, N. Tkachev, and then I. I. Galberg, N. Kolpachnikov, F. Fedoseev,
P. P. Zhako, N. Voilokov, Ya. Popov, E. Anert. The production of works
was supervised by the "stone master" L.F. Adamini. Decorative paintings
in the interior were created by J. B. Scotty. The buildings, in addition
to the General Staff, housed the War Ministry, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and the Ministry of Finance (in the eastern building).
From the side of Nevsky Prospekt, the building was adjoined by the
houses built earlier: “Depot of Maps of the General Staff” (1805-1806,
architect L. Ruska), Free Economic Society (1768-1775, architect J. B.
Vallin-Delamot ). In 1845-1846, the architect I. D. Chernik rebuilt
these buildings given to the General Staff, solving the facades in
general forms with the Russian facades.
One of the architectural
dominants of the building is the dome over the western wing of the
building. Made of metal and glass according to the project of engineer
G. G. Krivoshein in 1902-1905, it provided daylight to the military
library located under it. Previously, in place of the dome-lantern,
there was a low stone dome, erected according to the project of K. I.
Rossi during the construction of the building. The premises of the
Military Historical Library of the General Staff of Russia and the old
dome were thoroughly restored in 1890-1892, but the fire of 1900, which
destroyed 12,000 books and the interiors of the library, required new
repairs.
After the October Revolution, the building housed the
People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, later - the police
department, then - the headquarters of the Leningrad Military District.
In 1918, the Arch of the General Staff was renamed the "Arch of the Red
Army". The historical name was returned in 1944.
At present, the
western part of the building (on the right, when viewed from Palace
Square) belongs to the Western Military District. In 1993, the eastern
wing of the General Staff building was transferred to the Hermitage.
In 2008, a tender was held for the reconstruction of the eastern
wing of the General Staff building. It was won by a consortium of
Intarsia and Vozrozhdenie companies. The International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development approved the decision of the tender
commission and the cost of work was 4,418,414,868 rubles.
The architect K. I. Rossi, in comparison with his predecessors, the
architects of Russian classicism of the late 18th and early 19th
centuries, proved to be an artist of extraordinary scope and bold
spatial thinking. “Unlike many Russian and European contemporaries,
Rossi in all large urban ensembles strove to unite buildings of
different functions and plans into a single facade, thereby creating the
effect of an integral “sculpture”, viewed as if “from the inside”. The
Rossi ensembles are perceived as gigantic open-air interiors.”
This "interior" feature of Rossi's architecture explains, in particular,
the ease and naturalness of its absorption of other equally remarkable
buildings erected at different times. The "interior" of Palace Square in
the center of St. Petersburg, which has developed thanks to the work of
K. I. Rossi, has such an absorbing ability.
In the course of the
successively developed versions of the project of 1820-1828, Rossi
created a unique composition, closing the south side of Palace Square in
a semicircle of two symmetrical buildings of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and the General Staff with the Arc de Triomphe between them. The
bend of Bolshaya Morskaya Street (at that time the section from the Arch
of the General Staff Building to Nevsky Prospekt was called Lugovaya, or
Malaya Millionnaya Street) reoriented from Nevsky Prospekt to the center
of Palace Square, the architect ingeniously hid the double arch system
(with one turning): their height (without sculptures) and a width of 28
m (and a span of 17 m), and made the unequal length of the front facades
invisible with the help of symmetrically arranged columned porticos. The
length of the facades, including the side along the Moika embankment, is
580 meters.
As a result, the Winter Palace, built by Rastrelli
almost a century earlier, was included in the Russian ensemble, not
because this building is artistically weaker, but because broader
compositional ideas inevitably absorb individual, even outstanding
works. The Alexander Column in the center of the square, designed by O.
Montferrand four years after the construction of the General Staff Arch,
became the final chord in the composition created by Rossi.
One
of the achievements of the Russian civil engineering school in the first
third of the 19th century is the use of cast-iron structures in the
interiors of the building (for fire safety purposes). Based on Rossi's
drawings, load-bearing structures, rafters, columns and elements of
bypass galleries, and library cabinets were made at the Alexander iron
foundry. And in other buildings, Rossi also used cast-iron structures.
The Arch of the General Staff is not just a travel, but a triumphal
arch - a monument dedicated to Russia's victory in the Patriotic War of
1812. The composition of the two arches goes back to the ancient Greek
dipylon (double) gates - a fortification, a kind of trap: if the enemy
took the first gate by attack, he found himself in a trap - a narrow
corridor between the first and second gates. The Romans built
tetrapylons - structures at crossroads with arched passages on four
sides. In Rome, at the Bull Forum, the four-span Arch of Janus,
dedicated to the “deity of entrances and exits”, the patron of travelers
and roads (4th century), has been preserved. It is this arch that is
depicted on one of the scenery by G. Valeriani for the production of the
opera Seleucus (1744), which, in turn, served as the motive for A. I.
Belsky's painting Architectural View (1789). The picture could be seen
by K. I. Rossi, who, of course, knew ancient architecture well. Thus,
the arch of the General Staff is the result of a free interpretation of
a specific typological motif of ancient architecture.
The main
theme of the entire ensemble was the triumph of Russia in the Patriotic
War. Rossi revealed this theme with the help of sculptural decoration -
the sculptors of Russian classicism S. S. Pimenov and V. I.
Demut-Malinovsky, who worked on the drawings of Rossi.
