Everyone who has been to the Field of Mars in St. Petersburg drew attention to the huge building located in its North-Western part - these are the former barracks of the Pavlovsky Life Guards Regiment.
The Pavlovsky barracks occupy more than half of the vast quarter; they dominate the architectural ensemble of the Field of Mars. The huge facade is decorated with three porticos of Doric columns raised above the basement. The middle - twelve-column - portico is crowned with a triangular pediment (as on the two side porticos), and the stepped attic is decorated with sculpture. Such decor - weapons and military armor - emphasize the purpose of the building, which is one of the best achievements of Russian classicism. The Pavlovsk Life Guards Grenadier Regiment was created in 1796 on the personal instructions of Paul I.
The Pavlovsky regiment became famous during the wars with Napoleon in 1805-1807.
Alexander I for "excellent courage, courage and fearlessness, with which the regiment labored during repeated battles", November 13, 1808 ordered "so that in honor of the regiment, the grenadier hats now in it should be left in it in the form in which it descended from the battlefield; may they remain an everlasting monument to his excellent courage and the Monarch's goodwill towards him."
Copper plates, reinforced on hats pierced by enemy bullets, burned with gunpowder, preserved for the recruits of the regiment the names of those heroic soldiers who wore these hats in battles with Napoleon's troops. A rookie of the Pavlovsky regiment, having shown military prowess in battle, received such a shot-through hat with the name of a fellow soldier who wore it, and proudly wore this headdress, which became a military relic.
The Pavlovsky regiment kept more than five hundred of these relic hats. They passed from soldier to soldier, each of them was engraved with the name of the soldier who fought in this grenadier near Friedland on June 2, 1807.
And the glorious Pavlovsky Regiment received another award. After the victory of the Russian people in the Patriotic War of 1812 and the defeat of the Napoleonic army, it was decided to build barracks for the Pavlovsky regiment on the Field of Mars.
The fact is that since 1798 the regiment was located in buildings of various sizes and architecture on the Western border of the Tsaritsynoy Meadow (from 1805 - the Field of Mars), which belonged to high-ranking persons.
So, in 1721, on the site of the current building of the barracks, there was a stone two-story house in which the Duke of Holstein Karl Friedrich lived, who later married Anna Petrovna, the eldest daughter of Peter I. Later, the youngest daughter of Peter, Elizabeth, lived here with her secret husband A.G. Razumovsky.
Immediately after the regiment was placed in these buildings, the question arose of expanding the premises provided. Attempts by the architects Cavalaria and L. Ruska to put the buildings in order did not give the desired results.
And in 1816, it was decided to build a single barracks building according to the project of the architect V.P. Stasov. Construction began in the spring of 1817, and as early as 1819, the regiment that had returned from Moscow settled in the new barracks.
The barracks of the Pavlovsky regiment were not a typical building like the barracks of the Izmailovsky, Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and Jaeger regiments. Dealing with a huge area (300 by 500 meters) between the Field of Mars, Millionnaya Street and the Moika, the architect created a unique complex of large volume. The complex included "chambers of regimental commanders, six staff officers and 34 chief officers", "soldier's quarters for 3000 people", church, hospital, stables, warehouses, kitchens and other outbuildings.
Stasov concealed the versatility of the building with a front facade dissected by a series of porticos and connected the building with the surrounding buildings.
The interior of the Church of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky in the barracks of the Pavlovsky Life Guards Regiment was also created by the architect Stasov. The church hall was on the second floor. Its rectangle encompassed the colonnade of the Ionic order supporting the choirs. The ceilings were covered with beautiful paintings by J.-B. Scotty.
The church kept many relics related to the participation of the Pavlovites in numerous battles with the enemy, primarily during the Patriotic War of 1812 and the foreign campaigns of the Russian army in 1813-14.
In 1918, the Pavlovsk Regiment was disbanded. In 1928, the former Pavlovsky barracks were transferred to Elektrotok, renamed Lenenergo. The regimental church was adapted as a club, while its interiors and decorations were destroyed.
At present, the former barracks of the Pavlovsky regiment are not occupied by anyone ...
This building with a colonnade, overlooking the Champ de Mars, is the result of the work of two outstanding architects - Yuri Felten and Vasily Stasov.
