St., a city, in the most northern situation of any large place in the globe, its observatory being in latitude 59. 56. 13. N., and in longitude 30. 17. 33. E. It was almost from its origin the second, and has of late become the first city of the Russian empire; its population having in the course of the last few years exceeded that of Moscow by more than 100,000 inhabitants, being at the close of 1836, including the military, 459,000.
The origin of most of the other European capitals dates from a period so remote that the date of their foundation is a matter of doubt and a subject of controversy; but St Petersburg is a comparatively modern city, having been raised to consideration almost instantaneously, and in little more than a century having attained its present extent. It is situated in what formed a part of the Swedish province of Ingria, or Ingemannland, till, in consequence of the victory of Embach in January 1702, gained by the Russians over the Swedes, and the peace which followed it, the territory was obtained by the former, then under the sway of the Czar, afterwards the Emperor Peter, better known by the distinguishing title of Peter the Great.
Peter, soon after his accession to power, had felt the importance of communication with foreign lands as the means of introducing civilization amongst the rude and barbarous people over whom he ruled, and consequently began to direct his attention to maritime affairs. As early as 1693, Archangel was his chief northern port; but he soon afterwards looked towards the southern part of his dominions, and constructed an arsenal on the river Don, at Woronesh, where he built a sufficient number of armed vessels to secure to himself a superiority on that river, and the safe access to the Sea of Azof, which was accomplished by the year 1696. He had become so attached to affairs of a maritime nature, that the year after, in order to qualify himself to conduct them properly, he resolved to visit the western shores of Europe, and, as a real workman, to become familiar with the whole process of building, equipping, arming, and fighting a fleet of ships of war.
He spent much time in Holland working in the ship-yards, and some time in the dock-yard at Deptford, whence he frequently, in his working dress, visited King William at Windsor, and once went to Oxford, where a doctor's degree was conferred upon him. During his residence in England and Holland he engaged to repair with him to Russia more than five hundred persons, consisting of military and naval officers, engineers, surgeons, and artificers of various kinds. He was recalled home by an insurrection, which was soon suppressed, and the participators in which were dreadfully punished. A war then broke out with Sweden, in which he was at first unsuccessful, until his army had learned of their enemies to conquer them. The result of that war was the possession of that spot of Finland where the river Neva runs from the Lake of Ladoga into the Baltic Sea.
When Peter had thus gained the district, his first intention was merely to erect a strong fortress, the foundation of which was laid on the 27th of May 1703, and more than 20,000 men were collected at the spot to execute the work. Whilst this work was proceeding, a thought struck Peter that this would be the most appropriate spot for the erection of a northern capital, from which a maritime intercourse might be maintained with the other European powers. With the rapidity of action that usually followed his resolves, this measure was commenced. Artificers were collected from all parts; and abundance of working men were furnished by the events of war, from Sweden, Livonia, and Finland. The ground for houses was given to those who built them; and many of the nobility were induced, if not compelled, to erect mansions, by which employment was given to those who possessed nothing but their labour. Within two years from the commencement of the city, those parts of the city now called the Admiralty quarter and the Peter's Island quarter were covered with splendid dwellings, where, before, there had stood only two fishermen's huts. The trade was slow in reaching the new city. In the year 1714, it had been visited by sixteen foreign ships. In 1730 the number was 180; and since that time the increase has been gradual up to the present day, when they are more than 1500 annually.
After the year 1714 the city was declared to be the seat of government; the emperor also making it his residence, upon which splendid buildings were erected for the various public offices. Since that period there has been an increase both of inhabitants and edifices; but the most rapid advance has been from the year 1816 to the year 1836.
Had Peter been in possession of Livonia at that time, it is probable he would have selected Riga for his northern capital, rather than the spot on which St Petersburg now stands, as it enjoys a climate in some degree more temperate, and has an easier access to its harbour, as well as a more secure and capacious bay without it. St Petersburg, in fact, has no harbour; but its sea-port is the city of Cronstadt, which is the chief station of the imperial navy and of the merchant-ships. It is built on the Kotlen Island, which is about six miles in length, and is composed almost entirely of sand, except a ridge of granite, which runs through the centre of it. Cronstadt city, on the south-eastern part of the island, has about 50,000 inhabitants. It is fortified both towards the land and towards the sea, and has two havens for ships of war and one for trading vessels. The principal men-of-war's port has sufficient space for thirty sail of the line, but not sufficient depth of water for such a number, and some are obliged to remain in the middle port. The merchant's haven is closed by a boom, and defended by a battery on each jetty-head. A canal, twenty-five feet in depth and fifty-two feet in width, begun by Peter the Great, and completed by the Empress Elizabeth in 1752, leads to the dry docks, which are 150 fathoms in length. When the docks are filled, as there is no flux and reflux of the tide, they can only be emptied by pumps worked by steam-engines; an operation which it requires eight or nine days to perform. It is about twenty miles from Cronstadt to St Petersburg by water. The channel is contracted by shoals in the narrowest part to about half a mile. In some parts the water is only from six to seven feet in depth, except when strong westerly winds raise it a foot more. The goods from and to the merchant-ships, as well as the warlike stores for the arsenal, are conveyed by lighters; and of late steam-tugs have been introduced, to facilitate the passages of these lighters. The whole banks are powerfully protected by batteries and by Cronstadt Castle.
The city of St Petersburg was originally founded on portions of land either pure sand-banks or marshes, through which the river Neva, from the Lake of Ladoga, forces its way with a most tortuous course, forming islands in the way to its several mouths. These islands are now component parts of the city, being for the most part covered with buildings, connected by bridges over the branches of the stream that divide the city and the numerous canals, which in various directions intersect almost the whole surface. The most extensive part of the city, that in which the admiralty stands, is nearly a peninsula, enclosed in a bend of the stream called the Great Neva. The abundance of internal water communication is to St Petersburg, as to the other aquatic cities, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Venice, a great benefit to commercial operations, as the lighters can be loaded or discharged directly from or into the storehouses of the merchants.
