St. Isaac's Square

Saint Isaac's Square is one of the central squares of historic Saint Petersburg, which, together with Palace Square and Senate Square, forms part of the city's main architectural ensemble and is included in the UNESCO World Heritage list. The Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg sits here, which is why the square is often called the city's main administrative one; it is bounded to the north by Admiralteysky Prospect and to the south by the Mariinsky Palace, with Saint Isaac's Cathedral serving as its dominant feature.

The area took shape gradually: at first it was occupied by settlements of Admiralty shipyard workers, and in 1710 the first, wooden, Saint Isaac's Church was consecrated not far from the site of the future Bronze Horseman. After the fires of 1736–1737, the plot was named Trade Square in 1738 for retail trading, while the neighbouring space now occupied by Senate Square became "Isaac's." The present name was only fixed in 1793, and was subsequently changed more than once: the square was at various times Nikolayevskaya Square and Vorovsky Square, only regaining its historic name in 1944.

The appearance of the square was shaped by the construction of the fourth Saint Isaac's Cathedral in succession — earlier versions of the church had all proved structurally unsound. The project was entrusted to Auguste de Montferrand, and the work stretched over forty years, from 1818 to 1858, so that the construction site was jokingly called "Isaac's village." A public garden was laid out in front of the south façade, and on the freed-up triangular plot the residence of the Lobanov-Rostovsky family was built. To the south the space was enclosed by Stackenschneider's Mariinsky Palace (1839–1844), and the widened Blue Bridge effectively became part of the square; the composition was completed by two symmetrical buildings by Nikolai Yefimov for the Ministry of State Domains.

The square has repeatedly found itself at the centre of dramatic events: the flood of 1824 submerged it almost entirely, and a year later clashes of the Decembrist uprising spilled over into it. In 1907 the city's first tram line ran here, and in 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, a crowd wrecked the German embassy building that stood on the square. The revolutionary fighting of 1917 and another flood in 1924 did not pass the square by either, and on 19 August 1991 a rally against the participants of the August coup gathered in front of the Mariinsky Palace.

The square is tied to a good deal of urban folklore: it is said that the morning after the unveiling of the monument to Nicholas I, a sign reading "You won't catch me!" appeared on the leg of his horse — the emperor's horse and the Bronze Horseman face the same direction, which gave rise to the citizens' ironic sayings. Another legend concerns a certain Yakovlev, who is said to have survived the flood of 1824 on the back of a stone lion by the Lobanov-Rostovsky house — a story later recognized in Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman." Today the square hosts concerts for Russia Day, a carousel is set up here in winter, and it also serves as a gathering place for rallies.

Over three centuries the square has travelled from an outlying settlement and marketplace to a stately ensemble uniting buildings of the 18th to 20th centuries around the city's largest cathedral. It remains not only a tourist centre of Saint Petersburg but also a stage on which the city's public life unfolds.