Chapter 1. Old maps of St. Petersburg
Chapter 2. Ancient tale in the north of Europe
Chapter 3. Unity and monotony of monumental structures scattered around the world
Chapter 4. Capitol without a column … well, no way, why?
Chapter 5. One project, one architect or cargo cult?
Chapter 6. Bronze Horseman, who are you really?
Chapter 7. Thunder stone or submarine in the steppes of Ukraine?
Chapter 8. Falsification of most of the monuments of St. Petersburg
Promotional video:
Chapter 9. Peter the First - an ambiguous personality in the history of the whole Europe
Chapter 10. For what to say thank you, Tsar Peter?
Chapter 10-1. This "happy" tsarist era or the House of Holstein in Russia
Chapter 10-2. Why was the chain mail and cuirass replaced with stockings and a wig?
Chapter 11. Ladoga Canals - witnesses of a grandiose construction
Chapter 12. What did you really want to say, Alexander Sergeevich?
Chapter 13. Alexander Column - we see only what we see
Chapter 14. Alexander I. The Secret of Life and the Secret of Death
Chapter 15. Masonic symbolism of St. Petersburg
Old engravings given from the history textbook.
Palace of Peter 1 (1716)
Each ancient city has buildings immersed in cultural layers. Take a closer look at this engraving. The first floor of the building has gone underground, it is old, very old.
Or here, also in 1716 (engraving. Alexey Zubov).
The main entrance and the windows of the first floor are deep in the ground, how many years did it have to stand to reach such a state?
Here is today's photo, the house is 300 years old. Compare the street level with the ground floor level.
The brick house went underground and a wooden floor was added on top.
And how can this fit into the time frame of such a global construction? It was founded on May 16, 1703, and in a couple of years the whole city, with infrastructure, fortresses, port, palaces and gardens, was commissioned, as they say, on a turnkey basis. I DO NOT BELIEVE!!!
Considering the architecture of St. Petersburg, a lot of questions arise for architects. Knowing that the city is prone to floods, all buildings for some reason stand knee-deep in water, the basement floors are flooded, hence the question: WHO IS BUILDING THIS? … or was it already. Consider a couple of drawings and photographs of the flood in the joint venture. If drawings can embellish an artist's imagination, then photographs show history after the fact, and you can't get away from it.
Here is the official floodability map of the city:
Probably, among the readers there is no person who is not familiar with the poem by A. S. Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman", but few (even among Petersburgers) saw the true plan for the famous flood described by the poet. This plan was carried out by the engraver and publisher A. Savinkov, who served in the Depot of Maps, established by the decree of Paul I in 1797. The places flooded during the flood of 1824 are highlighted in blue paint.
“Plan of the capital city of St. Petersburg”. Engraver A. Savinkov (St. Petersburg, 1825). Copper engraving, 1040ґ1010 mm.
And now photographs of buildings in the 19th century:
Knowing about the floodability of the city, the architects had to provide for high foundations and massive basements, with such a volume of construction it is not so difficult, but … Basements are more like the first floors that have sunk into the ground. In the place of the tsar, I would keep such architects on Solovki … or did they not build?.. The city stood before them, they simply re-planned, corrected, patched up, so to speak, gave the buildings a more modern look. We know how much the restoration costs now, perhaps these works were disguised as construction works. Design documentation for most of the buildings is missing, but there is a lot of data on renovation and finishing works.
Here is a simple example of restoration work, the colonnade looks unnatural at the level of the third and fourth floors, but it had to be raised, otherwise the columns would be one third below ground level.
And here they were too lazy to dig them up, left as it was.
Window in the basement of the Hermitage.
Even a novice architect will tell you that semi-basements are not built with such windows. The window was laid later. Subsequently, you ask … here I am trying to find out.
Screenshot from a video on the NTV channel. Hermitage, basement.
To unearth the foundations of the Alexandria Column, the Winter Column …, St. Isaac's Cathedral and others … much would fall into place, but do those in power need it to fall into place?
