Seahorses - hippocampi
#Gulyakin #PetersburgWanderers #Petersburgotherapy
Hello, dear friends. Today I invite you to another walk around St. Petersburg. And the theme of our walk will be sculptural images of horses, but not ordinary ones, but sea horses!
As always, I ask you to post your comments and questions in the VKontakte group “St. Petersburg Adventures - Walking with Gulyakin” ( https://vk.com/gul_c_gul) or send me an email" This email address is being protected from spambots. You must have JavaScript enabled to view it.". Sincerely, Valery Gulyakin.
Seahorses and a monument to Vasily Korchmin
(7th line VO, no. 34)
Funny fish - seahorses, similar to horses, could not help but attract people's attention. And of course they gave impetus to the flight of human imagination, which created the mythical sea horses.
We begin our journey from Vasilyevsky Island. At first glance, choosing a monument to start our walk may make you ask: “What do horses have to do with it?” But if we look carefully, we will see that there are horses on the monument, but not ordinary ones - sea horses.
Funny seahorses intertwined their tails on the cannon carriage of the monument to Vasily Korchmin on the 7th line of Vasilyevsky Island (no. 34). The brave bombardier, engineer, major general, associate of Emperor Peter I greets guests in a welcoming pose with a cigarette holder in his hand. Sculptors G. Lukyanov and S. Sergeev created the image of a cheerful young bombardier seated on a cannon barrel. The dashing warrior’s gaze is directed forward – to the bright future of the Great Country.
The gun carriage is decorated not only with seahorses, but also with the head of a lion with a ring in its mouth. The Spit of Vasilyevsky Island is decorated with the same architectural images.
According to one of the urban legends, it was thanks to V.D. Kormchin that the name of the island appeared - Vasilyevsky.
V.D. Korchmin, was a good tsarist engineer, an expert in fortification, and began to create military missiles and flamethrowers.
And during the period when the Peter and Paul Fortress was being built, Lieutenant V. Korchmin commanded an artillery battery located to ensure the security of the city on the spit of Vasilyevsky Island. And the tsar, sending orders and dispatches to Vasily Dmitrievich, wrote in place of the address: “To Vasily on the island.”
Legend has it that it was then that the island was secured famous name. (Although historians attribute the formation of the ethnonym in honor of the Novgorod governor Vasily Selezny, executed by Ivan the Terrible. But this historical legend did not take root among the people.)
The artillery battery of Vasily Korchmin stood on the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, where we will now go in search of sea horses.
Seahorses - hippocampi on the Rostral columns
(Arrow VO)
The Spit of Vasilyevsky Island is one of the most fascinating architectural ensembles of the city. Vasilyevsky Island began to be built up back in the times of Peter the Great, when Trezzini in 1719 - 1721 created a new project that included the construction of government institutions - the building of twelve colleges, as well as the stock exchange, the Gostiny Dvor and the cathedral. In the 1730s, the port was moved here and the exchange, customs, and goods warehouses were located in these buildings. Between the academic and shopping complexes there was a vast, undeveloped area. In 1805-1810, the architect Thomas de Tomon built the building of the new Exchange on the empty square between these areas. The majestic building is made in the style of ancient temples. In front of the building, the architect installed two Rostral columns with statues of sea deities at the foot. The ensemble is completed by the buildings of the southern and northern warehouses and customs, diverging from the Exchange with wings, built in 1826-1832 by the architect I. F. Luchini. The southern warehouse is currently home to the Zoological Museum. In 2008, the historical appearance of the Spit of Vasilievsky Island was irreparably distorted by the construction of high-rise buildings in the area of the Kirov Palace of Culture. The cable-stayed bridge and the Gazprom tower completely destroy the historical image of St. Petersburg.
And the torches, which in those ancient times were lit on the Rostral Columns every night and during the day in bad weather, are now lit for only a few hours on special holidays. But, thank God, they still weren’t demolished, but they could have, if only how much land had been freed up for elite residential buildings...
But let's not talk about sad things. It’s better to admire the Rostral columns and pay special attention to the Rostra with which they are decorated.
The rostral columns were erected in 1810 according to the design of the French architect Thomas de Thomon, who decorated them with ship rostras. This is the personification of the power and greatness of the Russian navy refers us to the ancient Roman custom of decorating columns in honor of victories with the rostra (prows) of captured enemy ships.
The famous stonemason Samson Sukhanov, who came from a poor peasant family from the Vologda province, also worked on the design of the rostral columns. The statues of sea deities at the foot of the columns were made by sculptors Joseph Camberlain and Jacques Thibault.
The tradition of decorating the bow of a ship with a sculpture or relief has existed since ancient times. Spread out under the bowsprit and looking forward, it was a symbol of the ship, the pride of ship owners and captains. When the ship served its term, the figurehead was removed, and it decorated the walls of buildings, columns, and the house of the owner or captain. Subsequently, the figureheads ended up in maritime museums. In St. Petersburg, they can be viewed in the Central Naval Museum, which for a long time was located in the Exchange building, and is now located in the Kryukov barracks of the Life Guards of the Naval Crew in Kolomna (Truda Square, building 5).
And we look at one of the unusual images of horses - naval figures depicting horse heads, placed on the rostra of the Rostral columns.
By the way, it seems to me that these figures are very reminiscent of chess knight figures.
