St. Petersburg is a city that, thanks to the ideas of Peter I, inherited the European tradition of regular planning, when straight streets intersect with straight main highways at clear angles, and spacious squares form at their intersection. Europe also inherited this tradition from its predecessor, the Great Roman Empire. But even more interesting is that before Rome, a regular layout was found in the cities of more ancient civilizations - Mesopotamia, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, etc. One of the squares organized near the historical center of St. Petersburg in a very important place for the city was Labor Square. In St. Petersburg, the metro station "Labor Square" is not yet available. Accordingly, it is necessary to get by land transport.
Where is Labor Square in St. Petersburg?
The square is located in the Admiralty district. Once upon a time on the left bank of the Neva on the Admiralty Island, not far from the Newland Holland timber storages that appeared in the first quarter of the 18th century, a convict house for galley rowers was built. By the way, the galleys - rowing warships, were released nearby - at the Galernaya (or Skampaveyskaya) shipyard, which was located below the Promenade des Anglais.
Later, the Annunciation Church was built on the site of the Prison House, and an area appeared around it: just between the embankment, a channel for fusing the forest to the Admiralty Shipyard from Forest Holland (now Konnogvardeisky Boulevard), Kryukov Canal and Bolshaya Street (now Yakubovich).
How to get to Labor Square in St. Petersburg? This is best done from Nevsky Prospekt: in the area of Malaya Morskaya Street, trolleybuses and minibuses go towards the square. But the tram rails previously laid here have long been dismantled.
The story of the three names
The name "area of Labor" was in the Soviet period. Renamed it back, returning the historical name in the 90s. due to the trend of returning old names.
The very first name of the square was Blagoveshchenskaya. She received this name in the 1830s. according to the main dominant - the Church of the Annunciation, erected here in 1830
The second name - "Nikolaevskaya" - received the square in the Grand Ducal Palace, built here in the 1860s.
In Soviet times, namely in 1918, the area began to be called Labor Square, because this is how the nationalized Nikolaevsky Palace was renamed in connection with its new functional purpose.
Lost monument
We will talk about the aforementioned Annunciation Church, which until the Soviet time was an important spiritual and high-rise dominant of the ensemble of Labor Square in St. Petersburg. This is one of the most unique creations of Konstantin Ton, built in the neo-Byzantine style. It was built for the Horse Guards and was destroyed in 1929.
Being a five-domed, the church had tent structures under the domes, and the central one was much larger than the others.
The facade of the church was decorated with angular beams of built columns, parts of the wall are decorated with kokoshniks, pediments, facing with Putilov stone and Finnish granite, as well as bas-reliefs designed by N. Ramazanov.
This amazing religious building had an underground temple and a necropolis, which were destroyed along with the foundations during the construction of the underpass. So the memory of the church on Labor Square in St. Petersburg, unfortunately, remained only in old engravings and photographs.
Saved in time
The most interesting and striking monument of the planning ensemble of Labor Square in St. Petersburg is the Nikolaev Grand Ducal Palace.
Built by Andrei Ivanovich Shtakenschneider for Nicholas, the eldest of the sons of Nicholas I, the mansion became a decoration of the territory. Built in the eclectic architectural style, it resembled a Renaissance palazzo with its light semicircular arcades of windows, an extended front porch with gently sloping steps descending into the courtyard courtyard, with the facade being divided into horizontal tiers like a puff cake.
In the first half of the 18th century, in its place were the buildings of the Rope Yard, and by the end of the same century the Rope Yard was replaced by the Sea Barracks.
The Nikolaev Palace was equipped with the latest technology. It had lightning rods, a mahogany elevator, a telegraph for communication with the Winter Palace and the General Staff, a sewerage system and a water supply system perfect at that time. The garden adjoined the palace. A glacier was built in the very center of the garden.
According to the traditions of the era, the palace had its own temple in the name of the icon of the Mother of God "of all who mourn for joy." By order of the owner, a copy of the cave of the Holy Sepulcher was built.
At the direction of the son of Grand Duke Alexei Nikolayevich, after the death of the owner, the Ksenin Institute for orphans was opened in the palace building. In Soviet times, the question of organizing the palace of the Trade Unions was considered here. Nevertheless, he was not placed on the Labor Square of St. Petersburg. They decided to open it in another historical building - the Yusupovs Mansion.