The Tsar’s dream: Saint Petersburg

the cases of Saint Petersburg, Washington, Paris and Brasilia. These examples are relevant in this context, not so much (or not only) because of the new and advanced urban planning concepts that guided them, but above all because of the system of technological innovations employed. Often invisible to the visitor’s eye, these allowed them to be built as planned and that still allow these great capital cities to function today.

The Tsar’s dream: Saint Petersburg

Swedish settlers built the Nyenskans Fortress at the mouth of the River Neva71, on the site of present-day Saint Petersburg, in 1611. It was Tsar Peter the Great at the end of the 17th century who recognized that Russia needed an open trading port to Europe72: he decided to found the Peter and Paul Fortress on the site of the fortress captured from the Swedes. For the construction of the new city, tens of thousands of peasants were literally conscripted and deported from all over Russia and put to work as

the Crown of Castile, the original Muslim defensive wall was extended to accommodate the new neighbourhoods created after the Reconquista. In the 15th century, the city expanded beyond the walls, reaching around 12 000 inhabitants by the beginning of the 16th century. In order to accommodate the large number of inhabitants, an additional area was formed, called Arrabal (today’s Plaza Mayor), which incorporated all the areas that had been populated since the 12th century on the outskirts of the Christian district. From the moment it became the seat of the Spanish court under Felipe II, the city with its 15 000 inhabitants began to grow exponentially, covering an area of 125 hectares with eight gateways. Magro Á. B., Carvajal O. L. E. 1989, Madrid, de territorio fronterizo a región metropolitana, «España. Autonomías», Espasa Calpe, pp. 517-615. 71 Hosking G. 2001, Russia and the Russians: A History from Rus to the Russian Federation, Belknap Press, London. 72 “It needed a better seaport than the country’s main port at the time, Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea in the far north and closed for shipping during the winter”, Hughes.

Fig. 14 Map of the first nucleus of the city of Saint Petersburg on the delta of the Neva River in the Gulf of Finland, according to the description drawn up in 1744 by Matthäus Seutter (1678 - 1756) (Source: Wikimedia commons ® ).

forced labour alongside Swedish prisoners73 under the supervision of Alexander Menshikov. The growth of the project led to the city becoming not only Peter’s new port to Europe, but also the seat of an autonomous Governorate and from 1712 the new capital of the empire74 to the detriment of the old imperial capital of Moscow, which however remained the sacred place where imperial coronations took place. Only in 1917, following the Soviet revolution, did Saint Petersburg cease to be the capital of all the Russias as the capital and centre

73 Raeff M. 1994, Political Ideas and Institutions in Imperial Russia, Westview Press, Boulder. 74 Cracraft J. 1988, The Petrine Revolution in Russian Architecture, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

of power returned to Moscow75. The city was born under the worst auspices: the area was low and marshy, located many miles north of any other major centre in Russia at the time76. Peter’s intention was essentially to counter Swedish domination of the Gulf of Finland77 and gain access to the sea, but transforming the Neva River’s marshy delta (Fig. 14) required a massive effort, both in terms of soil consolidation and overall land reclamation78. In the end it cost thousands and thousands of lives because of the impossible working conditions imposed on the workers79 . Influenced by his extensive travels in the European capitals80 and his observation of the construction techniques of the Dutch and British shipyards81, Peter wanted to give Russia a modern, western city, rejecting the Asian and Byzantine roots of Russian culture, thus causing much discontent among the old Boer aristocracy82. Construction began on the right bank of the Neva around what came to be called the Trinity Square (Troitskaya Ploshchad), near the Peter and Paul

75 Schmidt A. J. 1981, The Restoration of Moscow after 1812, Slavic Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40, n. 1, pp. 37-48. 76 Murrell K. 1995, St Petersburg: History, Art and Architecture, Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd, London. 77 Bushkovitch P. 2009, Peter the Great. The struggle for power, 1671– 1725. New studies in European history, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 78 Dixton S. 1999, The Modernization of Russia, 1676-1825, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 79 Dukes P. 1998, A History of Russia: Medieval, Modern, Contemporary, c. 882-1996, Macmillan, London. 80 Massie R. K. 2012, Peter the Great: His Life and World, Modern Library, New York. 81 Abbott J. 1869, History of Peter The Great, Emperor of Russia, Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, pp. 139-140. 82 Figes O. 2018, La danza di Nataša. Storia della cultura russa (XVIII-XX secolo), Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi, Torino, pp. 13-21.

Fortress. Soon, however, a more general plan was made according to an overall vision: Domenico Trezzini83 who came from Switzerland, created a plan which placed the centre of the city on Vasilyevsky Island, and surrounded it with concentric canals in a manner, within the constraints imposed by the site, reminiscent of Amsterdam and the Tsar’s original inspiration. Although Peter then appointed Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond84 as chief architect of Saint Petersburg, the basic forma urbis defined by Trezzini still shapes to the modern city. From an urban planning point of view, the city is a palimpsest, inspired by urban fashions of the following centuries. If the network of canals created around the focal point of the Admiralty Palace was almost certainly inspired by Amsterdam, that initial plan was overlaid by a classic 18th century scheme, based on wide avenues and designed by French and Italian architects employed by Catherine II. Today’s city is still one of the most evocative in the world, with its reminiscences from Pushkin to Akhmatova and the many others who have crossed its canals and walked along its immense boulevards and squares85 .

83 Domenico Trezzini (1670 - 1734), Swiss architect and town planner; in 1703 he was chosen by Tsar Peter the Great to direct the work on a port on the Baltic Sea that would open a window on the West to Russia, which until then had been cut off from trade routes. Kahn-Rossi M., Franciolli M. 1994, Domenico Trezzini e la costruzione di San Pietroburgo, Octavo, Florence. 84 Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond (1679 - 1719), French architect whom Tsar Peter the Great met in Europe during one of his trips and who contributed to the construction of St. Petersburg from 1716 onwards. Kaganov G. 1997, Images of Space: St. Petersburg in the Visual and Verbal Arts, Stanford University Press, Stanford, p. 15. 85 Bell M. J. 1997, Re-forming Architecture and Planning through Urban