But we’ll talk about chess another time, but now find another image of knights on the rostral columns. It is not as noticeable as the bow figures of the ship, but if you look closely, we will definitely see another unusual image of horses on the bas-relief. These are not just horses, they are sea horses with fish tails and fins instead of hooves on their front legs. IN Ancient Greece These sea horses were given a name - hippocampi.
Seahorses - hippocampi on the Exchange building
on the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island
The hippocampi were not just sea horses - they were the horses of the god of the seas himself, Poseidon (Neptune). Harnessed to a huge shell, which served as a carriage for the god of the seas, they carried Poseidon not only in the depths of the sea, but also rushed him along the waves of the ocean, and could even rise into the air and fly with their sedan across the sky. Such four sea horses carrying Poseidon are depicted in a sculptural composition on the Exchange building on the Spit of Vasilievsky Island.
The Exchange building on the Spit of Vasilievsky Island was built in 1805-1810 according to the design of the architect Thomas de Thomon. Above the main entrance from the Neva is the composition “Neptune with Two Rivers”. There is an assumption that these two rivers are the Neva and Volkhov. The author of this sculptural composition is unknown, although in local history literature F.F. Shchedrin and I.P. Prokofiev are often indicated as the authors, but it is known that they asked for too high a price for their work. This order was put up for auction, but the names of those who won the auction and completed the sculptural groups for the Exchange remained unknown to history.
If you want to look at these sculptures from a bird’s eye view, then you don’t have to rent a helicopter, just go to Alexander Park (next to the Gorkovskaya metro station) and visit the “Mini City”, where you can feel like Gulliver in the land of Lilliputians and take a walk among the attractions of St. Petersburg.
Seahorses - hippocampi on the Exchange building in Mini-city
(Alexandrovsky Park)
If you want to look at the sculptural group on the Exchange building from a bird's eye view, then you don't have to rent a helicopter, just go to Alexander Park (next to the Gorkovskaya metro station) and visit the "Mini-city", where you can feel like Gulliver in the country Lilliputians and take a walk among the sights of St. Petersburg.
The architectural and educational tourist center Mini-City opened on June 15, 2011 in the southern part of Alexander Park.
The models are located on an improvised map of St. Petersburg, the water surface is depicted in dark granite, and the land in light. The author of the scaled-down famous architectural ensembles of St. Petersburg made of granite and bronze is the sculptor Alexander Taratynov.
Seahorses - hippocampi on the mosaic in the lobby
Admiralteyskaya metro station
The same sculptural composition on the Exchange building served as the prototype for the mosaic “God of the Seas Poseidon” in the lobby of the Admiralteyskaya metro station.
Sea horses - hippocampi near the Primorsky District Administration building (Savushkina St., 83)
In September 2009, the Sea Horse fountain was opened near the Primorsky District Administration building, Savushkina Street, 83.
The large square bowl of the fountain is decorated with a sculpture of a winged sea horse, the work of the Kaminker father and son. The horse is made from various types local granite and looks very original, because its image combines the totem animals of three nationalities: the head of a horse, the tail of a fish and the wings of a duck. The horse was a sacred animal for the Slavs, fish was especially revered by the Vikings, and the duck was a totemic animal for the Finns. Three elements, three animals, rough granite stones - all this creates a special atmosphere.
This, in my opinion, is the youngest sea horse - fountain in St. Petersburg. Of course, without hippocampi it is impossible to imagine the capital of fountains - Petrodvorets. I would like to draw your attention to the Upper Park, which often remains outside the tourist area. And look at the magnificent riders on sea horses prancing in the streams of water in the Neptune fountain in the Upper Park.
Seahorses – hippocampi of the Neptune fountain
in the Upper Park of Petrodvorets
In 1736, the sculpture and fountain composition “Neptunov’s Cart” was placed in the central pool of the Upper Park. The sculptures were cast from lead and gilded. The center of the composition was the figure of Neptune “with a carriage,” as well as dolphins and “riders” on horses. The central jet of the fountain raised a gilded copper ball.
After repeated restorations, “Neptunov’s Cart” still had to be removed in 1797. Instead, they installed a new group - “Neptune”, which continues to this day.
Initially, the fountain figures were created in Nuremberg (Germany). Authors: Georg Schweiger and goldsmith Christoph Ritter. The casting was made by Heroldt (German: W.H. Heroldt) in 1688-1694. The fountain was never exhibited in Nuremberg, but became known as a landmark, even while in storage. In 1796, the main part of the figures was purchased by Russia and sent to Peterhof.
Of course, this is not the first image of sea horses in St. Petersburg. In search of the earliest images of hippocamps, we are going to the Summer Garden.
Seahorses - hippocampi
on the bas-reliefs of the Summer Palace of Peter I in the Summer Garden
The Summer Palace of Peter I is one of the earliest architectural monuments of St. Petersburg (the oldest stone building in the city). The palace was not reconstructed and was not damaged during the Great Patriotic War.
In 1704, a year after the foundation Peter and Paul Fortress, almost opposite it, on the left bank of the Neva, the creation of the Summer Garden began. In 1710-1712 According to the design of the architect Domenico Trezzini, the Summer Palace was built in the garden.
The external appearance of the palace has been preserved without significant changes, only the hipped roof, originally covered with tiles, was later replaced by lead. The building is crowned with a weather vane depicting St. George the Victorious slaying the serpent. It was the Summer Palace that gave the name to the Summer Garden, which was initially called the “royal garden.” Summer Palace Peter I lived with his family from May to October during 1712-1725.
