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Church of Ss. Simeon and Anna

On one of St. Petersburg's most picturesque corners, where Ulitsa Belinskogo crosses the Fontanka River, the Church of Ss. Simeon and Anna is one of St. Petersburg's oldest churches, and one of the finest examples of early baroque architecture in the city.

The first wooden church was built on this site on the orders of Peter the Great in 1714, to celebrate naming of his daughter Anna as tzarevna. Empress Anna Ionnovna, who came to the throne in 1730, also considered St. Anna to be her patron, and instructed architect Mikhail Zemtsov to design a stone replacement for the wooden church. Zemtsov, a pupil of Domenico Trezinni, is considered to be Russia's first home-bred architect, and the result of his work was this beautifully simple church, with soaring spire and polygonal cupola, painted in softly contrasting shades of yellow and white.

The church was originally reserved for members of the court, but later became a popular public church for the aristocratic residents of this area of St. Petersburg. Closed by the Bolsheviks in the 1930s, the church was initially turned into a warehouse, and then handed over to the Meteorological Museum. Returned to the Orthodox Church in the 1990s, the church has still not recovered its main relics, including the Icon of the Three-Handed Mother of God, which is still housed in the St. Nicholas Maritime Cathedral. The interior has been restored in a plain, attractive style, and is now a fully functioning church.

 

Sheremetev Palace

Standing on the banks of the Fontanka River, a few steps from Nevsky Prospekt, the Sheremetev Palace was once the centre of one of the largest aristocratic estates in St. Petersburg, bequeathed to Field-Marshal Boris Sheremetev in 1712 and extending beyond what is now Ligovsky Prospekt. In its prime in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Sheremetev Palace boasted not only extensive lands, but also its own hospital and theatre, where the Sheremetev's famous serf theatrical troupe and orchestra performed. The palace is also known as 'the Fountain House' for the opulent arrangement of fountains that once decorated its gardens. The palace building dates to the 1740s, and was designed by Savva Chevakinsky and Fyodor Argunov, the latter from one of the Sheremetev's serf families. The elegant baroque facades, painted like much of central St. Petersburg in yellow and white, are set back from the Fontanka Embankment behind a magnificent wrought iron fence added by Geronimo Corsini in 1838. The Sheremetev Palace was home to several generations of the illustrious family, and each extended and adapted the buildings with the help of the leading architects of the day.

The Fountain House became one of the main cultural centres of St. Petersburg. The theatrical passion of Counts Petr Borisovich and Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev created one of the finest theatres in 18th century Russia, and the latter went on to marry one of the stars of his opera, the leading soprano Praskovia Zhemchugova, in what became one of the most celebrated (and controversial) romances of the day. The palace was also the site of concerts and literary soirees with the participation of Vasily Zhukovsky and Alexander Turgenev among others.



This history is reflected in the current use of the palace as part of the State Museum of Theatre and Musical Art, which has restored the facades of the building and uses it to house a collection of historical musical instruments. It showcases an extensive collection of Russian and European musical instruments, some from as early as the 17th century. The southern wing of the palace also houses the Anna Akhmatova Memorial Museum, in the apartment where the great 20th century poet lived from the mid-1920s until 1952. The expression 'Fountain House' was first used in one of her poems.

 

Shuvalov Palace (Museum Faberge)

The palaces along the Fontanka River can almost match those on the Palace Embankment for variety and splendour, among them world-famous palaces such as the Anichkov, Beloselsky-Belozersky, and Sheremetev Palaces. The Shuvalov Palace, although now less famous, enjoys a superb location on the corner of Italyanskaya Ulitsa, and was renowned for the balls held there in the first half of the 19th century which were frequented by all the Petersburg nobility, including the imperial family.

 

The exact date of the palace's construction is unknown. It is presumed to have been built at the end of 18th century by the great neoclassical architect Giacomo Quarenghi. Prior to 1799, the palace was owned by the Vorontsov family before it was acquired by Countess Maria Naryshkina, lady-in-waiting to Catherine the Great. It was under the ownership of the Naryshkin family that the palace became known as one of the centres of society in St. Petersburg, with the Grand Ballroom (also known as the Alexandrovsky or White Column Hall) hosting balls for over a thousand people, music provided by the Naryshkins' horn orchestra, where each instrument played only a single note. Other attractions of the palace included the Picture Gallery, which housed one of Petersburg's richest collections of Western European art at the time. Among the guests at the palace were the poet Vasily Zhukovsky, and the fabulist Ivan Krylov, as well as Alexander I and his brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich.

 

Reconstruction of the building was undertaken by architects Bernard de Simone and Nikolay Efimov 1844-1846 in preparation for the wedding of Sofia Naryshkina to Count Pyotr Shuvalov, after which the building became known as the Shuvalov Palace. From this period date the palace's Renaissance Revival facades and many of the surviving interiors, including the grand entrance hall and marble staircase, the Knights' Hall, the Red, Gold, and Blue Drawing Rooms, and the redecoration of the Grand Ballroom with marble columns and sculptural panels depicting scenes from the Trojan War.

 

After the Revolution, the Shuvalov Palace was opened as a museum. The Naryshkin/Shuvalov family treasures were then dispersed to other museums, and the palace became home to various literary organizations that were eventually unified under the Union of Writers of the USSR in 1934. The palace was severely damaged by bombing during the Siege of Leningrad, and after extensive restoration became the House of Peace and Friendship in 1965. Today, the palace houses the St. Petersburg Center for International Cooperation - home to various conferences, seminars, and exhibitions dedicated to strengthening business and cultural ties between Russia and other countries. There are various plans afoot to turn the palace into a museum.

 


Date: 2015-12-11; view: 837


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