Time will tell! Exchange building in St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg is not only the cultural capital of Russia. It is a city-museum in which monuments of sculpture and architecture are collected, storing the memory of the cultural heritage of different civilizations and peoples. One of such architectural structures is the Exchange building in St. Petersburg, represented on the photo. In the northern capital, this is perhaps the most similar building to an ancient building.

Back to the past. First attempt

The history of the Exchange building in St. Petersburg can be divided into several time periods.

The first building was erected in the 1730s and was felled from a tree. This became necessary in connection with the transfer to the Spit of Vasilievsky Island from the port of Troitskaya Square.

Gradually, thanks to the activities of Peter I, the city began to be rebuilt and built up in stone, and the first "stone" territory was to become the Vasilievsky Island as the planned center of the new city. However, the first stone building of the Exchange was to be built here much later - only in the 1780s. Giacomo Quarenghi was appointed architect of an important port facility. The Exchange building in St. Petersburg was to become the center of a grandiose architectural ensemble. But it did not, since the construction, which began in 1783, was stopped in 1788 due to the failure of the project. Not only did the ensemble not form around the new structure. The very form of the Exchange aroused certain doubts. Quarenghi planned to make it oval.

Back to the past. The second attempt

The next architect of the Exchange building in St. Petersburg was the French master Jean Francois Tom de Tomon.

Working on a new project, he created four options. In fact, all projects were very similar to each other. Only the proportions and dimensions were different. Two famous St. Petersburg architects, Andrian Zakharov and Andrei Voronikhin took part in the creation of the two options. The stage of the creation of the new Exchange project took about three years and lasted from 1781 to 1784.

Project implementation

The construction of the new Exchange building in St. Petersburg began according to one of the variants of the project in 1784 and ended in 1816. Tom de Thomon not only figured out how to build a new building on old foundations and remains of the walls of the Quarenghiev construction, but also planned the appearance of the ensemble of the Strelka of the Vasilyevsky Island as a whole. Inviting a gang of rockets under the direction of Samson Sukhanov, he embodied the bizarre shape of the extremity of the cape of the island, arching it like a bow, outwards - towards the Neva, and flanked the Exchange building with two Rostral columns. By the way, in the design of the columns also participated Samson Sukhanov - created for them amazing sculptural ornaments.

Almost ancient building

If you look closely, it becomes obvious that the Exchange building in St. Petersburg is very similar to the ancient Greek temple. Built on a high stylobate, surrounded by an order system, a white stone construction seems to be the place where the Gods of Olympus live. But look up! Above the Exchange attic, the Olympians - Poseidon (Neptune) from the Neva and Hermes (Mercury) - from the side of the Exchange Square really are located. Neptune daringly controls the sea horses - the hippocampus, sitting in his chariot. It goes directly to the Neva River and is about to hit the river at full speed, and then chases the horses to the Neva mouth - into the Baltic Sea, to their native elements. True, unlike the warm waters of the Aegean, Mediterranean, Ligurian or Adriatic Sea, the waters of this are very cold and unkind. And very far away to his homeland. But on the way, local deities of rivers will help him. According to one of the versions, Neva and Volkhov.

On the other hand, the decor of the Exchange building has a more business content: the Messenger of the Gods and the patron of trade and navigation, the cheat and thief Hermes, protects the trading rows on the Exchange Square. And nowhere in a hurry. After all, a number of Navigation, and therefore time is still enough to have time to realize the imported goods and get a decent profit. It is painfully conducive to this local climate.

Temple of Muz yesterday and today

"Why the temple of the Muses?" - you ask. Because it is from this word combination that the word "museum" (museion) occurred. And since 1939 in the building of the Exchange on Vasilievsky Island the Naval Museum was located, which existed within its walls for seventy years, and only in 2011 moved to a new place of "residence." According to the original idea, instead of the museum, the commodity exchange should be located here. But this plan was not implemented.

In 2011, the St. Petersburg government made a decision to transfer the Exchange to the Hermitage, but after the change of leadership, this plan was fiasco.

According to the third project, proposed in 2012, the Palace of Justice was to be placed in the Exchange building. But with this venture nothing happened.

By 2013, the condition of such a long empty building began to cause serious concerns. Director of the Hermitage M. Piotrovsky has repeatedly stated that the historical building should serve as a history - it must accommodate museum funds. As a result of heated discussions, it was decided to transfer the Exchange building in St. Petersburg to the Hermitage under its branch - the Museum of Guards and Heraldry.

Is it possible to hope that the Exchange's fate has been finally resolved? Time will tell!

The Exchange building in St. Petersburg is located at: Birzhevaya Ploshchad, 4.