The Summer Palace of Peter I is a two-story, rectangular brick building with a hipped iron roof, crowned with a copper weather vane in the form of St. George slaying a serpent with a spear. At the corners of the roof there are gutters in the form of winged dragons, made of slotted iron.
The modest façade of the palace is decorated with bas-reliefs. They were created in 1714, which was specifically stipulated in Peter’s decree of May 2, 1714. The bas-reliefs (29 in total) are made of terracotta and are located between the windows of the first and second floors. They are devoted mainly to mythological subjects and in allegorical form reflect the events of the reign of Peter I, glorifying the victory of Russia in the Northern War and the return of the northern seas to Russia. In most bas-reliefs, the background is the sea with images of Peter the Great's galleys. Many mythological subjects among Peter I's contemporaries were associated with specific historical events.
The creation of the bas-reliefs was entrusted to the German architect and sculptor Andreas Schlüter (1659-1714), invited by Peter I in 1713 from Berlin. However, the death of the sculptor prevented him from completing the work completely. The names of the master performers are unknown. The varying artistic quality of the bas-reliefs suggests that there were several masters.
The bas-relief of the southern facade on the far left depicts the abduction of Proserpina, the goddess of fertility, by the god of the underworld Pluto. The shell chariot with the heroes of the plot is carried away by sea horses to Tartarus. The floating cupid symbolizes Pluto's love for the goddess.
Another bas-relief of the southern facade - Poseidon and Aphrodite. On a shell chariot harnessed to three sea horses, the god of the seas Poseidon and his wife Aphrodite are depicted.
On the northern facade: Nereid (sea deity) on a sea horse.
And on the eastern façade Cupid rides on a sea horse.
But on the northern façade, on the winged Pegasus, Perseus is in a hurry to save the chained Andromeda from the dragon. Andromeda at the beginning of the 18th century. symbolized the Russian land captured by the Swedes, Perseus - Peter the Liberator.
It is difficult to reliably reveal the allegorical meaning of each of the bas-reliefs, but to one degree or another, all the bas-reliefs symbolize the victory in the Northern War.
Seahorses - hippocampi
on the facade of the house (Fonarny lane, 18)
But it is not at all necessary that all bas-reliefs in St. Petersburg contain allegories. For example, on a bas-relief located on the facade of V.N. Likhachev’s apartment building, a whole cavalcade of Cupids merrily sweeps along the waves of the Neva just for beauty’s sake.
Seahorses - hippocampi
on the clock of the General Staff Arch
There are so many sea horses you can see on the streets of St. Petersburg. On the clock under the Arch of the General Staff, installed on the side of Bolshaya Morskaya Street (2), there are winged sea horses.
The history of this clock began when, when laying an electric cable from the Main Chamber to Winter Palace, D.I. Mendeleev decided to make a connection to the building of the Ministry of Finance. Initially, D.I. Mendeleev planned to place a clock no larger than a meter in size in one of the windows of the Ministry of Finance building (as was practiced back in 1838 at the General Staff). This would make it possible to control the temperature of the watch room, provide free access to it for adjustments, and guarantee its accurate and stable operation.
In 1905, a more expensive project of the Ministry of Finance was implemented. The clock mechanism was manufactured by August Eriksson; the architectural details, suspension system, and adjustment hole were designed by an architect from the Ministry of Finance. D.I. Mendeleev emphasized that in the case of hanging a clock, the Main Chamber takes responsibility “for the time, but not for the architectural devices.”
So, for the first time in the history of St. Petersburg, under the arch of the General Staff building, an outdoor electric clock with two two-meter dials of the Grau-Wagner system was installed at a considerable height.
Seahorses - hippocampi
on the lanterns of the Lomonosov Bridge
The Lomonosov Bridge across the Fontanka was built in 1785-1788. The bridge had stone supports and stone arched bank spans, with towers on bulls; the central wooden span was drawable. The adjustable mechanisms were located in four granite towers. It was one of 7 standard three-span bridges across the river. In our time, only two of these bridges have survived: the Lomonosov Bridge and Staro-Kalinkin. The author of the project is not exactly known, but most sources give preference to the French engineer J-R. Perrone. In 1912-1913 under the leadership of engineer A.P. Pshenitsky, the bridge was overhauled. In 1915, the architect I. A. Fomin completed a design for lighting the bridge. According to this project, four low granite obelisks with faceted lanterns supported by brackets with gilded figurines of seahorses were placed at the entrances to the bridge. Interestingly, these are not just seahorses - but sea unicorns!
During the blockade, the bridge suffered from artillery shelling: all cast-iron railings were destroyed, granite parapets were thrown down, and granite obelisk lanterns were destroyed. In 1949, 1950-1952, 1967, 1986, 2006 Repair and restoration work was carried out on the bridge, as a result of which granite obelisks with figured lanterns and brackets, which had been lost by that time, were restored.
on the bas-relief of the house Borovaya street, 18/Volokolamsky lane, 1
I don’t want to bore you with a list of all the addresses in St. Petersburg where you can see hippocampi. For example, on the corner of Borovaya Street and Volokolamsky Lane in 1913, the apartment building of A.V. Eliseev and G.M. Fedorov was erected. High on the facade of a seven-story building on the side of Volokolamsky Lane, above the windows of the fifth floor, there are six identical relief images of a winged seahorse with leaf-shaped hooves, a powerful fin and a long, scaly tail curled into three rings.
