Where is the city from? Part 7. Antediluvian city, or why the first floors in the ground?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Old engravings given from the history textbook

Palace of Peter 1 (1716)

Every ancient city has buildings immersed in cultural layers. Take a closer look at this engraving. The first floor of the building has gone underground, it is old, very old.

Or here, also in 1716 (engraving. Alexey Zubov).

The main entrance and the windows of the first floor are deep in the ground, how many years did it have to stand to reach such a state?

Here is today's photo, the house is 300 years old. Compare the street level with the ground floor level.

And how can this fit into the time frame of such a global construction? Founded on May 16, 1703, and in a couple of years the whole city, with infrastructure, fortresses, port, palaces and gardens, was commissioned, as they say, on a turnkey basis. I DO NOT BELIEVE!!!

Considering the architecture of St. Petersburg, a lot of questions arise for architects. Knowing that the city is prone to floods, all buildings for some reason stand knee-deep in water, basement floors are flooded, hence the question: WHO BUILDS THIS? … or it was already. Consider a couple of drawings and photographs of the flood in the joint venture. If drawings can embellish an artist's imagination, then photographs tell the story after the fact, and you can't get away from it.

Here is the official floodability map of the city.

Probably, among the readers there is no person who is not familiar with the poem by A. S. Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman", but few (even among Petersburgers) saw the true plan of the famous flood described by the poet. Such a plan was carried out by the engraver and publisher A. Savinkov, who served in the Depot of Maps, established by the decree of Paul I in 1797. Places flooded during the flood of 1824 are highlighted with blue paint.

“Plan of the capital city of St. Petersburg”. Engraver A. Savinkov (St. Petersburg, 1825). Copper engraving, 1040ґ1010 mm.

And now photographs of buildings in the 19th century

Knowing about the floodability of the city, the architects had to provide for high foundations and massive basements, with such a volume of construction it is not so difficult, but … Basements are more like the first floors that have sunk into the ground. In the place of the tsar, I would keep such architects on Solovki … or did they not build? … The city stood before them, they simply re-planned, corrected, patched up, so to speak, gave the buildings a more modern look. We know how much the restoration costs now, perhaps these works were disguised as construction works. Design documentation for most of the buildings is missing, but there is a lot of data on renovation and finishing works.

Here is a simple example of restoration work, the colonnade looks unnatural at the level of the third and fourth floors, but it had to be raised, otherwise the columns would be one third lower than the ground level.

And here they were too lazy to dig them up, left as it was.

Window in the basement of the Hermitage.

Even a novice architect will tell you that semi-basements are not built with such windows. The window was laid later. Subsequently, you ask … here I am trying to find out.

Screenshot from a video on the NTV channel. Hermitage, basement.

To unearth the foundations of the Alexandria Column, the Winter Column …, St. Isaac's Cathedral and others … much would fall into place, but do those in power need it to fall into place?

Bonus, an interesting article on the same topic: Ancient civilizations were covered with sand.

Here is a very interesting information about the cartography of the city: maps and plans of St. Petersburg.

Photos of buildings sitting in the ground almost to the floor. Nowadays.

Although, they say that for two hundred years, nothing has changed in their appearance.

If what you see is a semi-basement conceived by the architect, then he obviously saved on the windows.

St. Petersburg 23 line V. O., building of the Mining University

House of P. A. Syreishchikova (Rakhmanovs). Vorontsovo Pole Street.(Yes, the windows on the first floor had to be redone, but where can you go.)

House of Steingel (Lopatina). Gagarinsky Lane. (And who builds like that, a foundation with windows, what would it be for?)

The mansion of P. P. Kiseleva (N. A. Cherkasskaya). Bolshaya Nikitskaya street. (Take a closer look, on the right, how the doors were pulled up, they occupied the floor of the second floor window)

The estate of the Muravyov-Apostles. Old Basmannaya street. (The first floor should, at least, be higher in height than the second, the foundation has not been canceled. But how deep is it buried, this very foundation?)

Yusupov Palace on the Moika

In terms of the ground floor, the Great Catherine Palace is also interesting. Here is a modern photograph.

Three floors and a small earthen embankment in the area of the foundation are clearly visible.

