Alexander Nevsky Square (St. Petersburg): history, description, metro and map

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky is the spiritual patron of St. Petersburg. The fate of this great man is connected by an invisible thread with the fate of the city. It was Prince Alexander who first fought the enemy on the banks of the Neva River, it was he who managed to liberate this land from enemy invaders, where then, on the orders of Peter I, the great city of St. Petersburg was erected.

Alexander Nevsky Monastery

Alexander Nevsky Square is a significant place for the city. And the history of the square goes back to the distant Peter the Great era. In the hot summer of 1710, Peter I, driving around his possessions, stopped on the picturesque bank of the Chernaya River (today it is the Monastyrka River). This place was not only stunningly beautiful, but also, according to legend, it was here that Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky defeated the Swedes in the distant 1240. Therefore, in memory of this feat of the Russian people, Peter decided to build the Alexander Nevsky Monasteryexactly in this place. Peter considered himself the successor of the work of Alexander Nevsky (whom he declared the spiritual patron of the city) in his desire to get closer to the shores of the B altic Sea. And therefore, the Alexander Nevsky Lavra was to become the center of the new Russian capital. And in 1722 the first stone was laid for the construction of the complex. But because of the poorly designed building, huge cracks appeared on the walls of the monastery. By order of Peter, the walls were dismantled to the ground, and the work was curtailed. And only in 1774 the construction of the monastery and the Lavra was resumed.

History of the construction of the square

After the completion of the construction of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, there was no square in front of the building as such. There was not a very well-groomed space, which Empress Catherine II decided to ennoble. And despite the fact that the main street of the city, Nevsky Prospekt, faced the monastery complex, this place was notorious. Initially, barns, townspeople's houses, almshouses and even brothels were almost tightly adjacent to the square of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. The townspeople were afraid to walk here at night, because they often became victims of robbers, and, according to legend, there were a huge number of rats here. The space in front of the monastery was not illuminated in any way, dirt reigned around. By order of the Empress, nearby buildings were demolished and a road junction was made. The construction and decoration of the square was entrusted to Starov Ivan Yegorovich. The architect designed the area not in a semicircular shape, as was customary at that time,but teardrop. The space outside the Holy Gates had a regular round shape, and Starov combined these two squares into one complex. Thanks to this idea of the author, a smooth transition was made from the Trinity Church to the axis of Nevsky Prospekt.

The square in the pre-war years

In the early 1920s, Alexander Nevsky Square was renamed Red Square. It held this name until 1952. It should be noted that in the early twenties, as well as several centuries ago, the high architectural style coexisted with poverty and squalor. Alexander Nevsky Square was surrounded by brick barns where grain was stored, the square was still not illuminated, there was no embankment.

The area in the post-war years

During the war, Leningrad was subjected to massive bombardments. The city was in a deplorable state. In 1947, it was decided to reconstruct Alexander Nevsky Square (the map is presented in the article). The architects proposed to build two identical neoclassical buildings on opposite sides of the square. In their opinion, this style should have been combined with the Alexander Nevsky monastery complex. But the buildings turned out to be different, although they were very similar to each other. Now these are houses No. 175 and No. 184. And in 1965, traffic was opened along the Alexander Nevsky Bridge. This made it possible to connect the two banks and open a direct exit to Nevsky Prospekt. During these years, the embankment was framed, a modern transport interchange was built. Also on sq. AlexandraNevsky, the Moskva Hotel was built, the architects of which are Shcherbin V. N., Goldgor V. S., Varshavskaya L. K. The metro station "Alexander Nevsky-2 Square" was opened. The old warehouses have been demolished.

Alexander Nevsky Square (St. Petersburg) today

The last significant intervention in the reconstruction of the square was at the beginning of the 2000s. So, in 2002, on the day of the Great Victory, a monument to Alexander Nevsky was opened. The author of the project was the sculptor Kozenyuk V. G. He worked on his creation for more than thirty years. According to the artist's idea, the monument was to form a single ensemble with the Bronze Horseman. Both monuments face the same direction, but one is at the beginning and the other at the end of Nevsky Prospekt. In 2005, a bas-relief with scenes from the Battle of the Ice was installed on the pedestal of the monument to Alexander Nevsky. And in 2007, the reconstruction of the Moskva Hotel began. Alexander Nevsky Square (St. Petersburg) has been transformed. In 2008, a shopping complex of the same name was opened in the courtyard of the hotel.

Metro station "Alexander Nevsky Square-2"

This station is located on the Pravoberezhnaya Line between Novocherkasskaya and Ligovsky Prospekt stations. It was opened in 1985. The elevated structure of the building of the metro station "Alexander Nevsky Square" is a five-story industrial and household complex of the metro. The station lobby was designed by architects Romashkin-Timanov N. V., Getskin A. S. The vestibule forms a semicircular volume of the building. The walls of the station are decorated with large stained-glass windows. Thanks to them, the interior space is visually enlarged. The walls of the lobby are lined with Saarema dolomite, light marble was also used in the decoration of the walls, and the floor is covered with Karelian granite. The ceiling is a dome with radially folded reinforced concrete structures. About twenty-eight meters in diameter. The underground part is located at a depth of 60 meters. It was built according to the project of architects Shcherbin V. N., Buldakov G. N. The internal space is formed by a colonnade in two rows. These columns have bevels at the bottom. The basement part of the track walls is finished with polished granite. The rest is lined with aluminum plates in the form of armor scales. At the station, at the end of the building, there is an empty niche. As conceived by the authors, it was supposed to contain a statue of Alexander Nevsky. First, Goreva E. V. was supposed to be the author of the sculpture, then the sculptor Anikushkin M. K. But these plans were never destined to happen.

How to get there

Alexander Nevsky Square is located at the entrance to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, at the end of Nevsky Prospekt, where the Ploshchad Alexander Nevsky-2 metro station exits.