The bridges across the streams and the canals, with the exception of one of iron over the Moika, are constructed of barges built on purpose, moored with cables and anchors at each end, and covered over with planks, to enable carriages to pass. At the commencement of winter, when the Neva begins to freeze, lumps of ice are first seen floating; and when these appear the bridges are immediately taken to pieces. During one or two days the pieces of ice drift with the stream, and the river is crossed in boats; but the increase of the ice is so rapid, that it is not unusual to see, within the space of two hours, the river covered with boats, and people walking on the ice. In the spring, the breaking up of the ice generally occurs suddenly, and it floats in large masses down the stream. When the river is clear, the circumstance is made known by the firing of cannon and by other public demonstrations, and is usually accompanied with joyous festivals. A traveller who visited this city in 1806 relates, that on the 8th of November the river was covered with floating ice. On the same day the bridges of boats, their anchors being drawn up, were swung round to the two opposite shores, and remained there till the thaw took place, on the 11th of May. In two days the river was completely thawed, although, just before, men, women, horses, and carriages, had been passing over it upon ice five feet in thickness, and a week before they had held a fair, and raced in sledges. The sudden breaking up of the frost is one of those physical evils from which St Petersburg is peculiarly liable to suffer, and has suffered at various periods, but most severely in the year 1824. When the water from the Lake of Ladoga is impeded by the masses of ice in the Neva, an inundation of a most extensive nature is occasioned, and visits the inhabitants of St Petersburg, especially those of the lower classes, with most terrible sufferings.
The means of maintaining intercourse by sea with the rest of the world having been noticed, it becomes natural to turn our attention to the foreign trade actually carried on at St Petersburg. Its position, in spite of the severity of the climate, and the long duration of the winter, is favourable for the transmission thither of the native products from the greater portion of the surface of that vast empire. Rivers of great length empty themselves into the lake of Ladoga, an inland sea more than one hundred miles in length and sixty in breadth. These rivers are at great distances from the metropolis, connected, by means of artificial canals, with other streams running in different directions. Thus, the products of the southern provinces may be exported either from the Baltic or the Black Sea ports, as the markets may be more beneficial, or the means of internal conveyance may be more or less costly. On the rivers and canals here alluded to, the heavy goods are conveyed by water while these continue open; whilst, on the other hand, during the long frosts, when the whole surface is buried in deep snow, they become, when once settled or beaten down, excellent roads, on which the heaviest commodities can be conveyed by sledges at a less cost than by water. In fact, the frozen roads, rivers, and canals, have an effect on Russian interchange of products similar to what may be experienced in this country when the numerous railroads now projected shall be carried into execution.
It is from these facilities of internal intercourse that a city so large as St Petersburg, in a district of little fertility, and in a climate which closes its port during nearly half the year, is not only abundantly and cheaply supplied with all the necessaries of life for its own consumption, but has be- come the emporium of the foreign commerce of the empire, as regards both its exports and its imports.
It appears by the returns from the Russian custom-house, that the commerce of St Petersburg, with its dependent port of Cronstadt, in the two years 1830 and 1831, employed rather more than double the number of vessels required for all the other commerce of the empire; but the amount of duty collected there was about four times as great as that at all the other ports.
As our limits do not allow of inserting the tables necessary to show the rate of increase of the foreign trade of St Petersburg, we must confine ourselves to the exhibition of it at the latest period for which accurate documents are accessible.
**Statement of the Trade of St Petersburg for 1834.**
| Articles Imported | Quantities | Value | |------------------|------------|-------| | Gold and silver... | ... | 7,107,405 | | Cotton twist... | 462,970 | 39,242,522 | | Raw cotton... | 104,431 | 3,147,978 | | Coffee... | 98,592 | 4,755,487 | | Raw sugar... | 1,373,712 | 31,051,498 | | Spices... | 18,872 | 650,620 | | Silk goods... | 2,190 | 5,780,682 | | Woollen ditto... | 9,933 | 6,040,239 | | Cotton ditto... | 9,586 | 3,601,232 | | Linen ditto... | 679 | 584,452 | | Wine in casks... | 96,021 | 5,441,931 | | Ditto in bottles... | 446,262 | 2,584,859 | | Spirits... | 8,180 | 994,939 | | Drugs... | 1,258,863 | | Sundries... | 58,875,191 | |
Total: 171,117,904
**Exports of St Petersburg in 1834.**
| Description of Goods | Quantity | Value | |----------------------|----------|-------| | Hemp... | 1,894,767 | 14,945,942 | | Flax... | 263,451 | 2,445,008 | | Potash... | 367,771 | 2,267,657 | | Tallow... | 3,721,238 | 43,843,095 | | Tallow candles... | 19,138 | 238,708 | | Raw hides... | 224,753 | 4,783,547 | | Dressed hides... | 42,610 | 1,756,291 | | Iron... | 503,302 | 3,120,299 | | Copper... | 293,128 | 11,623,925 | | Bristles... | 43,357 | 4,300,969 | | Cordage... | 199,598 | 1,227,124 | | Linen (pieces)... | 187,312 | 7,427,050 | | Corn (chests)... | 1,117 | 3,969 | | Sundries... | ... | 21,434,225 |
Total: 119,449,808
Or, in sterling money, £4,777,992.
Although by these accounts the excess of imports much exceeds that of exports, yet, as the reverse is the case at the neighbouring port of Riga, the balance is nearly equalized in the whole trade of the Baltic.
