Uprising Square monument. Uprising Square

Square on Vosstaniya Square

We will meet another green island in the middle of Nevsky Prospect on Vosstaniya Square at the intersection of Nevsky and Ligovsky Prospekts. For the first time my official name received the area in 1849. Then it was called the Square to the Znamensky Bridge. A bridge across the Ligovsky Canal led to the church in the name of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. The church was built in 1804 according to the design of the architect F.I. Demertsova. It was popularly known as Znamenskaya, or “Znamenye”, according to one of the aisles. It was also called Pavlovskaya, after the name of the famous scientist, Nobel Prize winner Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. He was its zealous parishioner, and according to one legend, he even got married in it. In 1940, after Pavlov's death, the church was demolished. Now in its place stands the ground pavilion of the Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro station.

In 1857, the name of the square was edited, giving it a modern sound. Now it began to be called Znamenskaya.

On May 23, 1909, an equestrian monument to Alexander III was unveiled on Znamenskaya Square - a rare example of satire in monumental sculpture: the overweight figure of the king with the heavy gaze of a secret alcoholic, as his contemporaries believed, perhaps not without reason, on a well-fed, corpulent beast, as if nailed to a coffin-shaped pedestal. Almost immediately a scandal broke out. The loyal part of St. Petersburg society demanded that the statue, shameful for the monarchy, be immediately removed. The democratic public, on the contrary, welcomed a work of such accusatory power. The City Duma got involved in the dispute. And only the author of the monument, Paolo Trubetskoy, an Italian subject who was brought up far from the “all-seeing eye” and “all-hearing ears,” remained unperturbed and joked: “I’m not involved in politics, I just depicted one animal on another.” In the salons they told an anecdote about one Georgian prince who exclaimed, looking at the monument: “I know that Sasa is a zopa, but why bother emphasizing this?” It must be said that the monument really evokes mixed feelings. If you believe folklore, many St. Petersburg residents felt ordinary awkwardness towards him. There is an anecdote about a visiting Englishman who asked his St. Petersburg friend to show him a new monument, “what Trubetskoy did.” “And so, brothers, I felt offended,” the Petersburger later said, “that I took him to Falconet’s Peter the Great.” - “So what about the Englishman?” - “Nothing, he praised.”

Monument to Alexander III on Znamenskaya Square

However, there is a legend trying to explain the current situation. As if the monument to Alexander III, which seemed so crude in the architectural environment of St. Petersburg, was actually intended to be installed in the Urals, “on the border of Asia and Europe,” high in the mountains. It was supposed to be viewed from the windows of a train moving along the Trans-Siberian Railway. This would provide an opportunity to look at the monument differently. The figures of the horse and rider would not seem so massive and clumsy.

Paolo Trubetskoy came to Russia in 1897 to teach at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and immediately took part in a competition to design a monument to the tsar who had died several years earlier. Having won the competition, the sculptor began work. He made 14 versions of the monument, but none of them satisfied the official commission. Legend has it that as soon as she heard Maria Feodorovna, the widow of the late emperor, approaching one of the projects, she joyfully exclaimed: “The spitting image of Sashenka!” - The members of the high jury, looking at each other and shrugging their shoulders in surprise, finally decided on this option.

The monument was subjected to unprecedented ostracism in February 1917. As soon as they called him back then: “Scarecrow”, “Chest of Drawers”, “Cattle on Cattle”, “Fool on a Hippopotamus”, “Bear on an Elephant”. They developed sophistication in ditties, poems and songs.

The old fashion for the so-called pyramid riddles was revived, the answers to which brought incredible delight to the street crowd. Several versions of these wonderful riddles have been preserved in folklore:

On the square there is a chest of drawers,

There's a hippopotamus on the dresser,

There's a freak on the hippopotamus,

There is a cap on the back.

What kind of fool is this daddy?

On the square there is a chest of drawers,

There's a hippopotamus on the dresser,

An idiot on a hippopotamus

The idiot is wearing a hat

There's a cross on the hat

Who will say the word -

Togo is under arrest.

The fate of the monument turned out to be sad. In 1937, the monument was removed from the square, by that time it was no longer Znamenskaya, but the Uprising. The reason is traditional, he allegedly interfered with tram traffic along Nevsky Prospekt. For a long time the monument was kept behind a cast-iron grate in the courtyard of the Russian Museum. According to the apt expression of folklore, he became the “Prisoner of the Russian Museum.” During the siege of Leningrad, he almost died from a shell. By this time, a belief had formed in Leningrad: the well-being of the city, its honor and dignity were protected by three horsemen: Peter I - on Decembrist Square, Nicholas I - on St. Isaac's Square and Alexander III - on Vosstaniya Square. And the fact that one of them was forced to leave his historical place, was considered by Leningraders as a sign of trouble.