It should be noted that the first building on this site was the palace of Elizabeth Petrovna. It was within its walls that one of the most famous palace coups was prepared, which resulted in the accession of Elizabeth I. In 1762, after the death of the Empress, the palace went to the treasury, and in 1770 it was completely demolished.
Ten years later, in its place, according to the project of Yuri Felten, a building was erected, which housed the St. Petersburg Orphanage. His wards were the illegitimate descendants of the upper class, as well as orphaned children of the poor. Two-year-olds were admitted here, who could remain in care until they were 21 years old. At the Orphanage, in the same building, there was a safe treasury and a pawnshop, which provided funds for the maintenance of pupils. Two houses were attached to the building, which were located nearby and formed a single architectural complex.
In 1797, the orphans were transferred to another building - on the Moika embankment. The house on the Field of Mars came under the jurisdiction of the Pavlovsky regiment. The interior premises were not very suitable for accommodating the military, but the reconstruction began only in 1817 under Alexander I. The emperor entrusted the next reconstruction of the building to the architect Vasily Stasov, who tried to take into account all the needs of the military. In addition to living quarters, laundries, kitchens, forges, armories were equipped, stables were located in the courtyard.
The Pavlovsk regiment took an active part in the armed uprising on October 25, 1917, which resulted in the overthrow of the provisional government. After the capture of the Winter Palace, the “Women's Battalion of Death” defending the palace, later captured during the assault, was placed in the barracks.
In 1918, the Pavlovsk Regiment was disbanded by decision of the Military Commissariat, and the building stood empty for many years, dilapidated, serving as a shelter for homeless children. Only 20 years later it was handed over to the Elektrotok organization. Not surprisingly, during the blockade, this strategically important object became one of the main targets of German air strikes, and was badly damaged by bombing.
Immediately after the end of the war, restoration work began, which ended in 1948. The Lenenergo enterprise was located here until 2010, when the building was transferred for reconstruction into a hotel complex.
In 1941, one of the 250-kilogram bombs that hit the Elektrotok building pierced through three floors. Sowing inside the building, the bomb “hidden” for an entire hour and a half and exploded only during sapper work. As a result, 5 people died, and the main facade strongly arched outward. After the war, during the restoration work, he was "concave" back with the help of 13 jacks.
Power engineers want to leave the historical building in the center of St. Petersburg on the Field of Mars, 1. Since 1929, Lenenergo has been located at this address.
According to Andrei Likhachev, General Director of Territorial Generating Company N1 (TGC-1), it is inappropriate for companies separated from Lenenergo and "living" in a building on the Field of Mars to use a monument of federal significance for their needs. According to Likhachev, it would be more reasonable to use this building as a hotel or office center.
Lenenergo rented a building on the Field of Mars from the Federal Agency for Federal Property Management. The end of the ten-year lease expires in 8 years. After the reorganization of Lenenergo, the lease rights were transferred to OJSC North-Western Energy Management Company.As Likhachev suggested, the power engineers will be able to vacate the building in a year or two, without waiting for the lease to expire: "If this is not done, the historic building itself, which requires significant repair costs, and companies that need to pay a considerable rent, will suffer." Now structures of Lenenergo pay about $3 million a year for rent.
However, the energy industry does not want to completely leave the Field of Mars. "North-Western Energy Management Company is ready to carry out preliminary work on the project of re-profiling the building on the Field of Mars and subsequently become a participant in this project," Likhachev said.
The appearance in the historical center of St. Petersburg of a free area of 20 thousand square meters. m can become an extremely attractive object for investment. According to Igor Gorsky, the director of the Bekar - Commercial Real Estate company, it is possible to create a class A business center in the building at Marsovoye Pole, 1. After reconstruction, which will cost at least $500 per 1 sq. m. m, the cost of renting premises in this building can be from $70 per sq. m. It is possible that the building will be transferred to the trust management of the management company (according to the law on remote control).According to some St. Petersburg commercial real estate experts who wish not to be named in the publication, the building of the Pavlovsky barracks is a "tidbit" for investors specializing in organizing the hotel business.