The following is a summary of a report made by the Russian minister of finance, on the exports of St Petersburg during the year 1837. Copper, 6,078,060 lbs.; iron, 26,448,960 lbs.; raw hemp, 79,579,440 lbs.; spun hemp, 2,203,120 lbs.; cordage, 13,624,080 lbs.; oil of hempseed, 10,268,600 lbs.; bacon, 153,662,200 lbs.; tallow candles, 500,760 lbs.; soap, 60,799 lbs.; caviare, 76,080 lbs.; wool for mattresses, 1,211,360 lbs.; hogs' bristles, 1,945,680 lbs.; horse-hair, 572,720 lbs.; feathers, 896,200 lbs.; down, 51,480 lbs.; eider-down, 128,040 lbs.; aniseed, 75,160 lbs.; antimony, 341,040 lbs.; dressed skins, 14,374 pieces; undressed skins, 56,492 pieces; mattresses, 183,368; sail-cloth, 49,634 pieces; sack-cloth, 183,314 pieces; military cloth, 58,275 pieces; Flemish cloth, 68,172 pieces; cloth for towels, 7,540,394 ells; woollen cloth, called kalamaika, 1,582,024 ells; cotton cloth, called hra-catsha, 13,491,260 ells; linseed, 3,632,212 bushels; rye and oats, 962,598 bushels; timber and planks, 2,756,104 pieces. This merchandize has been exported in 1248 vessels, the greater number of which belong to Russia, England, and the United States of America.
**An Account of the Number and Tonnage of Vessels which entered the Port of Cronstadt in three years, ending with 1831, distinguishing the Countries to which they belonged.**
| Countries to which belonging | Ships | Tonnage | Ships | Tonnage | Ships | Tonnage | |-----------------------------|------|---------|------|---------|------|---------| | Russian... | 16 | 2,760 | 16 | 2,742 | 22 | 3,496 | | British... | 773 | 165,348 | 701 | 144,329 | 946 | 197,674 | | Swedish... | 78 | 6,632 | 79 | 6,346 | 64 | 6,172 | | Prussian... | 60 | 6,229 | 61 | 6,746 | 52 | 7,044 | | Danish... | 57 | 5,086 | 55 | 6,504 | 73 | 9,326 | | Dutch... | 163 | 13,169 | 122 | 13,184 | 122 | 14,356 | | Hanseatic... | 132 | 17,830 | 132 | 17,446 | 128 | 20,460 | | German... | 31 | 2,038 | 25 | 1,903 | 28 | 2,532 | | French... | 129 | 16,520 | 129 | 16,964 | 63 | 9,124 | | Spanish... | 11 | 1,520 | 6 | 716 | 10 | 1,260 | | Portuguese... | 7 | 900 | 9 | 992 | 10 | 1,250 | | Italian... | 31 | 5,034 | 21 | 3,404 | 25 | 3,718 | | Austrian... | 3 | 580 | 2 | 318 | 2 | 284 | | Ionian Islands... | 1 | 123 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Indian... | 41 | 11,454 | 39 | 10,612 | 34 | 9,052 | | Egyptian... | 1 | 166 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | African... | 1 | 204 | 3 | 484 | 2 | 346 | | Brazilian... | 19 | 438 | 11 | 2,396 | 0 | 0 | | American... | 10 | 2,824 | 12 | 3,256 | 13 | 3,570 | | Canary Islands... | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 490 |
Total: 1,510 | 267,054 | 1,423 | 240,583 | 1,593 | 290,950
It thus appears, that of the trade of St Petersburg in the three years here exhibited, whilst the whole tonnage amounted to 798,632 tons, that of Great Britain alone was 507,342 tons, or somewhat more than five eighths of the whole.
In connection with trade, it may be proper to notice the singular and semi-barbarous regulations under which the mercantile community are placed. They are divided into three classes, which are called guilds. The merchants of the first guild have very extensive privileges. They may import or export any quantity or quality of goods permitted in the tariff; and sell or buy bills of exchange; in fact, they have the same privileges as the most favoured mercantile community in any part of Europe; and, in common with the nobility, they may have four horses to their carriage, and may possess country-seats and houses in town. Those of the second guild may transact all kinds of wholesale inland business, but they have no right to export or import on their own account, neither are they allowed to sell any bills of exchange, although they are not debarrred the privilege of purchasing them. They can only use two horses in their
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1 The pood is a Russian weight of thirty-six pounds avoirdupois. 2 Or L.6,634,748, the rouble being valued at the twenty-fifth part of a pound sterling. carriages; and although they may possess houses in town, they must not be owners of country-seats. The third guild is composed of all descriptions of shopkeepers and retail-dealers, who are obliged to purchase their supply of stock from merchants of the two other guilds. All craftsmen belong to this class. There are instances in which craftsmen carrying on business on an extensive scale have been allowed to set up their carriage, and purchase property wherein to transact their business; but the mercantile members of the third guild are entirely excluded from this privilege, it being considered that they never lay in so large a stock as to require so extensive premises. They may only keep a horse and cart or sledge. Foreigners who wish to transact business may reside here as strangers, but they are obliged to take a license as merchants of the first guild, in which case they have the same privileges as the most favoured of that class, excepting only the right of holding real estates. There are some of the shopkeepers, and amongst them men of very large fortunes, who are not freemen, but pay a yearly tax to their masters for the liberty of residing out of his estates. The possession of their fortunes is very precarious, it being at the option of their lords to cancel the permission of absence.
As St Petersburg is the great conduit through which the supply of the wants of almost the whole of Russia, with its population of more than fifty millions of inhabitants, is transmitted, we must take notice of the internal means of collection and distribution which the city enjoys. It appears that in a series of years there arrive annually about 12,000 vessels from the interior, loaded with goods. These are denominated barges, galliots, or boats; besides which there are about 5000 floats or rafts of wood for fuel, for building ships, or for constructing houses. The value of the goods thus brought has been estimated at about 125,000,000 of roubles, or L5,000,000 sterling. The number of this craft that is despatched with cargoes does not much exceed one tenth of those that arrive; but as they are of the best description, the value of the goods they convey back is calculated to amount to near L1,000,000 sterling.