It is no coincidence that one of the first victories of the democratic public in post-Soviet St. Petersburg is considered to be the liberation of the monument to Alexander III from behind bars of the Russian Museum. Voice: “Freedom for the prisoner of the Russian Museum!” - was heard. The monument was taken out of prison, but was installed not in its historical place, but in front of the entrance to the Marble Palace. In the courtyard, on a low pedestal, until recently occupied by the notorious “Lenin armored car.” They said it was temporary. What was meant by this is unknown. The historical site of the monument to Alexander III in front of the Moscow railway station has been occupied.

Meanwhile, the life of the former Znamenskaya Square, by that time renamed Vosstaniya Square, continued. In 1952, on the site of the removed monument, a ground square was laid out, in the middle of which a foundation stone was installed for the future monument to V.I. Lenin.

Monument to Alexander III at the Marble Palace

However, over time, plans changed. The foundation stone was removed, and in 1985, for the 40th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, an obelisk “Hero City Leningrad” was erected in the center of the park on Vosstaniya Square, designed by A.I. Alymov and V.M. Ivanova.

The multi-ton granite monolith, processed in the shape of an army bayonet, immediately attracted the attention of urban folklore. It is perhaps difficult to find a monument in the city that has earned so many negative definitions. The softest of them: “Border Pillar”, “Stone Nail”, “Screwdriver”, “Chisel”, “Reamer”, “Spindle”, “Fork”, “Pin”, “Nail”, “Skewer”, “Pipette” , " Horrible dream parachutist." But even among this not very flattering series there are also harsher ones: “A bayonet in the throat of Nevsky Prospekt.”

There was talk of moving the obelisk to Courage Square. It seemed to many that there, near the world famous Piskarevsky memorial cemetery, on the square, the very name of which is dedicated to the memory of Leningraders who defended their city from the fascist invasion, the obelisk will acquire its true meaning.

The debate about what should be on the square - a monument to Alexander III or an obelisk to the hero city of Leningrad - continues to this day. Sometimes it seems that the square itself is included in the dispute. And in fact, it turned out that the obelisk has an unexpected optical effect. The shadow of the star crowning the stele, according to urban folklore, at a certain time and under certain lighting forms the clear outline of a double-headed Russian eagle on the asphalt of Nevsky Prospekt.

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Vosstaniya Square is located in the central area of ​​Old Palmyra. It is one of the symbols of the city and is included in the historical cultural capital of the country. Vosstaniya Square is not a simple name. Her story is unique and interesting.

Up until the capital was moved back to Moscow, Vosstaniya Square had a completely different name - Znamenskaya. It is located at the junction of Nevsky Prospekt, its only turn, and Ligovsky Prospekt. What is the reason for this name of the square? The thing is that in the first third of the last century there was a church of the same name here. And finally the name “Znamenskaya” was assigned to it in the year the construction of the station, called “Nikolaevsky”, began. In 1917, it was here that the bloody, violent events of the last two Russian revolutions unfolded. The famous February manifestos were proclaimed here, and heavy battles and skirmishes took place here. And so next year the square will be renamed in a modern way. In the mid-20th century, the Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro station was opened on the square. The station belongs to the 1st metro line. Inside it is decorated with bronze sculptures that reflect the terrible events of the February and

Vosstaniya Square has its own long history, dating back to the time of Elizabeth. During her reign, the Znamenskaya Church was founded here, a project that was carried out by Demertsov. It is worth noting that the church was rebuilt more than once. The square itself was formed only in the second quarter of the 19th century, when the main ensemble of the square was laid out according to Efimov’s design. This was connected, first of all, with the construction of the country’s second railway Petersburg (Vosstaniya Square) - Moscow. The famous architect Ton built it here, but then, as mentioned above, it was called Nikolaevsky. A little later, according to Gemlian’s designs, the Znamenskaya Hotel, better known as “Oktyabrskaya”, will be erected, as well as the famous clergy house designed by engineer Sokolov. In the spring of 1909, a monument to Alexander the Liberator will be solemnly opened on the square; after 28 years, the monument will be transported first to the Russian Museum, and then installed in the Marble Palace. During the Great Patriotic War, military installations were built on the square - it was a kind of springboard for all soldiers and commanders.