Winged seahorses - hippocampi
at 87/89 Bolshoy Prospekt VO
And on Bolshoy Prospekt of Vasilievsky Island, house 87/89, winged sea horses work like Atlases, supporting, no, not the sky, but a balcony. Each balcony is supported by four sea horses, seated on massive rectangular pylons, two stories high. These hippocampi have the head and neck of a real horse, short dragon legs, powerful swan wings and a small fish tail. Eight sea horses were cast from reinforced cement according to models by sculptors J.Ya.Mellup, N.S.Kochukova and I.A.Venkova. This is the only such image known to me on a “Stalinist” house. After all, these houses were built after the war in 1956.
Seahorses - hippocampi
on the gratings of the Blagoveshchensky Bridge
The Blagoveshchensky Bridge in St. Petersburg is the first permanent crossing over the Neva. In the 18th century, the city made do with floating bridges, since it was believed that building a permanent bridge was a very expensive and complex process. The Blagoveshchensky Bridge in St. Petersburg, which connected Vasilievsky Island with the English Embankment, was at that time the longest in Europe. In 1842, it was decided to build a permanent ferry between Vasilyevsky Island and the English Embankment; the project was developed by Stanislav Valerianovich Kerbedz, a graduate of the Institute of Railways. Construction work was carried out from 1843 to November 1850.
The construction of the crossing, which was called Nevskaya, took place in extremely difficult conditions of swampy soil. The number of workers employed in construction was close to one and a half thousand. Piles were driven using steam engines, and air bells were used to carry out underwater work. The coastal abutments were lined with granite: Finnish granite was used for the underwater part, and Serdobol granite for the surface part.
There is a legend according to which Nicholas I, knowing about the difficulties of construction, ordered Kerbedz to be promoted in rank for each bridge span erected. Evil tongues claimed that when Kerbedz found out about this, he immediately changed the project, increasing the number of spans. Most likely, this is fiction, but it is known that before the start of construction Stanislav Veniaminovich was in the rank of captain, and on the day the bridge opened on November 21, 1850, he was promoted to the rank of major general.
The artist Alexander Bryullov took part in the design of the bridge. According to his design, cast iron railings were cast, and the design of metal gas lamps was created by engineer D. Tsvetkov. The grate on the Blagoveshchensky Bridge looks massive and at the same time openwork. In the center are the hippocampi holding a trident, which appears to be growing out of a shell.
The grand opening of the Blagoveshchensky Bridge took place on November 21, 1850. St. Petersburg residents liked to walk here, they admired the openwork grilles and gas lamps raised on pillars in the form of columns of the Corinthian order, as well as the drawbridge for the passage of ships. The crossing was rebuilt in the 1930s according to the design of bridge engineer, academician Grigory Petrovich Perederia. In essence, this was the construction of a new bridge with a central draw span on old abutments. Of the external design, only the railing, made according to the drawings of Alexander Bryullov, was preserved. The question of a new reconstruction arose in 2004. During the reconstruction, old steel structures were replaced with new ones. The grand opening of the renovated bridge took place on August 15, 2007. It is generally accepted that the bridge line is where the Neva flows into the Gulf of Finland.
Seahorses - hippocampi
on the gratings of the Anichkov Bridge
Anichkov Bridge is one of the most famous bridges St. Petersburg, whose history is closely connected with the founding Northern capital. The bridge itself is not a masterpiece of architectural thought; business card and it became a decoration of St. Petersburg thanks to the magnificent sculptures of the sculptor Pyotr Klodt. We will definitely talk about them, but a little later, but now let’s pay attention to the bridge gratings.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the St. Petersburg Fontanka River was called the Nameless Erik. And it received its modern name after pipes were laid through it for the fountains of the Summer Garden. In those days, the widely flooded river was a serious obstacle for horse-drawn transport and pedestrians. St. Petersburg, which was under construction, urgently needed a bridge.
In 1715, Peter I issued a decree on the construction of a permanent crossing across the river, for which 50 rubles were allocated from the treasury. And soon a wooden flooring 150 meters long appeared in the place chosen by Peter. The supports were covered with simple boards and stylized as stone. The construction work was supervised by Lieutenant Colonel of the Engineering Troops Mikhail Anichkov, whose surname was forever enshrined in the name of the bridge.
To allow ships to pass under the bridge, the crossing was equipped with removable wooden shields, which were lifted and returned to place manually. At night, the bridge remained open - this is how St. Petersburg defended itself from wolves, which often ran into the city outskirts in those days.
The bridge has been rebuilt several times. The bridge acquired its current appearance in 1841-42, when the bridge was rebuilt and expanded. Three spans, covered with gentle arches, were laid out of brick, the bridge supports and spans were lined with granite, cast-iron railings appeared with alternating paired images of seahorses and mermaids according to a drawing by the Berlin architect Karl Schinkel. Exactly the same railings already existed in Berlin on the Palace Bridge by that time.
Now pay special attention to the mermaids. After all, in addition to a female body and a fish tail, they also have legs with hooves. A sort of sea underwater centaurs. By the way, they are also called hippocampi!
TO BE CONTINUED!
Category: Curious St. Petersburg Tags:19. View of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island. I.V. Czech. 1810s State Hermitage Museum.