It may be seen by the former accounts of exports, that the whole annual amount nearly equals that which is here shown to arrive from the interior, and that these exports are chiefly composed of raw materials. It is obvious, then, that the manufactures which the city furnishes to foreign commerce must be of very inconsiderable amount. In fact, it will be seen, by the short notices given in the sequel, that they are chiefly calculated for home consumption, or to be presented to individuals, as marks of the emperor's esteem. The manufactories of china, and especially of glass, are the most distinguished. Of these there are six or eight large establishments in the city and within a few miles of it.
In the imperial glass manufactory mirrors are cast of larger dimensions than any which have issued from the fabrics of the same kind at St Ildefonso, Paris, or London. The largest was presented to Prince Potemkin, and measured sixteen feet two inches in height, and eight feet four inches in breadth. Another of the same dimensions was made for the Duke of Wellington; and some of less size have been presented to other distinguished personages at home and abroad. The cut glass made here is remarkable for elegant designs, and the peculiar purposes for which these are contrived. The crystal bed designed as a present to the shah of Persia may be mentioned as an instance.
The porcelain manufactory employs more than a thousand persons. The paintings on the china are chiefly executed by foundlings trained to the employment. The gilding is said to be superior to that executed at Sévres or Dresden. The fabric is chiefly devoted to making objects of taste and luxury, and yields but little advantage in a commercial view.
The iron-founderies are upon a large scale; and there are, besides, under the patronage of the government, some establishments for making steam-engines, such as the various descriptions of machinery applicable to the spinning and weaving of cotton, linen, and silk goods, and the manufactory for making playing-cards, which gives employment to more than a thousand foundlings of both sexes. One of the most considerable establishments is about twenty miles from the city, and serves to supply every kind of store for the fleet, whether in the Baltic, the White Sea, or the Black Sea. Its management is praised by Captain Jones of the royal navy, who, speaking of it, says: "They must watch us closely, and have the best intelligence; for almost every nautical invention that is considered as an improvement in our service is made and to be seen at Kolpino."
The facilities afforded to commerce are in St Petersburg quite equal, as regards banks, to that of the other trading cities of Europe. The Commercial Bank has a capital of 30,000,000 roubles, or L1,400,000; but it also takes in money on interest, and lends it at a trifle higher, on good security. The Loan Bank is of nearly the same power, and performs similar operations. Besides, there is the Lombard or Mont de Piété, an establishment for lending money on jewels, plate, or goods of any kind. It has a capital of 50,000,000 of roubles, or L2,000,000 sterling, the interest arising from which is appropriated to the support of the great founding hospitals of Moscow and St Petersburg, and to some other charitable institutions.
The following classification of the inhabitants of St Petersburg in September 1832, according to a consular return, seems properly to precede any view which can be taken of the edifices of that city. By this authority the progressive growth of the population is shown as ascertained at four different periods. In 1810 it amounted to 250,000, in 1820 to 350,000, in 1830 to 448,649, and in 1832, as stated below, to 479,993. The numbers given for 1810 and 1820 are deduced from calculation, but they cannot be far from the truth; those for the last two years were obtained by actual enumerations. The increase is not supposed to have been at the same rapid rate between 1832 and 1837.
A Statement of the Population of St Petersburg, distinguishing the Classes and Sexes, in September 1832.
| Classes | Males | Females | Total | |---------------|---------|---------|--------| | Clergy | 1,034 | 740 | 1,774 | | Nobles | 24,342 | 18,426 | 42,768 | | Merchants | 7,121 | 4,319 | 11,440 | | Burghers | 25,914 | 14,789 | 40,703 | | Foreigners | 9,160 | 5,502 | 14,662 | | Military | 45,324 | 9,883 | 55,207 | | Artisans | 7,020 | 4,065 | 11,085 | | Servants | 68,480 | 34,457 | 102,937| | Peasants | 116,974 | 24,752 | 141,726| | Various | 33,877 | 23,814 | 57,691 |
The great disproportion between males and females is a peculiarity in this city. Whilst in London the females exceed the males nearly in the proportion of seven to six, and in most of the other capitals the numbers of the sexes approach to equality, the above table shows that in St Petersburg the males exceed the females almost in the proportion of three to one. On looking to the increase before stated, it appears the more extraordinary that it should have taken place with so few females; and hence it may be concluded, that the drain on the general population of the empire to supply the mortality of this northern capital must be much greater than in the other European countries.
The view of St Petersburg first strikes a beholder with more surprise than is experienced on entering any other of the great cities. This is more impressive from the contrast of the wretched-looking country which is passed through on approaching it by land. The streets are wide, straight, and well paved for both foot-passengers and carriages; and some of them long, especially two, which run diagonally from the Admiralty to the extent of more than a mile. These streets on both sides are filled with public buildings of a bold style of architecture, many of them belonging to the several branches of the government, or to public institutions; numbers also occupied by the nobles and other distinguished individuals, and thus on the whole give to St Petersburg some title to the appellation of "the northern city of palaces." It is, moreover, to a stranger, who is not aware of the peculiar structure of society here, not a little surprising to remark the total absence of those dark and wretched courts and lanes, the abodes of the lowest classes, which in other cities obtrude themselves on the notice of the traveller in the midst of grandeur and stateliness of exterior. The greater streets run parallel or nearly so to each other, and are intersected at right angles by others called lines, which have no names given to them, but a number to each. Every house is numbered; and, besides, the name of the occupier must be exhibited on the outside, and is most commonly painted on a board affixed to the wall. As the soil on which St Petersburg is founded may be said to be marshy, most of the houses are built on piles, as at Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Venice, the ground not being sufficiently firm to afford a good foundation of stone without them; but no inconvenience is found to arise from this circumstance, either with regard to health or to comfort.
