Catherine II went down in the history of Russia and Europe as the most progressive queen of that time. Historians excitedly tell how she polemicized with the lights of world thought Voltaire and Diderot. All the most modern achievements of that time were immediately implemented in the Russian Empire. She even vaccinated herself against smallpox in public so that people would not run away from doctors who wanted to poke sharp syringes with bacilli at him.
Let's add thousands of publications of her mature appearance with a young portrait.
If IMAX had been invented then it would immediately appear in St. Petersburg and would delight those who had money for a ticket with its stereoscopic image. It can be assumed that Google view would have been immediately accepted with a bang, and Yandex by now would have already been more than 200 years old.
Unfortunately, stereo cinema appeared a little later, Yandex provided the user with the opportunity to walk around the cities of Russia, and quite recently. What else could Catherine do in her backward 18th century to satisfy her desire to see the capital of the empire in a three-dimensional image? For that historical period, there is only one thing - to order an "axonometric plan".
Axonometry (from the Greek áxōn - axis and metry), a method of depicting objects in a drawing using parallel projections.
In fact, the history of the creation of the stereo plan is only partially related to Catherine's love for modernization. She was going to correct the appearance of the city and bring it completely to a European look, therefore she created the "Commission on the stone structure of St. Petersburg and Moscow" in 1762.
In order to understand who and where needs to be rebuilt, it is not enough to look at the roofs of houses, which are visible on ordinary flat plans. It was not possible to describe all the buildings with poetic dithyrambs in rhyme, so beloved in those days. Long, expensive (if ordered from Pushkin, who has not yet been born) and inaccurate. We needed a view of the city from all sides, which would combine the features of the plan and the architectural drawing of the facades at once.
The choice fell on axonometry, or rather, on the "Perspective views" of the city of The Hague, which was performed by the cartographer, mathematician and graphic artist Pierre Anthony de Saint-Hilaire. Catherine clapped her hands, threw her hand into the bins of her homeland, poured an advance and, before accepting another favorite in the alcove, ordered to immediately contact the author.
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Logic dictates that more than 20% of the money allocated by the queen could not reach Saint-Hilaire, but even from them the European gasped, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. He instantly made a decision, at the same hour locked his office and rode to the market to buy a long-distance carriage. On the door I attached a note wishing good luck and words of gratitude ("so that you all die pee … ry") to your creditors.
So, on the table of the Russian ruler appeared a report signed by Saint-Hilaire - "A project how to remove a geometric and vertical plan from the city of St. Petersburg."
The work was in full swing. It was necessary to draw 590 sq. The preparation was completed in 1765 and immediately began to paint. It is clear that with the state payment, the work was carried out slowly and with planning. It is not surprising that in 1768 the empress's alcove had to be disturbed again and a request was made for an increase in funding and an extension of the work for another three years. Without leaving the curtains of the love bed, Catherine agreed and poured more money …
And then something terrible happened. Apparently, Saint-Hilaire's creditors turned out to be difficult people, but influential and vindictive. Although it took them several years, they still received a Russian visa and, apparently, in 68, arrived in St. Petersburg to visit an old acquaintance. This is the only way to explain the behavior of Saint-Hilaire, which after receiving additional. funding and an increase in terms in May, in June already provides a note asking for resignation "due to very poor health."
Without the European leadership, the work continued until 73, but then suddenly ended before reaching the finish line.
The unfinished plan was archived and, as usual, they began to lose it every year, a piece of paper. It has reached our time in a very partial state - fragmentary, fragmentary.
Finding that in a couple of years and nothing at all will be left of it, historians, having removed all the inconvenient fragments, decided to publish it. It did not become a bestseller, but immediately attracted the attention of alternative researchers. What did the keepers of the official version forget to remove, in the opinion of those interested in the history of comrades?
"Plan of P. Saint Iler, I. Sokolov, A. Gorikhvostov":
In general, of course, it is strange that such an interesting document in the archives was brought to an obscene state.
The main find of the "alternatives" is considered to be the coastline with destroyed houses. In their opinion, this proves that the city was not built, but dug out and repaired. Even if we imagine that these houses were built immediately after Peter's announcement of the conception of the city, it is impossible to collapse like that in 60 years.
Opponents argue that in the St. Petersburg climate and in a shorter period of time, you can fall apart.
Leningrad historians, having received the stubs of the plan from the Moscow archive in 1947, also tried to consider something interesting, but were disappointed and simply published a picture book.
An imposing strange-looking building, according to some, could be anything, and even a block of a nuclear power plant.
People without imagination claim that this is a foundry, fortified with buttresses.
Another picture that aroused supporters of the theory of repair, not construction. The case takes place on Vasilievsky Island.
Here are some more questions that the plan suggests solving if you look closely at it.
On the Champ de Mars stands a heavily fenced, strange booth.
Agricultural land is separated from the settlements by an incomprehensible hill with a garage at the end.
There is an antenna on the dome of the church. Well, some people think so.
The military camp is treacherously adjacent to two pyramids.
In order not to be tendentious, just in case, I'll show you a couple of photos from the communist far away.
On the contrary, Soviet scientists of the middle of the last century were looking not for oddities but for similarities.
The cadet corps and the University of 12 colleges named after Zhdanov.
Washing and Pedagogical Institute.
The plan also contains repetitions of varying degrees of preservation, which by the way is no less strange than the pyramids in the soldiers' camp.
So that you do not lose a holistic perception of St. Petersburg during the time of Catherine II, here is a flat map of 1753.
St. Petersburg, after all, was the capital of the empire, so a lot of maps with its plans have survived. It will be necessary to put them together and see if they can be folded into an interesting puzzle.