Konyushennaya Square (Stables Square)

Konyushennaya Square belongs to the key open spaces of historic Saint Petersburg: here the embankment of the Griboyedov Canal, Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street and Konyushenny Lane all converge. It was given its name on 20 August 1739 after the Imperial Court Stables that stood here, established as early as under Catherine I, and for a long time the square remained closely tied to the court's transport establishment.

The main building of the Imperial Stables was erected on the left bank of the Moika in 1720–1723 to a design by the architect Nikolai Herbel; the curve in the middle of the building echoes the bend of the river on the opposite side. To the south of the stables the square itself took shape, originally conceived as the inner courtyard of the stable complex. From the 1730s the southern territory was transferred to the Court Stables Department, and by 1733 wattle-and-daub structures had grown up here — housing, forges, storehouses; court carriages gathered on the square before setting out. The eastern boundary was fixed in the 1740s by the newly dug Konyushenny Canal between the Moika and the Krivusha, which later became part of the Griboyedov Canal.

Until the 1790s Malaya Konyushennaya Street opened onto the square, but from 1794 a new quadrangle of the stable yard began to be built, blocking this thoroughfare: the building came to house the department's offices, the carriage committee, staff quarters and coach houses. In 1816–1823 the complex was rebuilt by Vasily Stasov, who made the south façade, with the Church of the Icon of the Saviour Not Made by Hands — also known as the Stables Church — the principal one. By 1860 the southern side was complemented by the building of the Stables Museum by the architect Pyotr Sadovnikov, where court carriages were kept.

During the construction of the Kazan Cathedral in the 1800s the square turned into a temporary settlement for workers: barracks with bakeries and kitchens for almost a thousand people were built here. As a venue for gathering mounted departures it is also remembered for another episode: it was from here, in the autumn of 1812, that the commander-in-chief Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly rode out to the active army. The most famous event was the requiem for Alexander Pushkin on 1 February 1837 — a service originally planned for Saint Isaac's Cathedral, but held instead in the Stables Church, from where the poet's coffin was taken for burial at the Svyatogorsky Monastery. In 1883 a chapel by the architect Leonty Benois, brought from the site of the attempt on the life of Alexander II, was briefly relocated here; it was dismantled in 1892.

The church was closed in May 1923 and handed over to a mounted-police club, and it was decided to return it to believers only in the summer of 1990. From 1951 until February 1998 a tram loop operated here, alongside a car park. In the early 2010s investors intended to turn the former stables into an apart-hotel, but under pressure from heritage defenders this plan was abandoned, and the building was transferred to the city's Museum of the History of Saint Petersburg for use as exhibition halls.

Today restaurants and clubs operate in the buildings of the former stables, and the site itself remains a recognizable ensemble in the city centre, joining memories of the imperial court's daily life with an episode from Russian literary history.