20. Sculpture of the “sea deity” at the foot of the Rostral column. Photo: G.N. Popov.
21. One of the granite balls by Sukhanov on a postcard by A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, 1942. Ill.: babs71.livejournal.com.
The magnificent architectural ensemble on the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island is one of the most beautiful and recognizable places in St. Petersburg. The eastern cape of the island, washed by the Bolshaya and Malaya Neva, is called the arrow. A trading center has been located here since Peter the Great's time. sea port, to which hundreds of overseas ships came with goods.
The Strelka received its completed form as a result of its creation in 1804–1811. designed by architect J.F. Thomas de Thomon, a grand ensemble in the style of classicism: with a new Exchange, rostral columns and a semicircular embankment. All masonry work during the construction of the architectural complex was carried out by Samson Sukhanov’s artel. Field examination by A.G. Bulakha showed that here in large quantities Finnish coarse-grained rapakivi granite in pink and rare gray colors is skillfully used.
The main part of the ensemble is the colossal Exchange building, built in the form of a peripterus - ancient temple, surrounded on all sides by a colonnade. The rectangular building rests on a high, powerful stylobate (the stylobate is the surface on which the colonnade was built) with a wide grand staircase. There are gentle ramps on its sides. Using Sukhanov stonemasons, the walls of the stylobate are lined with large rectangular blocks of “Finnish sea granite” in four rows: gray granite for the top two rows, pink granite for the bottom rows. The wide steps of the staircase are carved from the same stone in two colors (pink at the bottom of the staircase, gray at the top). For the columns, Sukhanov carved huge bases with a diameter of about two meters from monoliths of gray “Finnish sea granite”. All “sea Finnish granite” was mined in quarries near Vyborg. Sukhanov is credited with the execution of sculptural groups (“Neptune with two rivers” and “Navigation and Mercury with two rivers”) on the attic of the Exchange building based on the models of J. Camberlain.
At the same time, according to the design of the architect J.F. Tom de Thomon and engineer I.K. Gerard, a square with a semicircular embankment was built in front of the Exchange, intended for the construction of the main pier of the seaport. To level the contours of the coast and create a pier with a deep fairway, thousands of piles were driven into the river bottom, a huge mass of soil was poured, as a result of which the coastline extended 123.5 m into the Neva channel.
The construction and decoration of a two-tiered horseshoe-shaped embankment with a length of 561 m, covering the banks of the Big and Small Neva, was carried out by Sukhanov’s artel.
In 1807–1808 Granite stonemasons built a semi-circular retaining wall with a parapet from blocks of pink “Finnish sea granite”. It is decorated with a symbolic grotto in the form of an arch and decorated with 12 lion masks carved from granite with bronze mooring rings. From the outside, the wall is surrounded by slopes - ramps made of granite slabs laid at an angle, smoothly leading down to the pier site. On the sides of the pier, huge granite balls by master Samson Sukhanov are placed on massive cubic stone pedestals. The created granite embankment “of amazing purity, durability and beauty in decoration” harmoniously fit into the architectural ensemble of Strelka.
In 1810, the workers of Sukhanov completed the construction of the Rostral columns on the sides of the semicircular square at the descent to the Neva. The bases of the columns were carved from slightly pinkish, the pedestals from gray “Finnish sea granite”, and the fustas (trunks) of the columns of the Roman Doric order were made of brick. Rostral columns, symbolizing naval victories and serving as lighthouses, were decorated with metal rostras - the bows of ships and topped with tripod lamps. The height of the columns reaches 32 m. At the foot of the columns there are huge figures embodying, according to the plan of Thomas de Thomon, “the deities of the sea and commerce”, and now traditionally considered allegories of the Russian rivers Volga, Dnieper, Volkhov and Neva. They were performed in 1810–1811. Samson Sukhanov based on models by sculptors J. Thibault and J. Camberlain from Pudost stone. Perhaps the final “finishing” was done by the sculptors themselves.
When creating the ensemble of the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, the architect especially noted among the contractors the St. Petersburg merchants Samson Sukhanov, who headed the stonemasons’ artel, and Ivan Zherikhov with a team of carpenters, who “against other contractors brought significant benefits to the treasury during the execution of the work.” “For creating figures for lighthouses” Samson Sukhanov was awarded a caftan with gold braids (braid - braided cord, tassel or fringe used to decorate clothes).
P.P. Svinin in 1817 described the new Exchange in an elegant style: “The Bordovsky Exchange, considered the most magnificent in Europe, should now be inferior in beauty and enormity to the new St. Petersburg Exchange, which, in addition to the merits of architecture, has a most charming and advantageous location.< …>The building consists of an oblong quadrangle with a length of 55, a width of 41, and a height of 14 ½ fathoms. It is surrounded by a number of Doric columns, which formed a beautiful open gallery around it, having 14 pillars on the long sides and 10 on both facades. These latter are surrounded from above by sculptures representing allegorically the Baltic Sea and the Neva.< …>This building stands in an open place. On the Collegium side it is separated by an area measuring 148 fathoms in length and 125 in width. In front of the main facade, facing the Neva, there was a large semicircular area for storing goods. Its banks are lined with granite slabs and have two round slopes leading to the surface of the river. At the ends of the square rise two majestic pillars, decorated with statues and ship prows< …>, of which the most remarkable is the colossal figure of Neptune with a trident, the work of the sculptor Thibault from Pudost stone. There are steep stairs inside the pillars, along which you can climb to the very top, which contains fairly wide platforms with iron railings. From here, in clear weather, the most beautiful views can be seen from all sides.”
