Vocabulary

1. anniversary, arch, banner, celebration, church, colonnade, defeat, globe, glory, icon, ironwork, niches, pedestal, religion, serf, society, tomb, troops, warrior; ancient, biblical, colossal, decorative, enormous, former, huge, mediocre, memorial, miraculous, philharmonic, splendid; to assassinate, to capture.

2. to damage, to design, to house, to reconstruct, to restore, to unveil.

Notes to the text

¹ the miraculous Kazan icon — чудотворная икона Казанской Божьей Матери

² Corinthian columns — коринфские колонны

³ bas-relief — барельеф

⁴ foot - фут (=0,305 м)

Exercises

1. Practise the pronunciation of the following words:

arch, bas-relief, colonnade, icon, niche, serf, society, statue, tomb, warrior; biblical, mediocre, miraculous, philharmonic; to assassinate, to damage, to capture.

2. What do you think the following places are famous for?

the Kazan Cathedral, Khram Spasa na Krovi, Book House, building No.30.

3. Rearrange the words to make sensible sentences:

1. serfs, came, Voronikhin, a family, of, from.

1. the, city's, monuments, finest, one, is, the cathedral, of, architectural.

3. named after, the, icon, is, the, cathedral, Kazan, miraculous.

4. the, walls, huge, on, themes, end, bas-reliefs, biblical, adorn, colonnade, the, of.

5. the, niches, contain, statues, of, facade, the, enormous.

6. small, the, in, square, front, entrance, of, main, surrounded, by, is, by, ironwork, designed, by, beautifully, the, Voronikhin.

4. Describe the decorations of the Kazan Cathedral.

5. Give the names of the architects and sculptors who took part in the decoration of Nevsky Prospekt.

6. Describe the historical events which are reflected in the decoration of the buildings of Nevsky Prospekt.

Part IV

Gostiny Dvor. Continuing our walk down. Nevsky Prospekt, we can see an unusual two-storey building with a row of arches along each floor, known as Gostiny Dvor. The term Gostiny Dvor means arcade. Gostiny Dvor which once housed numerous individual shops, dates from 1757-1785. The building overlooks four streets, which gives it a perimeter of more than half a mile; it stretches for 303 yards¹ along Nevsky Prospekt. Built in 1761-1785 by the architect V.Delamothe the Gostiny Dvor suffered severely during the siege of the city from bombing and fire in World War II. Recently this ancient building has undergone reconstruction and it is now the largest department-store in the city. Opposite the Gostiny Dvor is a large department-store for women known as the Passage (No. 48).

Ostrovsky Square. Proceeding down Nevsky Prospekt one sees the building of the Public Library, one of the largest in the world, and the monumental building of the Alexandrinsky Theatre, named after the wife of Nicholas I. The theatre was built by K. Rossi in 1828-1832. The main facade of the theatre is decorated with a six-column loggia, raised above the ground floor.

The whole building is girdled with a frieze of theatrical masks and garlands. The attic is crowned with the Chariot of Apollo. Muses decorate the main facade. The history of the theatre's company originates from the time of the first permanent public Russian theatre, which was formed by the «Father of the Russian Theatre» Fyodor Volkov in 1756. In front of the theatre a small garden was laid out, which covered the whole of what is now Ostrovsky Square. The monument to Catherine II in its centre was erected in 1873 by the sculptor M.O. Mikeshin. Catherine stands in her ceremonial robes on a high pedestal of polished granite with a sceptre in her hand. Round the base of the statue are grouped the distinguished figures of the 18th-century Russia.

Beyond the theatre stretch two buildings exactly similar in type. Their walls, exactly the same height as the width of the street, painted yellow and decorated with white columns, compose a street called Rossi Street, after the famous architect. The street impresses one by the majesty of form and nobility of proportion of its buildings. The Choreographic Academy, one of the oldest and most famous in the world, founded in 1738, is located in one of these buildings. The school has produced such great dancers as Ulanova, Dudinskaya, Sergeyev and Chabukiani.

The Anichkov Palace and the Anichkov Bridge. Nearby there is the building of the Anichkov Palace, which was built in 1741-50 by the architects M. Zemtsov, G. Dmitriev and K. Rastrelli. At the time the palace was built, Nevsky Prospekt was a third-rate street, or rather, simply a road leading out of town. For this reason the front of the palace faces the Fontanka and from Nevsky one can see only the northern side, which is devoid of decoration.

In 1937 the building was taken over by the Palace of Young Pioneers, one of the largest children's clubs in Russia. The palace was built at the time when the daughter of Peter the Great, Elizabeth, was on the throne. She had a palace built for Count Razumovsky. The palace takes its name from the bridge which was built in 1839-1841. Its predecessor was a narrow drawbridge with granite towers. Anichkov Bridge is named after the commander Anichkov whose regiment stationed at the bridge to guard the city at that time. Anichkov Bridge is famous for its horses at its four corners carved by P. Klodt. One of the sculptures represents a youth holding a horse; the other represents a youth attempting to check a rearing horse; the third sculpture shows a youth crouching on one knee while with the reins twisted round his arm he tries to hold back a galloping horse. The fourth portrays the moment when the youth falls and the rearing horse seems to rejoice in the freedom it has won.

The Alexander Nevsky Laura². The rest of Nevsky Prospekt, from the Fontanka to Vosstaniye Square, was built mainly at the end of the nineteenth century. Nevsky Prospekt ends with a green square, beyond which lies the building of the Alexander Nevsky Laura. A laura in Russian is a monastery of the highest order. There were only four lavras in Russia and the Alexander Nevsky Laura is one of them. The monastery was named in honour of the Novgorod Prince Alexander Nevsky, who in 1240 defeated the Swedish knights on the banks of the river Neva.

The laura was founded by Peter I in 1713 and housed the man's monastery. It is a unique architectural ensemble. The stone wall of the laura forms a semi-circle round Alexander Nevsky Square, at which Nevsky Prospekt ends. The central entrance of the laura is adorned with an elegant chapel over the gate (1783-1785, architect I. Starov). The buildings of the laura were designed by D. Trezzini, I. Starov and others. Beyond the main entrance are the famous necropolises³. On the left is the eighteenth-century necropolis, known as the Lazarevskoye Cemetery, the oldest in the city. It was opened soon after the foundation of the monastery, in 1716. Natalya Alexeyevna, Peter's sister, was buried here. Here one can find the graves of many of the greatest figures of Russian culture, including the scientists Lomonosov and Euler, architects Voronikhin, Zakharov and Rossi. On the right of the main entrance is the Tikhvinskoye Cemetery. There are tombstones bearing the names of the fabulist Krylov, the composers Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, the sculptor Klodt and other famous men of science and art.

The oldest part of the laura is the tower to the left of the main gate. In this two-storeyed building there are two churches. A marble slab set in the floor of the second church tells us that A. Suvorov is buried here. Troitsky(Trinity) Cathedral (built in 1778-1790 by the architect I.Y. Starov) is an outstanding example of Russian classicism, while the Mitropolichy Korpus (constructed in 1756-1759 by the architect M.D. Rastorguev) is equally fine in Russian baroque.

A part of the lavra's buildings is now used by the city Eparchial Council, the Ecclesiastical Academy and the Ecclesiastical Seminary.