"Nothing could be finer than Nevsky Prospect, at least not in St. Petersburg it is the be-all and end-all. It positively gleams and sparkles-the jewel of our capital!" -Nikolai Gogol.
When the
names of streets such as Sunset Boulevard, Rodeo Drive, Wall Street, Oxford
Street, the Champs Elysse are mentioned a person is readily able to name
the city where they can be found. However, the name of Nevsky Prospect
does not elicit the same reaction, but it too is a street of fame and notoriety.
Nevsky Prospect is the main thoroughfare of Peter’s city- St. Petersburg.
Nevsky Prospect is lined with cathedrals and buildings, often made infamous
by the people who resided in them, or died in front of them. Its
shop fronts have been ogled by the wealthy aristocrats who once paraded
up and down the prospect in the days of the tsars, and by poor peasants
alike. It is a street that has caught the eyes of foreign visitors,
photographers, painters and writers. It stands as part of the myth
that is St. Petersburg.
Peter the Great began to develop the plans for his new capital on the marshy, swamp lands of the Neva River as early as 1710, in that early plan for his city Peter and his team of builders were already planning for the creation of a main thoroughfare. The street was laid with tree trunks, cut from the dense forest surrounding the city. The street would eventually reach a length of 2 ½ miles long. In time there would come to be both palaces and shops lining either side of the street. The Fontanka, at that time a muddy waterway, lay on one end of the street representing the original boundaries of the city.
The name for the street comes from the Alexander Nevsky Monastery that is at the other end of the Prospect. The Monastery, which Peter the Great began to build in 1713, was an honorary piece for Prince Alexander of Novgorod and built on the site of his victory over the Swedes in 1240. It was completed during the reign of Catherine the Great, but monks had taken up residence there in 1713. The monastery had a road that connected it to the Admiralty area, where the well to do of the time lived; this road became part of the Prospect thereby connecting the Admiralty to the Monastery. In 1738, Anna Ivanovna declared that this newly connected road be named Nevsky Prospect. The monastery serves as one of the anchors of Nevsky Prospect. The Monastery is the final resting-place for many of Russia’s most famous composers, writers and artists, among them can be found, Tchaikovsky, Borodin and Dostoevsky.
The street grew in popularity as the population of St. Petersburg continued to grow. Stores that could provide the wealthy people with the foods, garments, jewelry and amenities that they demanded for their elegant lifestyles, began to line the Prospect. The street has buildings on either side, even numbered buildings were on what was known as the sunny side, due to the amount of sun they received, the odd numbered side was known as the shady side of the street. The sunlight gave the many buildings on the sunny side an elegant, bright appeal. The shade that was cast on the opposite side of the street made for excellent cafes and colonnades. During the siege of Leningrad in World War II, it was on the sunny side of the street that a notice, warning the Leningrad residents that walking on that side of the street was much more dangerous when under artillery attack.
Among
the hundreds of buildings that line Nevsky Prospect are many of St. Petersburg’s
most impressive churches and homes. The Kazan Cathedral which was
styled after St. Peter’s in Rome faces out to Nevsky Prospect. This
cathedral was the site for some of the more memorable weddings and masses
for the Russian royal family.
Among some of the more beautiful palaces that appear on Nevsky
is the Stroganov Palace. It was built in 1753 and was home to the
Stroganov family and their many pieces and collections of art from all
over Europe. Today this ornamented, Baroque palace still stands as
one of the oldest buildings on the Prospect. It is a portion of the
Russian museum and houses numerous pieces of art that spans the centuries
and many different styles of art from France, Italy, England and Russia.
Further down the Prospect is the Anichkov Palace. Built in 1741-1750 it was remodeled by Tsarina Elizabeth as a gift for her lover, Aleksey Razumovsky. The Palace was named after a Lieutenant Colonel who camped on the site of the palace when the city was in its foundling stage. The palace has changed its look and hands many times, before it became the permanent home of Alexander III before he was tsar. He and his family would later make this palace their home; even after his death the dowager Empress Maria lived there. It was later used as government offices.
Nearby to the Anichkov Palace can be found the Anichkov Bridge. This bridge, which goes over the Fontanka is a marvelous site with four bronze statues of rearing horses and their tamers. Each horse is different and was sculpted by Klodt in 1849 and 1850. The bridge is a popular and stunning landmark for the city of St. Petersburg. The Anchikov Bridge is often considered the end of Nevsky Prospect, since it leads one over the Fontanka, the original boundary of the city of St. Petersburg.
Nevsky Prospect makes a stunning finish at the Admiralty. The gleaming spire of the Admiralty building is one of St. Petersburg’s most spectacular and well-known landmarks. The Admiralty originally marked the edge of the dockyards as it is situated directly on the Neva. With an inner canal built into the Admiralty it became a ship building yard, as well as a goods transportation and drop off station. It later became the headquarters for Peter the Great’s general staff. The Admiralty would later become the center for the extremely powerful and very advanced Russian Navy. In successive renovations the Admiralty was concealed on the riverside by an embankment, it is today under government control and usage, the tower is, however, open to the public.