Bonus, an interesting article on the same topic: "Ancient civilizations were covered with sand."
Here is a very interesting information about the cartography of the city: maps and plans of St. Petersburg.
Photos of buildings sitting in the ground almost to the floor. Nowadays.
Although, they say that for two hundred years, nothing has changed in their appearance.
If what you see is a semi-basement conceived by the architect, then he obviously saved money on the windows.
The cultural layer you say, well, well …
St. Petersburg 23 line V. O., building of the Mining University.
There are similar buildings in Moscow.
House of P. A. Syreishchikova (Rakhmanovs). Vorontsovo Pole Street. (Yes, the windows on the first floor had to be redone, but where can you go.)
House of Steingel (Lopatina). Gagarinsky Lane. (And who builds like that, a foundation with windows, what would it be for?)
The mansion of P. P. Kiseleva (N. A. Cherkasskaya). Bolshaya Nikitskaya street. (Take a closer look, on the right, how the doors were pulled up, they occupied the floor of the second floor window).
Garden of Muravyov-Apostles. Old Basmannaya street. (The first floor should, at least, be higher in height than the second, the foundation has not been canceled. Only how deep is it buried, this very foundation?)
FAILURE OF SOIL IN MOSCOW BARE WINDOWS OF ANCIENT BUILDING.
In the courtyard of house number 16 on Filippovskiy lane, there was a collapse of the ground on an area of about 15 square meters and a depth of up to 3 meters.
Saratov:
Three meters down from street level.
Why are there windows?
Did the architects build underground floors with windows and doors above each other of the underground and ground floors - how can you enter the ground floor if there is a hole under your feet leading to the underground.
But this is St. Petersburg.
Yusupov Palace on the Moika.
In terms of the ground floor, the Great Catherine Palace is also interesting. Here is a modern photograph.
Three floors and a small earthen embankment in the area of the foundation are clearly visible.
Now let's look at a photograph of the palace after the Second World War.
In those places where over time the embankment will appear, windows are clearly visible, which later will be safely added by builders and restorers.
Here is a modern photograph, find where the windows were.
You can look at the drawings and engravings of the 19th century, they are also informative.
The annexes do not have windows in the ground, but they are clearly visible on the central building. What does this mean?.. That all the outbuildings are later.
Here are engravings from the times of Catherine.
If you look closely at the three central buildings, you can see windows close to the ground.
Here's another interesting photo.
There is no earthen embankment yet and the lower floor is visible.
I would like to express my gratitude to Andrei Bogdanov, who sent these photos.
Author's text of photos:
It is very difficult to show the ratio of levels with a photograph, especially since there are several of them!
And so on photo 1, the existing level of the mansion courtyard.
In photo 2 there is a preserved door to the 1st floor.
Photo 3 is a view from the basement to the laid-up windows. There are even older and deeper masonries.
Here is a very interesting article under the link: "The secret imperial metro near St. Petersburg."
The Alexander Palace also fits easily into the theory of the ground floor skidding.
A vivid example of a skid, here is a photo:
The water level is much higher than the level of the "basement" floor, it was not built even in the 18th century.
Here is a photo of the palace basement, the floor level was raised by more than a meter already in the 19th century.
Half-laid window openings are very clearly visible.
Deeper by 120-140 cm, we come across another stone floor, and even lower on the remains of the foundation.
For comparison, the Moscow Kremlin (according to the official version, it is 300 years older, but the ceilings of the first floor are normal, there is no need to lay half of the window).
A bit of history
At the corner of Srednyaya and Dvortsovaya streets, one of Pushkin's historical monuments flaunts - the dacha of Giacomo Quarenghi. Once upon a time, 200 years ago, a great architect lived in this country house.
… The Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi arrived in Russia at the invitation of Catherine II in 1779. He was in the Russian service until his death in 1817, creating his best creations in St. Petersburg and the surrounding area, which brought him world fame.