And already in 1945, the winners were greeted in a big way at the restored Moscow railway station. In the early 1980s, an obelisk was erected in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Great Victory. Monuments of this type were built in all hero cities by order of the Communist Party. is a symbol of the square.

Vosstaniya Square in St. Petersburg is not easy a nice place, this is more than the elegance of monuments. This is a historical square! The place where Lenin spoke was also visited by Alexander II. This is the place where the fate of the country was decided in 1917. And it must be stored and protected. It's not that difficult after all!

Vosstaniya Square.

If you look at a map of the central region of St. Petersburg, it is easy to see that it is drawn by two almost straight lines intersecting at a slight angle. At the place of the only bend there is one of the significant city squares - Vosstaniya Square.

This historical place has always served as the city’s main entry gate, and today the Moskovsky Station with all the necessary infrastructure is located here: the Oktyabrskaya Hotel for accommodating visitors, the Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro station for their further travel, and the Obelisk to the Hero City of Leningrad - as a calling card of the city, emphasizing its high status.

History and general information

In the first decade of the 18th century, two clearings were cut to the Novgorod highway, which passed here even before the founding of St. Petersburg. One came from, the other from. Due to an error in the calculations, the second section approached the road a little to the north, and the trajectory of the clearing gave a bend.

At this place, an extensive intersection of the new Great Prospect (Nevsky Prospekt) and the old Novgorod road (Ligovsky Prospekt) was formed. Construction wooden church The Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos transformed the intersection into Znamenskaya Square. The wooden building of the temple, erected on the orders of Empress Elizabeth in 1765-1767, was then rebuilt in stone by the architect F. I. Demertsov.

Until the middle of the 19th century, there was a wasteland here, when muddy roads turned into a swamp. From the description of the famous lawyer A.F. Koni, made in 1840: “Znamenskaya Square is vast and deserted... Two-story and one-story houses frame it, and past... a river flows, along the steep banks of which grass grows. The water in it is cloudy and dirty, and rough wooden railings stretch along the shore...”

Everything changed with the construction of the railway between Moscow and St. Petersburg (1843-1851), when it was decided to build a terminal station on the southern edge of the square.

Moscow station

The bright station building, designed by architect K. A. Ton, topped with a two-tier clock tower, looking more like a palace than a passenger terminal, transformed the square.

Until 1924, the station was called Nikolaevsky, as was the railway line. The building, built in 1844-1851, was rebuilt several times, and now only the twin façade remains of its original design Leningradsky station in Moscow.

Oktyabrskaya Hotel

In accordance with the plan for the transformation of Znamenskaya Square, developed by the architect N. E. Efimov, a hotel building with rooms, winter garden, concert hall and a restaurant. Built in 1857, the Znamenskaya Hotel changed its appearance and names several times: “Znamensky Station”, “Northern”, “Bolshaya Severnaya”.

In the 20th century, it received a name that has survived to this day - “Oktyabrskaya”. Now, looking at the solid building of the hotel, it is difficult to believe that in the 1920s it housed the city hostel of the proletariat (GOP), street children from all over Petrograd were brought here, which is where the word “Gopniks” came from - unpresentable inhabitants of Ligovka...

Monument to Alexander III

In 1907 the first tram line, laid along Nevsky Prospekt, connected the station with the Admiralty. Two years later, a monument to Alexander III, as the founder of the Siberian Railway, was erected in the center of the station square.
The equestrian statue, made by sculptor P. P. Trubetskoy, caused conflicting reviews; many considered it a caricature and demanded its removal. However, the monument remained on the square until 1937 and became a witness and an involuntary participant in historical revolutionary events.

Znamenskaya Square found itself at the center of massive popular unrest, bloody clashes with the police, rallies were held here and barricades were built. In memory of the February Revolution in 1918, the square received its modern name.

The Bolsheviks left a monument to the autocrat and, in a very peculiar way, used it for propaganda purposes. In 1919, the lines of D. Bedny were carved on the pedestal:

“My son and my father were executed during their lifetime,
And I reaped the fate of posthumous infamy:
I’m hanging here as a cast-iron scarecrow for the country,
Having forever thrown off the yoke of autocracy.”

For the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution in 1927, a bronze statue of the monarch was used in the festive decoration of the square. She was imprisoned in an iron cage, with masts, a wheel and the inscription “USSR”.

After 10 years, the monument was nevertheless put into storage. Now the sculpture is on public display in the courtyard.