However, there are other opinions as well. Leonid Kim, a specialist in the commercial real estate department of the Ithaka Academy of Sciences (Petersburg), suggested that "it is unlikely that this building will be converted into a hotel complex or a business center. Most likely, it could house some subdivision of the federal center." The building occupied by Lenenergo is one of the federal monuments, which is located in a symbolic place in St. Petersburg, and there are not so many such objects in the city today. “There are apparently a lot of people who want to see this “delicious” building, and, most likely, the line for it, if lined up, is not in St. Petersburg, but in Moscow. They won’t let anyone in just like that,” said Leonid Kim.
It can be assumed that the offices of large companies that intend to re-register in St. Petersburg can be located exactly on Marsovoye Pole, 1. This week, Governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matviyenko confirmed that negotiations are currently underway with the management of Gazprom and the Government of the Russian Federation on the re-registration of Sibneft in the northern capital. "There is already an understanding that there should be large taxpayers in a city of five million," the governor said. According to her, the city government is making a lot of efforts to make such a decision take place, but it is too early to talk about the results.
It should be reminded that Vneshtorgbank and Transneft have already been re-registered in St. Petersburg, it is expected that AK Transnefteprodukt (TNP) and Sovcomflot will be re-registered in the Northern capital.
Tatyana Vilde, IA "Rosbalt", St. Petersburg
High-rise buildings will not surprise Moscow, and in St. Petersburg they are still becoming an occasion for discussion. It is difficult to say whether there are real skyscrapers in the city: if you follow the classification of the SkyScraperCity website, according to which a building above 200 meters is considered a skyscraper, then no; if the logic of the company Emporis, which is engaged in intellectual analysis of real estate data and considers a building above 100 meters to be a skyscraper, then there are several such skyscrapers in the city. The first unconditional skyscraper will be the 462-meter Lakhta Center, which is going to be commissioned in 2018.
So far, the tallest business center in St. Petersburg is the Leader Tower on Constitution Square (about 150 meters, 41 floors), and the tallest residential building is the Prince Alexander Nevsky residential complex (124 meters, 35 floors). We talked to those who live and work on the top floors of skyscrapers about what kind of view they see from the window every day, whether they have mobile communications and what kind of instructions are provided in case of fire. And Vladimir Linov, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Architecture at St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, spoke about the questions specialists have about high-rise residential buildings.
LCD "Prince Alexander Nevsky"
Zilya. Floor 34/35
Residential complex "Prince Alexander Nevsky" is located closer to the end of the long Obukhov Oborona Avenue, in Rybatsky - not the most prosperous, but more or less developing district of St. Petersburg. If you move to the residential complex from the side of the Ring Road, it appears as a giant monolithic wall, and if you look from the side of Shlisselburgsky Prospekt, it opens up as a three-section sky-colored bracket.
Zilya Mishina and her husband at the end of 2012 - when the residential complex was just completed - bought here a one-room (but two-story, with a mezzanine) apartment on the top floor, having moved from rented housing in a five-story building on the Black River and replacing the Neva with a view of the railway . They did the repair themselves, at the same time they removed the balcony wall - thus a huge five-meter-high window appeared. In total, there are 12 apartments on the floor, including one with an area of 200 square meters, which, according to Zili, is still empty (we were unable to find an advertisement for its sale, but there are several dozen other offers in the residential complex on Cyan - from 3, 7 to 14.5 million rubles).
Living in "Prince Alexander Nevsky" - when compared with the average city prices for utilities - is not very cheap. The official area of Zili's apartment is 52 square meters. This year the family received a receipt for 7 thousand rubles. However, for Zili, the great view outweighs the disadvantages.
Zilya Mishina, young mother
In summer and autumn, when there is no fog and snow, both the Neva and the golden dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral are visible from here. Visible are IKEA, the building of the Lenenergo tower (meaning the Leader Tower), the Lakhta Center, the stadium on Sportivnaya, and the TV tower. A few years ago, on the Day of the Siege Lifting, there were fireworks at four points in the city, and all four were visible from here.
You get up in the morning and see that the whole city is in front of you. I'm not afraid of heights, but my husband used to be afraid. He said: "I need this apartment, I want to overcome my fear." Now he's used to it.
We communicate with neighbors on the floor, we go to visit some of them. For the first time I came to a house where the neighbors are friendly. Basically, everyone met through a closed group in VKontakte. There are a lot of young people here, young mothers.