One of the most remarkable features of this great metropolis is undoubtedly the Neva, a river which, whether we consider its origin, its great rapidity, its depth, and the beautiful transparent-blue colour of its water, impresses the beholder with delight very different from what is experienced in looking at the Thames, the Seine, the Po, the Tiber, the Vistula, or the Elbe. It may best be compared with the Rhone as it rushes out of the Lake of Geneva. As before remarked, this stream is crossed by various temporary bridges, resting on pontoons, as are also some smaller streams that fall into it, and contribute to form the several islands upon which the city is built. The quays on the Neva form objects worthy of much admiration. Most of them are built of granite, and one of them, more than two miles in length, is raised upon piles ten feet above the common level of the water. Between the water and the buildings there is a carriage-way from thirty to forty feet in breadth; and at certain distances are placed handsome flights of stairs, for loading and for embarking, and for procuring water, with seats for the accommodation of passengers. The canals are in the summer season favourable for conveyance from one part of the city to another; and abundance of boats are provided, conveniently fitted up for passengers. In the winter, these canals, as well as the streams, being frozen, make very good roads for travelling on by means of sledges, which move with almost incredible celerity. Carriages of various kinds, both for winter and summer, are abundant in many parts of the city, at cheap rates; but they are represented as neither elegant nor easy to the traveller.
In a city like St Petersburg, the seat of the central government of a country containing more than 50,000,000 of people, and where the public offices are of a number and extent commensurate with such a population, it would occupy too large a space to describe each public edifice; but the peculiar magnificence which distinguishes many of them will not allow of their being passed over.
Before mentioning the palaces belonging to the emperor and the imperial family, the magnificent gate at the entrance to the city deserves to be noticed. It is built of granite, and consists of one bold arch of a noble but simple style of architecture, supporting an entablature, on which are raised vases of white marble. It was built to commemorate the victories obtained over the French on the return of the army which had achieved the capture of Paris. Through this arch is seen the winter palace of the imperial family. It is a grand and imposing structure, in a square form, three sides of which are unencumbered with any other building. The north front, looking on the Neva, is 720 feet in extent, one fourth of which line, at each extremity, projects twenty-four feet from the centre. It is composed of a basement story of the Ionic order, surmounted by a principal and a second story of the Corinthian order. The roof is surmounted by a light balustrade, adorned with vases and with statues. The Corinthian columns and pilasters, placed between the windows of the principal and the second story, twenty-six of which are single and six double, are about thirty-five feet in height. This is considered as the finest elevation of the building. Some critics have maintained that the style of the building is heavy; whilst others justify it, on the ground that so great a mass of front requires less of that airiness which is appropriate to buildings of smaller dimensions. As a whole, however, it is allowed to be more striking in its appearance than any of the royal palaces in Europe, excepting, perhaps, that at Madrid, which, though smaller, has a more imposing front. In dimensions it exceeds them all, and yields to none of them in internal decorations. The quay between the palace and the Neva is much wider than any other in the city. The south side of this palace looks into a square, and the view is terminated by the Admiralty, a structure to be noticed hereafter. The ordinary entrance is by a large door in the centre of the west front, in which are the apartments occupied by the reigning empress and the imperial children. The principal entrance is on the south side, in the centre, and is covered with a lofty portico, under which carriages drive and are sheltered from the weather. This leads to the grand or parade staircase, a flight of marble steps remarkable for the grandeur and magnificence of its architecture, and for the gilding, the paintings, and the various other decorations.
It would be an endless task to attempt a description of the different apartments of this palace, which occupies an area of 400,000 square feet. There are from ninety to a hundred apartments in the first story. The most striking of them is the great banqueting-hall, a noble apartment, 190 feet in length and 110 in height. It is incrustated with the finest marbles, with a row of columns at each end, and the sides are decorated with marble columns, enriched by gilding and by mirrors of the largest size. The other grand apartments in this edifice are St George's hall, 140 by 60 feet, the richest and most expensively furnished of any room on the Continent. It is used for the reception of ambassadors, and for holding the chapter of the military order of St George. The Salle Blanch, or Whitehall, is a similar room, equal in dimensions, but more chastely and less expensively decorated; and so is the military gallery, which is 180 feet in length. It is lighted from the top; and, besides circles representing wreaths of laurels descending from the ceiling, has numerous rich and splendid candelabra, for the purpose of illuminating the gallery. The walls are wholly covered with half-length portraits of military and naval men who have distinguished themselves. The greater part of these portraits are said to be admirable likenesses, and most of them were executed by an eminent English artist, particularly that of the Emperor Alexander, twice as large as life, on his white horse, which is placed in a recess, the light being so managed as to throw on the painting additional beauty and animation. Adjoining to this, called the Winter Palace, are two other edifices, called the Great and Little Hermitage. These parts are a continuation of the Winter Palace on its eastern side, connected by covered galleries upon arches which cross two streets. Beyond these there is a third building, containing the theatre, joined to them by means of another great arch over a canal which connects the river Moika with the Neva. These three buildings present a frontage towards the Neva of 776 feet, making, with the continuation of the Winter Palace, a line of imperial palaces of more than a third of an English mile in length.
The interior of these palaces is most gorgeously decorated, and contains apartments enriched with collections of the fine arts. The rooms of painting are filled with the works of the most celebrated artists, which are arranged conformably to the various schools, viz. the Flemish; the Italian of the several stages, in six apartments; the Rembrandt, with the most valued of that master; and the French school. In the same apartment may be seen a collection of the best pieces of the Dutch masters, Teniers, Gerard Dow, Vandervelt, Vandemeer, and others. Other apartments contain pictures of the Spanish artists, amongst which are some of the most valued pieces of Murillo, and also a great number of Raffaelle, and the collection from Houghton in Norfolk. Cabinets of mineralogical specimens are formed in these parts of the buildings, besides vases of the best porcelain, and a vast variety of engravings. It would be tiresome to enumerate the most striking objects contained in this repository of antiques, cameos, statues, bronzes, and other articles of vertu which adorn these hermitages, designed by the Empress Catherine as a retreat from the parade of a court and the bustle of public affairs. In the library collected by her in this spot there are 110,000 volumes of all languages, amongst which only 10,000 are in Russian. The theatre of the Hermitage is not large, and has no boxes; the seats for the audience rise like an amphitheatre; and in front there are several richly decorated arm-chairs for the members of the imperial family. The interior of this theatre is superbly decorated; whilst its exterior, as seen from the quay, is considered as one of the happiest efforts of architecture.