Obelisk and metro station

The modern appearance of Vosstaniya Square was formed in the middle of the last century.
In the center of Vosstaniya Square, in memory of the Great Patriotic War and the courage of the city’s defenders who defeated fascism, for the 40th anniversary of the Victory, the Obelisk “Hero City of Leningrad” was erected, made of a 360-ton granite monolith in the form of a pentagonal stele designed by architects V.S. Lukyanova and A.I. Alymov.

The Church of the Sign was demolished in 1940, and in its place a pavilion was built for the Ploshchad Vosstaniya station, which opened in 1955 as part of the first stage of the metro. This is a deep pylon station (58 meters), the design of its underground hall is dedicated to the October armed uprising.

The round classical station building with risalits and a rotunda with a spire, which was originally decorated with a star in a laurel wreath, belongs to the objects cultural heritage and is a symbol of the St. Petersburg metro. Before the opening of the Obelisk, crowned with the hero's golden star, the star on the spire of the metro station was replaced by the letter "M", then lost.

Vosstaniya Square is always crowded and noisy, holidays transforms and looks especially impressive and colorful. And the first thing every visitor sees when leaving the station building is “Hero City Leningrad”. Thus, the heroic past of the city, with which the history of the square is closely connected, is reminded of itself by the neon inscription on the Oktyabrskaya Hotel.

Where is it and how to get there

Vosstaniya Square is located at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and Ligovsky Prospekt in historical center St. Petersburg.

You can get there by metro to the Ploshchad Vosstaniya station of the same name.

Vosstaniya Square neznaiko wrote in January 20th, 2014

Probably every second person who comes to St. Petersburg leaves the Moskovsky Station on Vosstaniya Square. The first thing the guest sees is Ligovsky Prospekt, always stuck in traffic jams, on the square itself there is the victory obelisk and the building of the Oktyabrskaya Hotel with the inscription on the facade “Hero City Leningrad”.


Vosstaniya Square, present day

The square has a very interesting story. Also here you can notice the visual deception of the obelisk, and it has its own, no less interesting, history.

In 1765, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna ordered the construction of a church at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt. In those days, this was the border of that first St. Petersburg. On the spot Smolny Cathedral There was a village; instead of Ligovsky Prospekt there was a water canal originating in the Liga River. In 1794, instead of a church, a stone temple was laid, and in 1804 the construction was completed.
The Znamenskaya Church is named after the attached chapel. The main chapel was consecrated in the name of the Lord's entry into Jerusalem, the side chapels - in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the Sign of the Mother of God.
The Znamenskaya Church was dismantled at the beginning of 1941. (The date 1936 is erroneous - the church was still active in the first half of 1937).


Znamenskaya Square, between 1890 and 1905


Znamenskaya Square, view from the Ligovsky Canal (now Prospekt), 1860s

The square itself was formed in the 1840s in connection with the construction of the St. Petersburg - Moscow railway. A little later, the Nikolaevsky (now Moskovsky) station building was built.


The building of the St. Petersburg-Moscow Railway station, between 1855-1862


Vosstaniya Square, filming from aircraft, 1931.

It was built in the mid-19th century. The hotel was then called “Severnaya”, “Bolshaya Severnaya”, and after the revolution it became “Oktyabrskaya”. In the 1920s, a city hostel for the proletariat was organized in the hotel, where all Petrograd street children were taken. In short, the hostel was called GOP, and its young inhabitants were called gopniks.

In 1909, a monument to Alexander III was erected in the center of the square. In October 1937, the monument was dismantled and moved to the courtyard of the Russian Museum. In 1994, the monument was erected in the courtyard of the Marble Palace.


Opening of the monument to Alexander III on May 23, 1909


Vosstaniya Square, monument to Alexander III

On November 17, 1918, the square where large-scale events and manifestations of the February Revolution took place in 1917 was renamed Vosstaniya Square.
At the end of the 1930s, work began on the construction of the metro, which was frozen at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War and the blockade of the city.
During the war, Vosstaniya Square was an active operating point - the station worked (evacuation of residents of the besieged city), pillboxes were placed.


A bunker (long-term firing point) on Vosstaniya Square, 1944



Square on the site of the Church of the Sign, 1948

In the post-war period, in 1952, the square was reconstructed, a front square was laid out, in the center of which it was planned to erect a monument in memory of historical events cities.


View of Vosstaniya Square from Goncharnaya Street, the square in the center, 1970s.

In 1955, the Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro station was opened.


Opening of Art. m. "Ploshchad Vosstaniya", November 15, 1955


View of Nevsky Prospekt and the lobby of the station. m. "Ploshchad Vosstaniya", between 1960-1970

The obelisk to the “Hero City of Leningrad” was erected in 1985.