I would not say that the wind on the 34th floor is felt stronger than below. True, a strong wind can be heard on the roof, everything rumbles and buzzes there. Guests sometimes ask: “So high, but you don’t have pressure here?” No, height does not affect health in any way. But there is an inconvenience: Megafon does not catch. My husband's work involves the need to constantly be in touch - he switched to MTS.
There are five elevators in the front door. There was no such thing as all of them failing. But once I had to climb on foot because the electricity went out. It was a couple of years ago. I came from the store with two packages ... However, I got up in 10 minutes.
Even at the construction stage, there was talk about an observation deck on the roof. There is a dome with a spire: the developer told someone that there would be a restaurant there, others - that the wedding palace. But in the end, the roof was closed, because they started parachuting from our house. Once, the girl almost flew to the gas station spire below. True, they still jump not from the roof, but from the balcony of the corner apartment in the third section.
There were also several cases of suicides, even at the very beginning, after the surrender of the house. But then again, one girl jumped out of the apartment, another - I don’t know, maybe from the roof. Then everyone said: "You have such a high house - everyone will go here to commit suicide."
Of course, the house does not fit into the general development of the area. But he is visible. When you say: “The first house is near the cable-stayed bridge,” everyone immediately understands. Everyone calls him "Prince" or KAN. We were not explained why it is dedicated to Alexander Nevsky. By the way, the same developer is now building the residential complex "Peter the Great and Catherine the Great" in Ust-Slavyanka.
Leader Tower
Restaurant Floor 41
At the moment, only the 326-meter spire of the TV tower is higher than the Leader Tower (or the Constitution Tower, as it is popularly called). But there, unlike the skyscraper on the Constitution Square, there is no access for mere mortals.
The tower is dissonant with the nearby renovation quarter: an almost 150-meter colossus rises above the shabby semi-accidental five-story buildings (the renovation program, as you know, stalled, so the Khrushchevs will probably stand at the foot of the "Constitution" for a long time to come).
The giant parallelepiped was built in 2013. The entire building is three-part: the left wing is occupied by the Pyramida business center, the right wing is occupied by Lenenergo (some residents of the surrounding houses, however, think that the power grid company owns the entire complex, and call the hotline with complaints about the animated night backlight). Of the relatively accessible establishments in the tower itself, there is a fitness center on the fourth floor and a premium office of Sberbank on the 37th (offices on other floors are rented by various organizations; some of the floors are technical).
The main attraction of Leader Tower is a restaurant on the 41st floor. The average check in it is slightly higher than in the whole city, but this is understandable: the restaurant is positioned as the highest not only in St. Petersburg, but also in Northern Europe. On weekends and holidays, tables by the window for four to six people can only be booked with a deposit of 6-8 thousand rubles (this is the minimum bill amount). The measure was introduced after the influx of those wishing to take observation positions, ordering only tea from the menu. However, on weekdays, tables of the first line can be booked without a deposit.
Lyubov Lebedeva, manager of the restaurant "Etazh 41"
Our restaurant is the highest in Northern Europe, we have specifically studied this issue. We also compared with the Le Jules Verne restaurant on the Eiffel Tower: it turned out that it is lower than us (we are located at an altitude of 150 meters, the Parisian restaurant is at an altitude of 125 meters).
When we opened the restaurant, there was a problem: phones were not picked up at the height. I had to negotiate with MegaFon and MTS so that they set a point. Beeline and Tele2 are caught here (although Tele2 is worse).
Guests are taken to the 40th floor by a high-speed elevator (you need to climb the stairs to the restaurant on the 41st floor; there is also a VIP room on the level above. - Approx. ed.) in 50-60 seconds. At the same time, it lays the ears a little.
An observation deck has been made on the roof (it is surrounded by glass around the perimeter higher than human height), but access to it has not yet been formalized, and the platform does not function. Ideally, we would like to make a summer terrace there for restaurant guests. When exactly it will be able to open is still unclear.
There is the following nuance: all buildings above 25 floors must have a helipad in case of fire. We have it, and in order for an observation deck to function nearby, it is necessary to obtain approval. By the way, in case of an emergency, you can also evacuate from the building down: there are two fire escapes.