Few objects present more of novelty, and excite more of surprise, than the gardens attached to these buildings. The winter garden is a large quadrangular conservatory, planted with laurels and orange trees, in which linnets and canary birds are allowed to fly about at perfect liberty. The summer garden is in the form of a parallelogram, 392 feet in length, and entirely composed of artificial soil, raised forty-two feet above the surrounding ground. Here, suspended as it were in the air, the visitor, to his amazement, treads upon gravel walks, sees the green turf around him, and finds shrubs, and even trees, growing in luxuriance. The novelty of the whole scene, and the recollection where it is situated, not on the ground, but on or near the top of a palace, produces an overpowering effect, and gives the feeling excited by other parts of the Hermitage, and confirmed by this concluding scene, that the sight of it alone is worth a journey to St Petersburg.
The other palaces cannot be wholly passed over, though it may only be necessary here to notice them very shortly. The Marble Palace, once belonging to Orloff, but now to the crown, is remarkable for its richly gilded ornaments, and the number of its marble columns. The Taurida Palace, in which Potemkin gave his splendid entertainment to the empress, and which has devolved to the crown, is remarkable for the furniture of its splendid apartments, but especially for its theatre, in which the front parapet of the boxes is made of solid cut crystal, with a contrivance to admit lights behind them, so as at night to throw a dazzling splendour around the audience. The Palace of Nevskoi Prospekt, on the quay called Fontanka, is remarkable for its handsome exterior, as well as for the imperial cabinets appertaining to it, in which the private treasure of the emperor, his state robes, and his armoury, are kept.
The Imperial Mews is remarkable for the splendour of its architecture. The principal front and superb elevation face a spacious square, on the opposite side of which there is a range of buildings for the accommodation of those belonging to the establishment. The centre of the principal front is occupied by a church for the Mews, in a Grecian style of architecture, and on a scale commensurate with the imposing attitude of the entire edifice. This edifice is the work of Trombara, an Italian artist, and the exterior is in most excellent preservation, great care being taken to keep the whole of these succeded buildings in an unsullied and delicate white tint.
The triumph of modern architecture in St Petersburg is eminently visible in the recently-erected palace, called, from the prince who occupies it, the Palace Michaeli. It has been constructed by an Italian architect named Rossi. It was begun in the year 1819, and completed in 1825, at an expense of seventeen millions of roubles, or L680,000, including the furniture, which is almost wholly the work of native Russians. This magnificent structure presents a front 364 feet in length, and consists of a main body and two projecting wings. In its interior it combines every thing that decoration, rich and beautiful workmanship, and costly material, conducted by consummate skill and pure taste, can accomplish. It is especially remarkable for the suitableness of the plan, which was designed as well for comfort as for magnificent display; and it would be difficult to find in St Petersburg, or in any other capital, an instance of a residence, every subdivision of which is equally well calculated for its individual purpose, and yet neither interferes with nor injures the usefulness and effect of the rest, or of any part of the structure.
After the splendid palaces of the imperial family, the buildings in which the affairs of the several branches of the government of the vast country are conducted require to be noticed. The senate-house, though not in its exterior very remarkable, is so from its vast extent, the prodigious quantity of business carried on, and the corresponding number of official persons employed in it. It is a quadrangle, covering an area of about 14,000 square feet, or somewhat more than one third of an acre. In one of the halls, which serves as a conference-room, within a kind of temple made of solid silver, the original manuscripts of the code of laws given by the Empress Catherine are preserved, all of which are said to be in her own handwriting. The front of this building faces the statue of Peter the Great, and, from its situation, forms the north-west angle of the Square of Isaac. Close to the senate-house, and forming the opposite side of Isaac Square, is the western wing of the Admiralty, an edifice which, in its present state, may with truth be represented as without a parallel in any part of Europe. Its principal front upon the land side measures more than one third of an English mile in length, and its depth extends to the edge of the water, six hundred and seventy-two feet, or one eighth of a mile. The centre of the principal facade is occupied by a large gate seventy-five feet in height, being a kind of triumphal arch, surmounted by a rich Doric entablature. The principal entrance is between two colossal groups placed upon granite pedestals, and bearing celestial and terrestrial globes of huge dimensions. Over it is a cupola, surmounted by a lantern, from which a spire rises to the height of eighty-four feet. This spire is covered with the finest ducat gold, and, from its great elevation, catching and reflecting the first and last rays of the sun, exhibits a most brilliant appearance, being visible from every quarter of the metropolis. On either side of this grand entrance the building projects two hundred and fifty feet, with a rusticated basement, surmounted by a running frieze, which contains naval trophies in bas-relief.
The interior plan of this vast building presents many portions of vast interest, which our limits compel us to pass over slightly, or omit noticing. Amongst the most extraordinary in the inner area of 62,300 square feet, are four slips for building men-of-war, in which several of from seventy-four to 110 guns have been constructed. This spot is surrounded by most capacious warehouses, in which are deposited every species of article necessary for the equipment of an extensive and powerful naval armament. Besides the apartment required for officers, and for the residence of the chief officers of the establishment, there are museums, with collections of whatever can be rendered subservient to the naval service, and such curiosities as have been collected in distant countries by Russian navigators. Arms of various kinds both for sea and land service, nautical instruments and models of machinery, models of ships and of boats, maps, charts, and plans of fortified ports, presses for printing, rolling copper-plates, and lithography, and a most copious library of professional books and manuscripts, are amongst the interesting exhibitions of this vast and magnificent building.
