Academy of Arts

The pier with the sphinxes in front of the Academy of Arts building on Universitetskaya Embankment on Vasilyevsky Island is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Saint Petersburg and the city's only genuine relic of Ancient Egypt. The building of the Imperial Academy of Arts itself was built between 1764 and 1788 by the architects Alexander Kokorinov and Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe in the early Neoclassical style — one of the first examples of this style in Russian architecture, with a round inner courtyard and a severe, monumental façade facing the Neva.

The two sphinxes adorning the descent to the water in front of the building were carved from pink Aswan granite as far back as the 14th century BC for the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Amenhotep III at Thebes, during the golden age of Ancient Egyptian art. Each sculpture weighs 23 tons, is more than five meters long and nearly four and a half meters high; researchers consider the Petersburg sphinxes to be among the best-preserved portraits of this pharaoh. They were discovered in 1825 among the temple ruins by the antiquities hunter Jean-Nicolas Athanasi, and the famous French Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion, who saw the sculptures himself, called them works of "the most perfect" craftsmanship.

The idea of acquiring the sphinxes for Russia was put forward in 1830 by the traveler Andrei Muravyov, who had seen one of the statues in Alexandria. After long correspondence and the approval of the President of the Academy of Arts, Alexei Olenin, the deal was nearly derailed by the French July Revolution, but the sculptures were eventually purchased for 64,000 rubles, with transport costing several tens of thousands more. In May 1832 the sphinxes arrived in Saint Petersburg. The granite pier in the "Greek" style built for them was designed by the architect Konstantin Ton; according to the inscription on the pedestals, the sphinxes were "brought to the city of St. Peter" in 1832, but they were not installed on the embankment until April 1834. The pier is also adorned with bronze griffins and lampstands shaped like bundles of papyrus.

Today the sphinxes of Amenhotep III, the only authentic monumental relics of Ancient Egypt in Russia, remain one of the city's most photographed spots and a favorite place for wedding photo shoots and urban legends, while the Academy of Arts building itself continues to serve as an art school and houses a rich collection of study casts and works of art.