This is one of the articles in issue No. 119 of the charity wall newspaper “Briefly and clearly about the most interesting” - “The Art of Stonemasons.” The reason for creating the issue was the 250th anniversary of the birth of stonemason master Samson Sukhanov. His name is not particularly well known now, despite the fact that Sukhanov and his artel built almost half of St. Petersburg in the first third of the 19th century. The issue continues the series "Stone decoration of St. Petersburg".
Thank you for your interest in our project.
St. Petersburg, like other European capitals, has dreamed of maritime greatness for centuries. Therefore, some of its corners are inhabited by statues of water gods, ancient and Russian, and there are such. And in terms of marine figures, the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island can compete even with world-famous celebrities: the Roman Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona.
Trevi Fountain, Italy
This is Rome. On its streets and avenues, on its piazzas and piazzettas, in its parks and squares, bronze and stone sea figures froze, as if in a child’s game: Neptunes and Poseidons; newts and naiads; sturgeons and dolphins; seahorses and seahorses; water snakes and water lizards; crabs and turtles. The tone and style of this figurative splendor was set in the mid-17th century by the sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini. He worked under the auspices of three Roman popes at once, each of whom he glorified with a magnificent fountain. And funds for construction were obtained by collecting extremely unpopular taxes on bread and wine.
Neptune fountain
The most magnificent water monument erected by Bernini in the name of papal grandeur is the Fontana dei Fiumi (Fountain of the Rivers) in piazza Navona. The cyclopean-sized structure, on top of which the sculptor erected a multi-meter Egyptian obelisk, symbolizes the four main rivers known at that time - the Ganges, La Plata, Danube and Nile. The main roles of the rivers are played by muscular stone men with tousled hair and beards, seated at the foot of the obelisk. On Piazza Navona there are two more fountains, although not as multi-figured as the central one, but no less outstanding, including the fury of the struggles. Bernini also had a hand in them: in the bowl of one, the mighty Neptune fights with an octopus, in the middle of another, a hefty Moor defeats a dolphin. Rome also owes the appearance of its most famous fountain to the genius of Bernini - the architectural complex on Piazza Trevi was built many years after the death of the great sculptor Nicola Salvi. Salvi did not hide the fact that his work is an imitation of the maestro’s work. Indeed: Neptune and the two newts bridling the water stallions belong to the same family of marine figures as the naked men from piazza Navona.
Spit of Vasilyevsky Island, St. Petersburg
But St. Petersburg is a city that dreams of greatness no less than Rome. At the beginning of the 19th century, Swiss architect Jean François Thomas de Thomon, commissioned and for the glory of Emperor Alexander I, erected an impressive complex decorated with sea figures on the marshy spit of Vasilyevsky Island. In the center of the ensemble is the Exchange building, built on the model of the Temple of Poseidon in Paestum and therefore surrounded by a Doric colonnade - so to speak, the temple of trade and market relations emerging in that era. From the portico above the façade, Neptune's chariot, drawn by hippocampi (sea horses), drives towards the Neva. Holding a trident in his left hand, the sea god extends his right hand over the city, and he guards northern Petersburg as vigilantly as southern Rome. The role of the Russian watchman's retinue is not tritons, but the powerful figures of the Neva and Volkhov. So we have our own figured geography of seas and rivers.
Rostral column
Peter I planned to move the city center to Vasilievsky Island, but did not have time. A century later, by the will of the emperor, the talent of the architect and the efforts of tens of thousands of serfs, the arrow became even more pointed. Countless wooden piles were driven into the shifting soil, and the cape was moved more than a hundred meters to the east through gigantic embankment work. As a result, the architectural complex is opposed to the flow of the river and seems to divide the Neva channel into two branches. The correctness and smoothness of its flow is checked by two huge Rostral columns, with trunks decorated with copper images of the bows of ships. These columns formerly served as lighthouses of the St. Petersburg port; on their tops they burned hemp oil. Now, on holidays, gas burners are lit in lamp bowls.
fountain of the Rivers Rostral columns: Dnieper and Neva
Marine figures settled in pairs at the foot of the Rostral. The architect Thomas de Thomon considered four statues made of Pudost stone as deities of the sea and commerce, but in literature they are called allegorical images of the main navigable Russian rivers - the Volga and Dnieper, the Neva and Volkhov. From a distance, the figures look no less impressive than the men from the Roman fountains, but upon closer inspection, the grandeur is slightly lost. The fact is that there was little money in the imperial treasury for sculptures; marble and bronze had to be abandoned; they made do with stone from the outskirts of Gatchina. Fragile and not very ductile, limestone is easy to process, but difficult to preserve. It was not possible to hire an academic sculptor; craftsmen of a lower rank, the French Joseph Camberlain and François Thibault, took up the making of the models. Soft stone sculptures often had to be restored, but in the 20th century they lost their ceremonial appearance. The figures were updated carelessly; for the October anniversaries they simply covered them with oil paint; breakage areas were covered with plaster or plaster; It even happened that steel pins were driven under the ribs to strengthen the structure. In the end, out of despair, Neva’s left hand broke off, and Volkhov lost his right hand. It was only in the late 1990s that the figures were restored following the entire scientific procedure, and now they finally look fresh.