Recently, the Ministry of Emergency Situations had a holiday, and rescuers conducted exercises in the Leader Tower: they climbed up the stairs in gas masks to the 40th floor. The first place was taken by a man who got up in 7 minutes 40 seconds.
From the restaurant you can see the Pulkovo Heights, the Gulf of Finland, the city center (without binoculars you can clearly see the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Trinity Cathedral, and in good weather - the TV tower). In spring, summer and autumn, there are beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I often took pictures and posted on Instagram (You can see here:,,. - Approx. ed.)- probably tired of subscribers. But there is something to admire. The staff is sometimes distracted from work, goes to the window: it is incredibly beautiful there.
None of the employees are afraid of heights. But there were cases when a guest took a seat at the window (this is called the first line) - and suddenly it turned out that he was suffering from acrophobia. The guest began to feel dizzy, he had to interrupt his rest. But such cases are less than 1%.
The staff jokes that you can open a meteorological service in a restaurant and broadcast: “It’s raining over the Primorsky district now!” From here you can see how the weather changes in the city: where the sun shines, where there are clouds, where there is hail. In a storm wind, our kokedama (globes wrapped in moss, in which decorative plants are planted; hanging from the ceiling in the restaurant. - Approx. ed.) swaying. But there is no particular turbulence here.
The illumination of the building does not interfere with any of the guests of the restaurant. Although I heard that residents of neighboring houses complained about her. I myself live nearby: I fall asleep - I see work, I wake up - I see work. But the issue of backlighting can always be solved with the help of blackout curtains.
How does living on the upper floors of skyscrapers affect a person?
On floors above the ninth in the air of apartments, pathogenic bacteria (primarily causing respiratory diseases) accumulate to a much greater extent than in the dwellings below. This is due to a simple physical phenomenon: warm air tends to rise. Through the stairwells and elevator shafts, warm air is sucked in from the apartments of the lower floors and accumulates in the apartments of the upper ones. That is, the inhabitants above breathe the same air that the inhabitants below have already breathed. This phenomenon is noticeable starting from the fifth floor.
Studies of this kind were carried out in the 1970s in various countries, including the Soviet Union. It is precisely because of such studies that Europe and the USA completely stopped the mass construction of residential buildings above eight floors (which, of course, does not exclude individual cases of high-rise buildings).
Living on the upper floors in buildings where residents use the elevator leads to the fact that the most sensitive categories of the population - small children and the elderly - are much less likely to be on the street compared to the residents of the lower floors. So, children are forbidden to use the elevator without adult supervision. This means that if a child lives on the floor above the fifth and uses the elevator, then he walks only when accompanied by an adult. And an adult should have a resource of time for walks with a child. As for the elderly, according to statistics, most of them are generally afraid of elevators, they are stressed when using them.
There is such a phenomenon as sudden changes in atmospheric pressure on the upper floors, especially if this is a high-rise building - 16 and above. The differences are associated with air circulation inside the building, open or closed windows, and so on. They are of course harmful to older people with hypertension or hypotension.
Vladimir Linov
Associate Professor, Department of Architectural Design, SPbGASU
Tall buildings create a not very pleasant microclimate in the surrounding area. Firstly, due to the large plane of the facade, increased wind flows are created, they are especially characteristic of places between several such houses. When calm, there is a constant draft. When the wind picks up, there can be eddies in the air that knock a person off their feet.
Secondly, tall buildings create large shadows on the ground. In the shady areas, which are located to the north of the buildings, vegetation feels much worse: there are places where even grass does not grow. Lawns without grass appear, which give dust into the air, and this is harmful to people's health, not to mention the fact that the aesthetic qualities of such an area also suffer.
Finally, about the social health of high-rise residents. Any tall building creates a large community of residents. This contributes to the fact that people feel like they are in an anthill, where they do not know most of the neighbors in their communication node, and people become alienated from their building. Sociologists and psychologists call this the feeling of anonymity: you are a nobody among people you do not know. It would seem that you can be patient, no big deal. But there are sensitive categories of the population, namely teenagers. In adolescence, everything around is sharply perceived, including people. And anonymity in adolescence leads to an increase in domestic vandalism: damaged elevators, broken trash cans, overturned benches. It has been statistically recorded that the process of domestic vandalism, which is primarily carried out by teenagers, is directly related to the height of the building. Worse, on the territory where there are multi-storey buildings, street crime is also growing.