In the
first project of 1819-1820, Rossi proposed a strict, laconic solution,
corresponding to the aesthetics of early Alexander classicism: a shield
with the coat of arms of the Russian Empire, two female figures of
shield holders and banners on the attic of the arch. The new emperor
Nicholas I (since 1825) wished to see something more magnificent and
solemn. The next draft was approved on March 18, 1827. The static
heraldic composition was replaced by a sculptural group: the chariot of
the goddess Victoria, holding a wreath of victory in one hand, and a
labarum (military sign) with a Russian double-headed eagle in the other.
A chariot made of gouged copper on a cast-iron frame is harnessed by six
horses, the extreme ones are led by the bridle by Roman soldiers
(sculptors S. S. Pimenov and V. I. Demut-Malinovsky). Other statues: a
young and an old warrior, located below, initially provided for in
niches, Rossi brought out of the plane of the wall and installed on
pedestals. As a result, the composition has become more sculptural,
which contributes to its better visual connection with the decor of the
Rastrelli building in the Winter Palace.
The intrados (inner
surfaces) of the arches are decorated with bas-reliefs with ancient
Roman (Empire) motifs of military trophies. In addition to the appeal to
the composition of the ancient Roman triumphal arch, natural for the art
of classicism and Empire, Rossi used drawings from the collection of
Ch.-L. Clerisso made directly in Rome. The collection had earlier, in
1780, been purchased by Empress Catherine II. Rossi specially studied
the collection of drawings by Clerisseau in the Imperial Hermitage.
In the first half of the 19th century, all buildings designed and
built by C. I. Rossi were painted in gray and white. Victoria's chariot
was gilded. The current yellow-white coloring follows the canon
introduced by Emperor Alexander II, who approved the "coat of arms
colors" for all emblems and flags: black, yellow and white: as on the
imperial standard: a black eagle on a yellow background. In the decree
of 1865, these colors are called "state".
The most expressive
composition created by Rossi, from the Palace Square. From a height of
36 m, at the top of the arch, a triumphal chariot hovers, drawn by six
horses. The whole composition expresses the idea of military glory. The
triumphal arch of the main headquarters was inaugurated on October 24,
1828. This event was timed to coincide with the return to the capital of
the Guards, who fought on the southern borders of Russia with the
Ottoman Empire.
After the implementation of the monumental idea of building the
headquarters building, the buildings of which were connected by a
triumphal arch, C. Rossi put forward the idea of completing the
architectural composition - to continue the theme of victory in the
Patriotic War of 1812 by building a monument in the middle of Palace
Square. He managed to convince Emperor Nicholas I to abandon the idea of
erecting a monument to Peter I.
The further development of the
project was carried out by the French architect Auguste Montferrand.
March 16, 1819 - Alexander I issues a decree on the reconstruction of
the square in front of the Winter Palace. The development of plans and
drawings is entrusted to the architect K. I. Rossi.
March 15, 1820 -
A committee was created "On dispensation against the Winter Palace of
the correct area and stone, brick, pottery and lime factories."
June
12, 1820 - Official laying of the General Staff building.
1823 -
Completion of the west wing.
1825 - Completion of the main
construction work on the east wing.
1826 - Completion of the
construction of the arch.
1827 - 1828 - Execution of sculptural
decor.
October 28, 1828 - Grand opening of the arch.
1830 -
Completion of all construction and finishing works.
1890 - 1892 -
Reconstruction of the round hall of the library
1902 - 1905 -
Installation of a glass dome
1917 - 1918 - The church under the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and St. George's Church under the General
Staff were closed
1943 - the inscription "Citizens! During shelling,
this side of the street is the most dangerous" during the Siege of
Leningrad.
July 8, 1945 - The winners of the Great Patriotic War -
soldiers and officers of the Leningrad Guards Corps solemnly passed
through the arch of the General Staff.
1993 - The eastern wing of the
General Staff building was transferred to the Hermitage.
2001 - Fire
on the Triumphal Chariot due to firecrackers during the celebration of
the New Year.
In 2013, the complete reconstruction of the Eastern Wing of the
General Staff Building, which houses the collections of the State
Hermitage Museum, was completed. The author of the project is
"Studio-44" N. Yavein. Since 1999, there have been expositions: “French
Art of the 20th Century”, “Under the Sign of the Eagle. Empire Art”,
“Modern Art” and the Museum of the Guards. Since 2007, the exhibitions
of the Hermitage 20/21 Project - America Today and others have been
held. On December 17, 2011, the exhibition "Antiquities of Herculaneum"
opened in the building - the first major exhibition in the restored
premises of the General Staff Building. From May 16 to May 19, 2012, the
second St. Petersburg International Legal Forum was held in the Eastern
Wing of the General Staff Building.
On June 28, 2014, the General
Headquarters was fully opened to the public with a large-scale
exhibition of "Manifesta 10". By the opening of the exhibition, the
permanent exposition of Matisse was moved here, including "Dance" and
"Music", "Composition # 6" by Kandinsky and "Black Square" by Malevich,
and the permanent rooms of Kabakov and Prigov were opened.
On the
ground floor there are service premises, an entrance area for visitors,
shops, wardrobes, a lecture hall.
On the second floor there is an
exposition dedicated to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Empire,
as well as halls of art of the peoples of Africa; sculptures from the
20th century are exhibited in the courtyard.
On the third floor,
European paintings of the 19th century are exhibited, the Museum of the
Guards was created, the collections of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the Russian Empire and the Faberge collection are exhibited, as well
as the state rooms of the ministries.
On the fourth floor there
are permanent exhibitions dedicated to the Impressionists and
Post-Impressionists, the artists of the Nabis group, the artists of the
Barbizon School and the Paris Salon, as well as the world painting of
the 20th century (including the personal rooms of Monet, Renoir, Van
Gogh, Gauguin, Rodin, Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky, Rockwell Kent and
many others).