Near to the Admiralty there is another edifice of a similar nature, but inferior in extent and splendour of architecture, called the État Major, or the general staff of the army. In this building all the affairs of the military establishment centre; and the number of clerks, both civil and military, is prodigious. The grand saloon is a splendid apartment, with a cupola, from the centre of which is suspended a magnificent lustre, with thirty gas-burners, which, with four colossal candelabra of bronze, surmounted by the imperial eagle grasping the thunder-bolts, serve to illuminate the apartment. The library, the incombustible hall in which the documents and records of the army are preserved, and the model-rooms and museum, are striking objects in this building.
The castle of St Michael, in which the Emperor Paul was assassinated, and which has never since been occupied by any of the imperial family, is now converted into a military seminary for the education of officers of artillery and engineers. This is a vast building, once strongly fortified, and with an interior so ornamented, that Kotzebue, who saw it in its splendour, compares it with ancient descriptions of the gorgeous palace of Nineveh. The fortifications have, however, now disappeared, and the interior is filled with students in five classes, engaged in pursuits connected with the higher branches of the military art.
The two arsenals, and the foundery upon the banks of the Neva, present the appearance of a vast mass of building of considerable grandeur, and in the style of the Grecian architecture. Amongst every thing that can be useful in the art of war there are preserved some warlike remains of ancient times; amongst which are the rich arms of the Teutonic knights, removed from the arsenal of Riga to St Petersburg after the capture of that city.
The different departments of the executive civil government of the empire, called the Colleges, are appropriate buildings, and one or two of them fine specimens of architecture. The college of foreign affairs, with the residence of the chief, is an elegant structure, as is also that of the college of the interior. The colleges of war, of marine, of justice, and of commerce, have each handsome buildings, and attached to them beautiful residences for their several chiefs.
The post-office is a fine and large building, where not only the conveyance of letters is arranged, but the conveyance of money from one part of the empire to another; and it has the superintendence of the post-horses for the use of travellers at the several stations. The mint is in a fortress situated on a small island on the Neva. This citadel was the first of the erections of Peter the Great. It is furnished with five regular bastions, which range round the island; it is, however, no longer of any use for defence. The coining of money, as so much copper circulates, employs many hands, in spite of the admirable machinery supplied from England to diminish the labour; and the chief manager of the coining at present is a native of our island.
It has certainly been the object of the government of Russia under all its sovereigns to promote the civilization of its subjects by the diffusion of knowledge. Whether that object has been pursued in the right way; whether it has been too much confined to the few in immediate contact with the court, and not sufficiently communicated to the larger class; are questions which need not be discussed here. The means of spreading taste and information have been abundantly furnished to this capital at least. The Imperial Academy of Sciences was founded by Peter, who also established the rudiments of the extensive museums in the elegant building now occupied by that society. Some of the ablest mathematicians of Europe have been professors in it (for instance, Euler and the two Bernoullis), or members of it; and amongst the natives much progress has been made in astronomy, geography, and the other branches of science; whilst great advances have been making in each of the departments of natural history.
In the Academy, also, much has been done by individual members to propagate a knowledge of the national history and philology, of numismatics and Russian antiquities, of statistics and political economy, and in translating, from the French, German, English, and Italian languages, a great number of the most popular works into the Russian language. The astronomical observatory near the Academy, and connected with that institution, is sedulously at work, and publishes its observations. The several museums are all accessible to the public. They are, the zoological museum, the cabinet of mineralogy, the collection of dried plants, the Asiatic museum, the collection of ancient medals and coins, the three cabinets of Asiatic, Russian, and modern medals, and the cabinet of curiosities. To these may be added an extensive and well-selected library.
The Imperial Academy of Arts is one of those establishments to which the government has devoted considerable sums of money. The beauty and extent of the building, and the collections it contains, would entitle it to a fuller description than can be allotted to it in this place. The paintings, casts, and sculptures, are numerous, and many of the first merit. There are more than two hundred students receiving instruction in the different branches of the fine arts in this establishment; and a few at their own expense, amounting to thirty or forty pounds a year, which covers the expense of lodging and subsistence.
The Ecole des Mines attracts attention from its grandeur and its extent, as well as from the arrangement of the different rooms and galleries, and from the various collections illustrative of the mineralogy of all countries. The establishment, as well as the whole mining department, is under the minister of finance; and the students, about three hundred in number, are chiefly educated at the expense of the government, and are called cadets of the mining corps. The pupils, when properly qualified, are distributed amongst the vast mining districts of the empire, where their services are found to be of incalculable value.
But however expensive may have been the means applied to promote knowledge in the higher branches of science, there does not appear to be any appropriation, even in a small degree commensurate, devoted to the elementary kinds of instruction. The university of St Petersburg has but a limited operation, and, indeed, must be considered as imperfect. It has schools connected with it, which are bad specimens of the institutions from which they have been copied, called in France Ecoles Normales, or in Germany, Lyceums. It is said preparations have been made for improving the state of general education; and, in the mean time, there are abundance of private tutors, mostly Germans or Swiss, who give lessons by the hour to those youths who need instruction. Amongst the other institutions of St Petersburg connected with instruction, may be noticed those of a benevolent kind, such as a school for the deaf and dumb, schools for the children of soldiers, for the subalterns of the army, for the orphans of the military, and schools for the engineers, artillery, and the marine. Several schools of various descriptions, according to the rank of those who are taught, have been established by the females of the imperial family. Some of these are for the daughters of nobles, and others for burghers.
The only public library in the city is in a fine but scarcely finished building. The books that first formed it were obtained at Warsaw, on the partition of Poland. It is far from being a valuable collection, and is not much resorted to. One of the apartments contains a copy of every book printed in the Russian tongue since the art of typography has been introduced into that country. But the whole number of such works is not more than 15,000, scarcely more than the annual delivery from the printing-presses of Germany. See Libraries.