Obelisk "Hero City Leningrad", view from Ligovsky Prospekt, 2000s.


Obelisk "Hero City Leningrad", view from Nevsky Prospekt, 2000s.

Interestingly: on Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg, two high-rise dominants - the City Duma Tower and the Obelisk to the "Hero City of Leningrad" - are regular pentagons in plan.
This creates a favorable effect from all vantage points and fits well into the urban landscape, which is why many citizens traditionally believe that both of these structures are square in plan.

Z Namenskaya Square is one of the most famous in St. Petersburg.
Now in the center of the square there is a stele in the form of a bayonet, but this was not always the case. The area has changed a lot appearance compared to imperial times (and the only one on Nevsky Prospekt) and has changed compared to Soviet times.

Popularly, the square was named Znamenskaya after the chapel of the Church of the Sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary, consecrated in 1765. In 1794 - 1804, according to the design of the architect F. I. Demertsov, the church was rebuilt in stone. In 1809, a cast-iron fence and two chapels appeared (both were rebuilt by P. A. Chepyzhnikov during the renovation of 1863-1865). From the name of the church (“Znamenskaya”), Znamenskaya Square and Znamenskaya Street (now Vosstaniya Square and Street) got their names. The bridge over the Ligovsky Canal, located on Nevsky Prospekt, was also called Znamensky.

I feel sorry for the church. Many great people attended it, including Academician Pavlov.

My maternal great-grandmother got married in this demolished church...

This is a document and below is herself... Although the seal is not very similar to the original. Maybe there was another Znamenskaya?

Previously, on the square there was a monument to the Trans-Siberian Railway in the form of the equestrian Emperor Alexander III.

In Soviet times, the monument stood with the inscription "SCARECROW". And then it was demolished and now it stands behind the backyard in the courtyard of the Marble Palace) and then the Church of the Sign itself.

There are interesting folk poems about the monument.

“There’s a chest of drawers, there’s a hippopotamus on the chest of drawers, there’s a hat on the hippopotamus, what kind of fool is this daddy?!”

Ilyich was supposed to appear on the square. Lenins and St. Petersburg are tightly connected. It was not for nothing that the city was Leningrad. They sculpted so many monuments that the political bird had nowhere to spoil.

With the advent of people's power, the square received the name "Uprising Square". And Lenin in the center would be its classic socialist conclusion. The name obliged, where else if not there...

There was even a stone laid on the square with the inscription: (You’ll go straight...) “A monument to Lenin will be built here. Laid down on the day of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of Leningrad." But, fortunately, it didn’t work out.

The fact that the 250th anniversary of Leningrad was celebrated four years later still surprises contemporaries. But this reason is banal and respectful - Stalin died in 1953, there was no time for celebrations. They mourned for four years. In addition, Khrushchev did not like Leningrad (all Soviet leaders were distinguished by this). They did not expect anything good from the intelligentsia and culture. But this is not the main reason why the monument to the leader was never erected.

According to some estimates, at that time (1957) in Leningrad there were only seven monuments and busts of Lenin in the open air, mainly on the territory of factories. But then, at least one Ilyich a year appeared in our city.

This is the remains of the Znamenskaya Church. Now this is the metro lobby. You can come in and pray...

Of course, Vosstaniya Square is a serious place, not a backyard near a factory warehouse; you can’t erect a monument here from the corner.

There is a legend that there was a competition. And the work of the sculptor Anikushin, the main and most “star” Leningrad sculptor of that time, won. But the authorities could not install the monument correctly. He did not get up according to all the canons of socialist feng shui. All the time he turned backwards towards something... or sideways towards some urban dominant. No matter how you install Lenin, your ass doesn’t lead to communism and doesn’t paint bright prospects, but the matter is political. If you put your outstretched hand towards Nevsky, what about the passengers leaving the Moskovsky station? Foreign guests will go out to the city of the world revolution and the first thing they will see is Ilyich’s backside. Politically incorrect!

They lasted until 1965, and then the order arrived to erect a monument to the hero city of Leningrad in connection with the twentieth anniversary of the Victory Day, and it was decided to build an obelisk on Vosstaniya Square that would look the same from all sides."

True, this obelisk to the “Hero City of Leningrad” was finished only twenty years later, already in independent Russia. As Rosembaum wrote, they stuck a bayonet into the heart of the city... as they say, it’s a beautiful phrase, but if you’re serious about an architectural solution, then it’s a matter of taste and color. For example, I like it. There is not enough vertical space in our city.

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