At the Fountain of the Rivers in Piazza Navona, puny American students often wander around, studying Rome based on the text of Dan Brown's novel Angels and Demons. The famous writer also did not ignore the fountain dei Fiumi, in the bathtub of which the decisive battle of the main character Robert Langdon took place with a religious fanatic, who drowned a cardinal with the football surname Baggio at the feet of the Ganges and Danube. Nothing like this has happened on the Vasilievsky Spit yet; it is still waiting for its hero and its writer. Our naval figures will probably also have something to tell the world about.
On Friday in my Blog: See St. Petersburg - and fall asleep soundly. The art of hostels.
The Spit of Vasilievsky Island is one of the pearls in the necklace of the architectural ensemble of the central part of St. Petersburg. One of the most attractive places for tourists and romantics, as it offers a wide panorama of the magnificent city.
A little history of the island
The cape on the eastern tip of Vasilyevsky Island, the largest in the Neva delta, divides the Neva into two deep channels. It apparently got its name from its shape, reminiscent of an arrowhead, with its tip protruding into the river. The location of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island on a wide expanse of water predetermined its fundamental role in the city’s development plans. According to the plan of Peter the Great, new town should have been sea fortress and a commercial port. The development of the military and merchant fleet was the main task of the king.
Initially, the port facilities were located on the southern side of the City (Petersburg) Island, now called the Petrograd Side, but the shallow depths did not allow the port to be used effectively. It was decided to move it to a more convenient place. The Spit of Vasilyevsky Island was chosen for this purpose.
Beginning of development
In 1709, the tsar gave the island to Menshikov, the governor-general of the new city. The prince's palace was the first stone residential building here. According to Tsar Vasilievsky’s plan, the island was to become the center of the future capital.
The creation of a development plan for the south-eastern part was entrusted to the architect Trezzini. According to his original design, there was to be a main square trapezoidal shaped city with residential buildings around it. It was supposed to dig a canal connecting the Bolshaya and Malaya Neva. A network of parallel canal streets was to be laid across the island. In addition, the entire island had to be crossed by a wide shipping channel, starting in the western part, facing the Gulf of Finland, and ending in a wide harbor at the spit. Not all of the architect’s plans were realized, but even now the main streets of the island do not have names, but are designated as numbered lines.
Implementation of development plans
But Peter saw the island as cultural and administrative center of a young city, on the spit of which a large seaport will be located. In Trezzini's new project, administrative and government buildings became the basis for the development of the island. One of the key elements of the complex of buildings along the banks of the Malaya Neva and Bolshaya Neva is the building of the Twelve Colleges, consisting of twelve identical three-story sections. The building housed the highest government bodies. Now here are the faculties of St. Petersburg University, a scientific library and some administrative organizations.
In less than two decades, other outstanding buildings appeared, with the construction of which the spit of Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg began to take on its current appearance: the Kunstkamera, the Novobirzhevoy Gostiny Dvor, the palace of Tsarina Praskovya Fedorovna (the wife of Peter’s brother), which later housed the Academy of Sciences. The modern academy building was erected at the end of the 18th century according to the design of the architect Quarenghi.
Spit of Vasilyevsky Island: history of development
The eastern tip of the island has not been subject to planned development for a long time. In the 30s of the 18th century, a seaport began to function here. But in 1885 it was moved to Gutuevsky Island, closer to the Gulf of Finland, since the old port no longer met the increased needs, and the fairway leading to it was complicated and did not correspond to the displacement of merchant ships coming from the sea.
Prototypes of a modern stock exchange
The first exchange building, which is now the main and central element of the architectural composition of the spit, was built during the creation of the port. The structure of the first stock exchange in Russia was wooden.
As the port developed, the area of the building became insufficient, and in 1781 a project for a new stone building was created. Its author was the architect Giacomo Quarenghi. Construction was carried out at a very slow pace and was stopped after 4 years.
The beginning of the 19th century was marked by new views on architecture. A fashion for ensembles appeared. In 1801, the architect Thomas de Thomon proposed a new design for the exchange, which he made the central element of the complex arrangement of the Spit.
Stages of formation of the arrow image
To make the ensemble look harmonious, the location of the exchange building is relative coastline had to be carefully calculated. The architect solved this issue by artificially creating the outline of the arrow. Piles were driven along the shore and soil was poured. As a result, the bank became higher and extended 123 meters into the river. The outlines of the coastline became smooth and symmetrical. The Spit of Vasilievsky Island has acquired a new shape.
In front of the main facade of the exchange there is a large semicircular area, which has a smooth descent to the water and is fenced with a granite wall. The embankment of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island served as a pier. It is decorated with wide, gentle stairs and two granite balls.
A park was laid out along the perimeter of Exchange Square in 1896. In 2003, a new attraction appeared in the park - an 18th century anchor raised from the bottom of the Neva near the Shkipersky channel.
The columns on the spit of Vasilievsky Island were conceived by Thomas de Thomon as port lighthouses and served this function until 1885. They were installed in 1810. The columns are decorated with rostras - bow decorations, from which they get their name. Nowadays, the fire on the rostral columns is lit on holidays.
The facades of the exchange building, built in the spirit of the temples of Ancient Greece, are decorated with sculptural groups depicting sea gods. In accordance with the general style in which the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island was designed, the rostral columns are also decorated with allegorical sculptures depicting sea deities.