As one strolls down the Prospect they find the Nevsky is the place to shop while in St. Petersburg. It should therefore come as no surprise that two of Russia largest stores can be found on the Prospect as well. Across the street from the Kazan Cathedral is the Dom Knigi bookstore. It is housed in the old Singer sewing machine building and is known for the tremendous glass globe that sits atop it. Since the middle of the 18th century the Gostinyy Dvor has been the major shopping place of St. Petersburg. The beautiful building houses over 300 shops. The original building was destroyed by fire but was rebuilt by 1785. It was one of the hardest hit buildings in the Siege of Leningrad, when it was repaired it was made more modern but still employs the traditional setting of trading “stalls”.
Numerous other stores dot the Prospect, each with its own bit of tradition and history. Included among these stores is the Yeliseev’s Store, a foodshop famous for its confections and foodstuffs as well as the architecture of the building. The original K. Schroeder, the piano manufacturer, was housed on Nevsky Prospect, as well as Merten’s Store which was known for its furs, which were a necessity for the well to do of St. Petersburg. Just off Nevsky is the Grand Hotel European which has been restored by European investors, to the splendor of pre-Revolutionary Russia. The hotel is considered to be one of the premier places to stay while vacationing in St. Petersburg.
More important than seeing what is on the Prospect and what you can buy in the shops is being seen on Nevsky Prospect. The street has long stood as a symbol of one’s prominence and standing in society if they were seen in the hustle and bustle of the Nevsky Prospect crowd. The street was the place to meet to discuss business and to gossip alike. With St. Petersburg being the cultural center of Russia, and Nevsky Prospect being the center of St. Petersburg, it should be no surprise that Nevsky was the home and stomping grounds of some of Russia’s most prominent cultural icons.
Most often Nevsky was used as a backdrop in many famous poems and stories.
Inhabitants like Gogol 
who immortalized Nevsky Prospect in his
story (subtitled a "poem") “The Nevsky Prospect”, lived in many rooms and
apartments along Nevsky.
In his poem Gogol brings to life the magic of the people bustling around
St. Petersburg at the same time he also mocks the idea of Nevsky as being
the center of society. Gogol is satirical in his tone regarding his
love for the street he himself prowled. His view appears very positive
when he opens about how he loves Nevsky Prospect, however this view changes
and he begins to mock the people, stores and events that are transpiring
in front of him. The reader is almost transported to Nevsky Prospect
while reading this work, they can begin to get an understanding of what
it is that makes the street so popular. Gogol also makes the reader
question their trust in what their eyes show them, although Nevsky is beautiful,
under its façade lies a street of shallowness, poverty and lies.
Gogol uses Nevsky in various other works like “The Overcoat” and “The Nose”,
where the well-to-do and high society appear and play a part on Nevsky
Prospect.
Gogol was not alone in using Nevsky Prospect as a setting for his stories and poems. Fyodor Dostoevsky, one of the most popular and well known writers to ever emerge from Russia, lived along Nevsky and gave his readers a further glimpse into life on and around the Prospect. Dostoevsky often makes reference to Nevsky in his novel “Crime and Punishment” as the main character roams the city thinking of his crime and moving about his day. Although he often preferred to write his characters into the streets of the Haymarket district, this area too is close to Nevsky. The Dominique is a restaurant that Dostoevsky often frequented, the place became a landmark that was sketched by the Russian painter Repin.
It seems fitting that also along Nevsky Prospect was the Smyrdin Publishing House, owned by the bookseller A. Smyrdin, this was the publisher of works by Pushkin and Gogol.
Writers were not alone in their depiction of Nevsky Prospect, but artists tried their hand at bringing to life Nevsky Prospect for the rest of the world. Each of the buildings has at one time or another been painted or photographed by various artists. In 1835 a well known artist, Sadovnikov painted what he called "Panorama." The painting was of the right side of the street, of every façade down to the minutest detail. Five years later he would paint the left side of the street. This was the first time someone was able to show the street as an entire whole, and not just one building. The picture was displayed in a ribbon like fashion where-by each end was wound around an axis. A viewer was able to turn the axis and watch the picture roll by, almost as if they were walking down the street. Sadovnikov’s painting was an immense hit with the people of St. Petersburg, they believed it made their street and city look both beautiful and modern.
A trip down the roughly three-mile street seems to take any visitor
back in time. Only two buildings on Nevsky Prospect are recently
built, which only further connects this street to the rich cultural
history of Russia. Nevsky Prospect helps define the beauty and glory
that is St. Petersburg.
Live
Video Footage of Nevsky Prospect
Alexander
Nevsky