The churches of the city are very numerous, and are for the most part appropriated to the religious services of the established or orthodox Greek communion, which comprehends about two thirds of the population. The most remarkable of the edifices appertaining to this class of religionists is called the Church of our Lady of Kazan. It is a large and splendid monument of architecture, although scarcely to be considered as of any of the regular orders. It abounds both in beauties and defects. It is in the form of the Greek cross, and the centre has a cupola not exactly in keeping with the columns in the façade; but, on the whole, it is a striking edifice. The interior is decorated with images of saints, and some pictures of no great merit. It has many military trophies in honour of the memory of those Russian heroes who have been interred within its walls, or of such of them as have been buried where they fell, and have been deemed worthy of a cenotaph. Another remarkable church is that of Isaac, built on the foundation of a more ancient temple, and only completed within the last few years. It is in a commanding situation, and of great magnitude, and in architecture somewhat resembles St Peter's at Rome. The form of the church is that of the Greek cross, being 334 feet in length, and 298 in width, including the lateral porticos. In the centre rises a dome, the exterior diameter of which, surrounded by an open peristyle of Ionic columns, measures 105 feet. The total elevation of the edifice, from the level of the square on which it stands, to the ball bearing the cross, is equal to 309 English feet. The interior is ornamented with 188 columns and pilasters of marble, of the Corinthian order. The capitals and the shafts are of bronze, richly gilt. The arched roof, decorated with various compartments, and embellished with everything that painting, sculpture, and gilding can effect, render the whole not unworthy to rival many of the most distinguished churches of Italy.
Of the other churches, which are numerous, we can only notice one more. It is dedicated to St Paul, and has been the burial-place of the several emperors since that title was assumed. It stands within the citadel, and it has only a single cupola and tower, two hundred and six feet in height. Its lofty and slender spire, with gold glittering in the sun, is a well-known object to the traverser of the most distant parts of the metropolis, and by it he knows the centre of the city. The interior of this temple is remarkable for the simplicity of its decorations; but it is graced with a vast number of standards, batons, staffs, and keys of fortresses, taken from their enemies by the armies of Russia. The churches not named here are numerous, and most of them have domes, which, being of burnished copper, or richly gilded with gold, give an astonishing magnificence to the city as a whole, when viewed from any elevated spot. Besides the established churches, there are many belonging to professors of the Greek religion, not adhering to the orthodox faith. The Roman Catholics have a beautiful church of the Corinthian order, with a fine dome, surmounted with twenty-four elegant pillars. It was made the burial-place of the celebrated General Moreau, who died of the wounds he received near Dresden in the year 1813. A plain white tablet, edged with black marble, marks the last resting-place of the conqueror of Hohenlinden. There are two German churches for the Lutheran worship, which, though deemed excellent specimens of architecture, have few decorations, and nothing in the interior to attract much attention. An English church presents a noble front to the river. The interior is neat and simple, but the altar-piece is a fine painting of the descent from the cross. There is no gallery; and, although capacious, it is not sufficiently large to accommodate the whole of the English residents. The officiating minister has a good residence near the church; and both buildings are exempt from taxes, and from the domiciliary visits of the police.
The hospitals, especially those for the civil inhabitants, are numerous, and some of them are on a gigantic scale. In one of them, Smolnoi, more than 1400 patients are collected. At the Foundling Hospital more than 4000 children are received annually; and there are seldom less than 500 at the breast. Independently of the in-patients, the great hospitals relieve out-patients, the number of which exceeds 30,000 yearly. The empress has the superintendence of the hospitals and other charitable institutions, and is said to show great zeal in adopting any ameliorations in their arrangements that are suggested to her, but only after deliberate examination.
St Petersburg is abundantly supplied with objects for amusement, such as theatres for music, and for the representation of comic and tragic scenes in human life and manners. There are German and French houses in which plays are performed in those languages, and both a German and an Italian opera-house. The places of amusement are in some measure supported at the expense of the government; and thus, though the price of admission is low, the native Russians, excepting a very few who have travelled, seldom partake of them. They have, however, national music of a peculiar character, and several dances unknown in other countries, the enjoyment of which is highly gratifying. The ice-mountains and sledges are purely Russian amusements, and some peculiar athletic exercises, one of which is boxing, but with gloves on the hands, so as to draw no blood, and scarcely to inflict much pain.
All foreigners who have resided at St Petersburg agree that there are few great cities in which the police is conducted with more strictness than there. The public is very well secured. Robberies or murders are seldom heard of, and all thoughts of danger on these heads are wholly banished. At all hours of the night, and in the most unfrequented streets, the passenger passes without annoyance and without apprehension of danger. In each quarter of the city there is a station of the police, with a tower on which a watchman is constantly kept, to give an alarm in case of fire, by flags during day and by lamps at night; and fire-engines, with strong horses, are always ready, with some firemen, in case of need, and repair from every station to the spot where the accident occurs, which is indicated by well-known signals. There is an agent of police resident at each of the stations, who has an office, with several persons under him; he watches over the conduct and behaviour of the inhabitants of the district, preserves order and tranquillity in his quarter or section, and can decide in cases of petty quarrels, if the parties agree to such a course, as is sometimes done at the police-offices in London. There is a lock-up-house, and in some cases an hospital, attached to these police stations. Connected with the police is a corps called street-walkers, in small wooden boxes, in the various streets, at the door of which one always stands armed with a battle-axe. They consist chiefly of old but Petersfield soldiers; and their duty is to prevent all obstructions by carriages, which are vastly numerous, to check the first symptoms of riot or disturbance, and to prevent begging in the street. In this last work they have been eminently successful, as no place in Europe is less distressed by the importunity of mendicants than this city. One of the duties of the street-walkers also is to go round with any new ukase of the emperor from house to house, to make the master of each acquainted with it, and to obtain an acknowledgment of his having read and taken cognizance of its import. It is thus that new laws are quietly promulgated throughout the capital.
One object in this city which has not yet been noticed is the colossal equestrian statue to the memory of Peter the Great. He is represented on a horse at full gallop up a rock, the top of which is a perpendicular precipice, on arriving at which the horse suddenly stops. The action is the moment of the sudden halt at perceiving the danger. It is admirably executed, and, being of prodigious size, excites the highest degree of admiration.