A brilliant period of his activity is associated with Tsarskoe Selo. For two decades from 1780 to 1800. here, according to his projects and under his direct supervision, there was an almost continuous construction. He redesigned the interiors in the Zubovsky building of the Grand Palace, built the Cold and Turkish Baths, the Concert Hall, the kitchen-ruin, the Turkish kiosk, bridges and, finally, created the main work - the Alexander Palace.
Forced to frequent and stay for a long time in Tsarskoe Selo, the architect turned to the court with a request to provide him and his family with state housing. The request was granted …
… A beautiful end-to-end fence divided the territory of the site allocated by Quarenghi under Catherine II into two approximately equal halves, of which the smaller, southern, was set aside for the ceremonial courtyard with the manor house and services, and the large, northern, for a landscape garden with a pond and a garden pavilion (Coffee house) and a greenhouse.
The master's house occupied "an obtuse corner at the intersection of Srednaya and Kuzminskaya streets" (now Dvortsovaya). It was a two-story building with a stone, buried ground floor, large second floor windows, and a high roof with dormers.
In the 1833 album "Costumes and Views of St. Petersburg and its Suburbs" there are many drawings, for example, this drawing.
History says the building on the left has just been completed. A fair question arises: why are the basement windows laid, why? If they are not needed, why were they made. A simple plinth is much cheaper. If necessary, why did they lay it down?
But if you dig deeper, three to four meters from the surface, you can stumble upon the foundations of these structures. Igor Garbuz, senior researcher at the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, talks about the excavations: “They didn’t just lay them with torn stone, I mean granite, boulders, but also processed them. Imagine how much labor you need to invest. a rectangular granite slab … and bury it four meters in the ground (this is from me).
Underground Petersburg will still be divided … or sold.
An expert advisory commission on foundations, foundations and underground structures has been recreated in St. Petersburg. Priority tasks of the Commission: problems of the development of the underground space of St. Petersburg. So far, only questions …
1. Is St. Petersburg ready for this - legislatively, normatively, strategically?
2. What is the role of the Commission in the implementation of innovative design and technological solutions in underground construction, in addressing issues of protecting the architectural heritage?
3. Is it possible to develop underground space in protected zones, under what conditions?
4. What urban projects will first of all need to pass the examination?
According to Vladimir Ulitskiy, head of the Department of Foundations and Foundations of the SPbGUPS, the city is not strategically ready for the development of underground space - there is no single plan for underground construction.
Here is a HUGE amount of photos of old Peter.
Thanks to the author of the site for such a job.
And here are the buildings built in the 18th century, according to similar projects …
Man-Tess. The small hotel is located in the very center of the city in old Riga. The hotel building (18th century) belonged to the famous Riga architect Kr. Haberland. (The height of the first floor is what it should be.)
House of Degtyarev (Degtyarevs, old KALUGA merchant family). Fedor Fedotov, son of Degtyarev - MUROMSKY merchant of the 3rd guild. The book of those who signed up for 1781 from the bourgeoisie to the merchant class. (The first floor is as it should be).
The main event in Moscow education in the 18th century was the opening of Moscow University in 1755 (The height of the first floor is normal.)
The building of the old station in Taganrog. (The height of the first floor is clearly higher, everything is as it should be).
Hotel Big Moscow. Rostov-on-Don. (The first floor is ok).
Penza School of Railway Transport. (The first floor is ok).
Here is a whole selection of photographs of buildings in Moscow, peers of the St. Petersburg buildings. As I didn’t look closely, as I didn’t compare the floors, Moscow buildings were built correctly, with foundations, or powerful basements. So why architects at the same time built completely different houses, in St. Petersburg with dungeons, and in Moscow - without them.
There is a strange feeling of understatement why all over Russia and Europe, at the same time, buildings very similar in design were built, and only in some cities, including St. Petersburg, were they buried on the floor of a floor, and in some places on the floor in the ground? Maybe they were dug up on the contrary, and then completed, leaving the first floor where it really was?
Continuation: "Chapter 17. Axonometric plan of St. Petersburg - a witness to the great flood."
Author: ZigZag