The final feature of the ensemble was the construction of northern and southern warehouses, which had the same architectural design. Nowadays, the southern warehouse houses a zoological museum, and the northern warehouse houses a museum of soil science. Their construction ended in 1832.
Arrow today
A paved embankment that goes straight down to the water - favorite place walks for citizens and guests of the city. It is also a place of pilgrimage for newlyweds. The granite wall enclosing the embankment is decorated with stone faces of lions holding copper rings in their mouths. According to established tradition, it is necessary to hold on to the ring in order for the married life to be long and happy. Girls who want to get married are recommended to kiss the lion on the nose. Citywide holidays, folk festivals, and concerts are held on the square.
Vasilievsky Island, Strelka (St. Petersburg) are known all over the world. The panorama of the architectural ensemble is one of the most popular views and serves as the calling card of the city. His image is located on the fifty-ruble banknote.
For reference: With the increase in the size of ships, the port on the spit of Vasilyevsky Island began to lose its importance. Large ships could not pass through the natural channel to the port, and goods had to be reloaded onto smaller ships in Kronstadt. The British have a saying: the path from London to Kronstadt is shorter than from Kronstadt to Vasilyevsky Island. In 1885, a sea canal was dug, significantly deepening the shipping route to Gutuevsky Island, where the seaport was transferred.
Rostral columns (from Latin rostrum - bow of a ship) appeared on the spit of Vasilievsky Island in 1810. The construction of the columns was provided for in the project of the Exchange, developed by the French architect Jean Francois Thomas de Thomon, and carried out in 1810. They were supposed to serve as beacons and at the same time emphasize the importance of the exchange building as the center of the St. Petersburg port.
One of them was a lighthouse for ships on the Malaya Neva,
the other pointed the way to the Bolshaya Neva.
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The height of each column is 32 meters. The rostral columns are decorated with rostras. At the bottom of the column is the largest pair of rostra, strengthened so that one bow of the ship faces the Neva, the other faces the Stock Exchange. 
The rostra is decorated with the figure of a naiad (river deity).
The second pair is located perpendicular to the first, they are decorated with the head of a crocodile, seahorses and fish. The rostra of the third pair is decorated with the head of a merman, and the fourth, the topmost, is decorated with images of seahorses.
Spiral staircases located inside lead to the upper platforms, where tripods with bowls-lamps for signal lights are located.
These are the entrances to the inside of the column... They are closed with simple barn locks...
The door inside the column from the Neva...
And the door inside the column from the Exchange side...
The doors are located directly under the rostra, which also serve as canopies above the doors...
The lighthouses were lit at night and in fog, and served until 1885. Hemp(!) oil was burned in braziers, and hot splashes fell on the heads of passers-by.
In Ancient Rome, there was a custom: in honor of naval victories, triumphal columns were erected, decorated with rostra (prows) of enemy ships. Triumphal columns are traditionally associated with power and strength. Rostral columns are one of the symbols of St. Petersburg, personifying the maritime power of Russia.
The sculptures decorating the Rostral columns were created in 1810-1811, simultaneously with the entire ensemble. The author of the sketches of the sculptural groups is unknown. However, in recent years it has been established that the French sculptors J. Chamberlain and F. Thibault worked on the creation of the sculptures. The first to be executed was the male figure on the northern column, and the rest of the sculptures belong to the hand of Thibault. Upon closer examination of the sculpture, differences in execution style can be seen.
The executor of the colossal figures made of Pudost stone was the famous master stonemason Samson Sukhanov, who came from poor peasants of the Vologda province. At that time he collaborated with the best architects of St. Petersburg, but then went bankrupt and died in obscurity.
For reference: Pudost stone has a low volumetric mass, porosity, frost resistance, and is also easy to process, so it was used for decorative work - wall cladding, making sculptures. It has interesting properties that other finishing materials do not have - it changes color depending on lighting and weather, taking on various shades of gray and yellowish-gray. It has a porous structure, somewhat reminiscent of the structure of pumice, which is why, when used in cladding, it gives the building a noble “antique” look.
The reserves of stone in the Pudost quarries were quite small, so by the end of the 19th century its reserves were almost completely exhausted.
What do the sculptures represent?
The opinion that at the foot of the columns there are allegorical images representing the four great Russian rivers (the southern ones are “Volkhov” and “Neva”, the northern ones are “Dnepr” and “Volga”) is not supported by documents and arose relatively recently. Thomas de Thomon himself wrote that “the base of each column is decorated with huge figures that symbolize the deities of the sea and commerce.” The attributes of the sculptures are quite meager, and none of them can confirm or completely refute the version that we have before us allegories of specific four rivers.
Neva
Volkhov
Volga
Dnieper
It is noteworthy that the design and construction work associated with the rostral columns were constantly under the control of the Council of the Academy of Arts, headed by the great architect A.D. Zakharov. Everything was discussed - both the practical purpose and the artistic appearance. This speaks of the enormous importance attached to these structures. Rostral columns, powerful in volume and expressive in silhouette, color and proportions, stand out clearly against the sky and are clearly visible from distant perspectives.
During the work on the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, it was raised by adding soil to avoid flooding by the waters of the Neva. In addition, the Neva was “pushed back” by about a hundred meters. In winter, thousands of people gathered on the ice in front of the switch, held festivities and sleigh races.
In 1957, gas pipes were connected to the lamp bowls installed on the tops of the columns. Bright orange torches on the rostral columns are lit during holidays and celebrations in St. Petersburg.
