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About St.Petersburg
Empress Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1741. She brought Russia back to the Peter's custom of doing things by means of Russian people. The reign of Empress Elizabeth was the period when the society gathered strength for the coming glorious epoch of conquests and transformations. During that period the Russian Baroque style of St.Petersburg was embodied in such creations as the Winter Palace, and Smolny Monastery (B. Rastrelli), and St. Nicolay Church (S. Chevakinsky).
Empress Catherine II (1762 - 1796) was known as the continuer of Peter the Great's affairs for home reforms and significant conquests. After the series of wars Russia acquired Crimea and the Northern shores of the Black Sea, took back Russian regions of Poland, and joined Kurlandia. Brilliant education and philosophy ideals of the Empress seriously influenced Russian legislation, policy and the fine arts of that time. A new style - classicism - was established. Such buildings as the Academy of Fine Arts (Felten), the Gostinny Dvor (Valen - de la Moth), the Marble Palace (Rinaldi), the Old Hermitage (Felten), the Taurida Palace (Starov), the Yusupov Palace at the Fontanka River, the Smolny Institute, the Narva Triumph Gates (Quarenghi), the Main Admiralty Building (Zakharov), the Stock Exchange House (Toma de Tomon), and the Kazansky Cathedral (Voronikhin) were constructed during that period. Emperor Pavel (1796 - 1801) proceeded with rearrangement of the city center and its suburbs.
In 1797 - 1800 the architects V. Brenna and V. Bazhenov built the Mikhaylovsky Palace. This is a square shaped building with an inner yard surrounded by rivers and moats on all sides like a medieval castle. Emperor Pavel I was always in terror of a plot, therefore to make his life safer he ordered the palace with many passages, levels, and rooms. On November 1 1800 the Palace became the official residence of the Emperor's family, however after his assassination by the plotters the Emperor's family came back to the Winter Palace.
In 1801 Emperor Alexander I ascended the throne (1801 - 1825), and in 1805 the war with Napoleon broke out. Moscow, along with St.Petersburg was under threat of invasion of the French troops. There are oodles of legends about the history of St.Petersburg, and one of them is related to that time when the city decided to erect the monument of Peter the Great. A peasant from Lakhta Village, Semen Vishnyakov, came to the city authorities to say: "There is a big stone in the bog near my village. Its name is the Thunder Stone. Just come and take it. It will be the pedestal for Peter's monument since Peter himself used to climb it to watch the sea". The stone was inspected. It was huge indeed, of ash-gray quartz and feldspar. Its weight was 100 thousand poods (one pood is 16.38 kg). The Baltic sailors headed by Captain Mordvinov lifted it with winches and levers, pushed it through the slope on the platform on copper balls and rolled to St.Petersburg. In took them two years to complete the job. This Thunder Stone is a pedestal for the most wold famous monument of Peter the Great, that is also known and The Copper Horseman. It is located in the city center near the Senate building. In 1812 Napoleon threatened to invade St.Petersburg. There were some individuals who wanted to dismantle this monument, but the people ready to fight against the French troops created a new legend that said: "In the night the clop of hoofs of the Copper Horseman could be heard. It was Peters the Great, the great-great grandfather of Alexander I. He appeared in front of his great-great grandson and said, "Mind that while I am on my rock the city will never be defeated". Than he turned back and the clop of hoofs could be heard again as he came back to his rock".
The victorious parry of Napoleon's invasion in 1812 and the raid of liberation of Russian troops to Europe were reflected in a new rise of the city development in the Capital of mighty Russia. The ensemble of the Mikhaylovsky Palace, the ensemble of the Alexandrinsky Theater, the buildings of the top governmental bodies of Russia (The Senate and The Synod), the building of the Headquarters with the Triumph Arch and the House of Ministries in the Palace Square (Rossi) were constructed during this period. The complex of the Palace Square was completed with the Alexander Column, and the biggest cathedral in Russia, the St. Isaac Cathedral was erected in the Isaac Square (Montferrand).
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