In what houses do the townspeople want to live?
Polls about the preferences of residents of different cities have been and are still being conducted in Europe. In the Soviet Union, they were held until the 80s. The data from these surveys predictably indicate that the population would prefer to live in single-family houses on their own plots. In Europe, 60% of the inhabitants favor such a way of life, and in the USSR 40-50% were in favor.
The next largest category is those who want to live in apartment buildings three or four stories high. People consciously or unconsciously understand that this is a more comfortable environment. It is no coincidence that the elite housing that has been built in Russia for the last 20-25 years is almost all low-rise. For example, the development of Krestovsky Island, an enclave of elite and business class housing, is low- and mid-rise.
For objectivity, it must be added that there are categories of the population that are very fond of living at high altitude. There are about 10% of such citizens, they are very fond of the view from the windows and are not afraid of heights. This is due to the genotype - the difference in the physical nature of people.
Is it possible to build new skyscrapers in St. Petersburg?
In more remote areas of St. Petersburg, new high-rise accents are not only acceptable, but even desirable. But these, of course, should be business buildings, not residential ones. In addition, the question arises of how high they should be, what architectural appearance they should have, and where exactly they can be located.
Any intrusion into the historic skyline of the city center, as most experts now admit, is unacceptable. Thus, the construction of the Lakhta Center business skyscraper worsened the historical panorama: it can be seen from the Palace Embankment, and even more clearly from the bridges (Trinity, Liteiny). And this, of course, is one of the town-planning mistakes. Or consider the Leader Tower on Constitution Square. It would seem that it is far from the center. But a well-known fact: when we look from Voznesensky Prospekt at the monument to Nicholas I on St. Isaac's Square, we see next to it the silhouette of this skyscraper, relatively small - 41 floors high. However, the overlay on a very elegant sculptural silhouette of a rough rectangle of an office center does not make the most pleasant impression. It would be desirable to avoid such dissonances.
This means that even far from the historical center, the location of each new high-rise building must be analyzed individually.
The building of the barracks of the Pavlovsky regiment is located on the site where in the 18th century there were houses of eminent nobles, including Prince A.G. Razumovsky, and the building of the city pawnshop, built by the architect Yu.M. Felten. The majestic building of the barracks on the Field of Mars is a magnificent creation of the outstanding Russian architect Vasily Petrovich Stasov.
The Pavlovsky regiment was formed by the decree of Peter the Great. The regiment gained particular fame during the Patriotic War of 1812. He participated in military operations at Borodino, in battles near the village of Klyastitsy, on the Berezina River and others. In 1813 the regiment was awarded the St. George banners. He also received the honorary title of "Pavlovsky's Life Guards".
The construction of the barracks building on the site between the Field of Mars, Millionnaya Street and Aptekarsky Lane began in 1817. Since 1819, the Pavlovsky Regiment has already been stationed here. The main facade of the building faces the Champ de Mars. There was an inscription on the attic - "The barracks of the Life Guards of the Pavlovsky Regiment." The facade stretches for more than one hundred and fifty meters, and is punctuated by three Doric porticos. Two side six-column porticos of the building are completed with a pediment, and a large central twelve-column portico is completed with an attic. Characteristic for Stasov is the rather sparse decoration of the building with sculptural decorations. The facade of the barracks overlooking Millionnaya Street is punctuated by a ten-columned Doric portico. On the reliefs that adorn the pediments and attic of the building, mainly military armor, banners, shields, etc. The building of the barracks of the Pavlovsky regiment completed the architectural ensemble of the adjacent square. It is a magnificent architectural monument of Russian classicism of the first half of the 19th century.
The internal premises of the barracks are devoid of any artistic solution, which is naturally explained by the purpose of the building. One can only note the church hall with an Ionic colonnade, typical of the front halls of the early 19th century. In the thirties of the XX century, it was somewhat rebuilt according to the project of the architect O. Munts, turning into a club room. Currently, the recreation center "Lenenergo" is located here.
After the revolution, the Pavlovsky regiment was disbanded. During the Second World War, the building was hit by several aerial bombs and artillery shells. But by 1948 the facades of the barracks were restored. Today, the Lenenergo administration is located in the former barracks of the Pavlovsky Regiment.
