St. Petersburg is not only the cultural capital of Russia. This is a city-museum, which contains monuments of sculpture and architecture that preserve the memory of the cultural heritage of various civilizations and peoples. One of these architectural structures is the Exchange building in St. Petersburg pictured here. In the Northern capital, this is perhaps the most similar to an ancient building building.
Back to the past. First attempt
The history of the Exchange building in St. Petersburg can be divided into several time periods.
The first building was erected in the 1730s and was cut down from wood. This became necessary in connection with the transfer of the port from Troitskaya Square to Strelka Vasilievsky Island .
Gradually, thanks to the activities of Peter the Great, the city began to be rebuilt and built up in stone, and Vasilyevsky Island as the planned center of the new city was to become the first "stone" territory. However, the first stone building of the Exchange was to be built here much later - only in the 1780s. Giacomo Quarenghi was appointed architect of an important port facility. The Exchange building in St. Petersburg was to become the center of a grandiose architectural ensemble. But it did not, since the construction, which began in 1783, in 1788 was stopped due to the failure of the project. Around the new building, the ensemble not only did not take shape. The form of the Exchange itself raised certain doubts. Quarenghi planned to make it oval.
Back to the past. Second attempt
The next architect of the Exchange building in St. Petersburg was the French master Jean Francois Toma de Tomon.
Working on a new project, he created four options. In fact, all the projects were very similar to each other. Only the proportions and dimensions differed. Two famous Petersburg architects - Andrian Zakharov and Andrei Voronikhin took an advisory part in creating the two options. The stage of creating the new Exchange project took about three years and lasted from 1781 to 1784.
Project implementation
The construction of the new Exchange building in St. Petersburg began according to one of the project options in 1784 and ended in 1816. Toma de Thomon not only figured out how to build a new building on the old foundations and the remains of the walls of the Quenhagen building, but also planned the appearance of the Strelka ensemble of Vasilyevsky Island as a whole. Having invited a team of stonecutters led by Samson Sukhanov, he embodied the bizarre shape of the tip of the cape of the island, bending it like a bow outward to the Neva, and flanked the Exchange building with two Rostral columns. By the way, Samson Sukhanov also participated in the design of the columns - he created amazing sculptural decorations for them.
Almost antique building
If you look closely, it will become obvious that the Exchange building in St. Petersburg is very similar to an ancient Greek temple. Built on a high stylobate, surrounded by an order system, the white-stone structure seems to be the place where the Gods of Olympus live. But look up! The Olympians - Poseidon (Neptune) from the Neva and Hermes (Mercury) from the Birzhevaya Square - really settled over the Exchange's attic. Neptune controls the sea horses - hippocamps, sitting in his chariot. He heads straight towards the Neva and is about to crash at full speed into the river abyss, and then he will drive the horses to the Neva mouth - to the Baltic Sea, to his native element. True, unlike the warm waters of the Aegean, Mediterranean, Ligurian or Adriatic, this water is very cold and unkind. And very far to his homeland. But on the way he will be helped by local river deities. According to one version, the Neva and Volkhov.
On the other hand, the decor of the Exchange building has a more business-like content: the Herald of the Gods and patron of trade and navigation, the rogue and the thief Hermes, guarding the shopping arcades on Birzhevaya Square. And he’s not in a hurry yet. After all, there is Navigation nearby, which means that there is still enough time to have time to sell the delivered goods and get a decent profit. The local climate really contributes to this.
Temple of the Muses yesterday and today
"Why is the temple of the Muses?" - you ask. Because it is from this phrase that the word "museum" (museion) came about. And since 1939, the Naval Museum was located in the Exchange building on Vasilievsky Island, which lasted seventy years, and only in 2011 moved to a new place of "residence". According to the original plan, instead of a museum, a commodity exchange was supposed to be located here. But this plan has not been implemented.
In 2011, the St. Petersburg government decided to transfer the Exchange to the Hermitage, but after a change of leadership this plan also failed.
According to the third project proposed in 2012, the Palace of Justice was to be placed in the Exchange building. But with this venture, nothing happened.
By 2013, the condition of such a long empty construction began to cause serious concern. The Director of the Hermitage M. Piotrovsky has repeatedly stated that the historical building should serve history - it is necessary to place museum funds in it. As a result of heated discussions, it was decided to transfer the Exchange building in St. Petersburg to the Hermitage under its branch - the Museum of the Guard and Heraldry.
Is it possible to hope that the fate of the Exchange is finally decided? Time will tell!
The Exchange building is located in St. Petersburg at the address: 4 Birzhevaya Square .