Now consider a photograph of the palace after World War II.

In those places where an embankment will appear over time, windows are clearly visible, which later will be safely added by builders and restorers.

Here is a modern photo, find where the windows were

You can look at the drawings and engravings of the 19th century, they are also informative.

The annexes do not have windows in the ground, but they are clearly visible on the central building. What does this mean? … The fact that all the outbuildings are later.

Here are engravings from the times of Catherine

If you look closely at the three central buildings, you can see windows close to the ground.

Here is another interesting photo.

There is no earthen embankment yet and the lower floor is visible.

I would like to express my gratitude to Andrey Bogdanov, who sent these photos here.

The text of the author of the photos:

It is very difficult to show the ratio of levels with a photograph, especially since there are several of them!

And so on photo 1 is the existing level of the courtyard of the mansion.

In photo 2 there is a preserved door to the 1st floor.

Photo 3 shows a view from the basement to the laid-up windows. There are even older and deeper masonries.

Here is a very interesting article under the link: The secret imperial metro near St. Petersburg.

The Alexander Palace also easily fits into the theory of the ground floor skidding.

A vivid example of a skid, here is a photo

The water level is much higher than the level of the "basement" floor, so it was not built even in the 18th century. Here is a photo of the basement of the palace, the floor level was raised by more than a meter already in the 19th century.

Half-laid window openings are very clearly visible. Going deeper by 120-140 cm, we come across another stone floor, and even lower on the remains of the foundation. For comparison, the Moscow Kremlin (according to the official version, it is 300 years older, but the ceilings of the first floor are normal, there is no need to lay up to half of the window)

A bit of history. On the corner of Srednyaya and Dvortsovaya streets, one of the historical monuments of Pushkin flaunts - the dacha of Giacomo Quarenghi. Once upon a time, 200 years ago, a great architect lived in this country house. … The Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi arrived in Russia at the invitation of Catherine II in 1779. He served in the Russian service until his death in 1817, creating his best creations in St. Petersburg and the surrounding area, which brought him world fame. A brilliant period of his activity is associated with Tsarskoe Selo. For two decades from 1780 to 1800. here, according to his projects and under his direct supervision, there was an almost continuous construction. He redesigned the interiors in the Zubovsky building of the Grand Palace, built the Cold and Turkish Baths, a Concert Hall, a ruin kitchen, a Turkish kiosk, bridges and, finally, created the main work - the Alexander Palace. Forced to frequent and stay for a long time in Tsarskoe Selo, the architect turned to the court with a request to provide him and his family with government housing. The request was granted …

… A beautiful end-to-end fence divided the territory of the site allocated by Quarenghi under Catherine II into two approximately equal halves, of which the smaller, southern, was set aside for the ceremonial courtyard with the manor house and services, and the large, northern, for a landscape garden with a pond and a garden pavilion (Coffee house) and a greenhouse.

In the album of 1833 "Costumes and views of St. Petersburg and the surrounding area" there are many drawings, for example, this drawing

History says that the building on the left has just been completed. A fair question arises: why the basement windows are laid, why? If they are not needed, why were they made. A simple plinth is much cheaper. If you need it, why did you lay it down?

But if you dig deeper, three to four meters from the surface, you can stumble upon the foundations of these structures. Igor Garbuz, senior researcher at the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, talks about the excavations: “They didn’t just lay them with torn stones, I mean granite, boulders, but also worked them. Imagine how much labor you have to invest. Especially at the beginning of the 18th century, to make a rectangular granite slab out of a boulder.” …and bury it four meters in the ground (this is from me).

Underground Petersburg will still be divided … or sold

An expert advisory commission on foundations, foundations and underground structures has been recreated in St. Petersburg. Priority tasks of the Commission: problems of the development of the underground space of St. Petersburg. So far, only questions …

1. Is St. Petersburg ready for this - legislatively, normatively, strategically?

2. What is the role of the Commission in the implementation of innovative design and technological solutions in underground construction, in addressing issues of protecting the architectural heritage?

3. Is it possible to develop underground space in security zones, under what conditions?

4. What urban projects will first of all have to pass the examination?

According to Vladimir Ulitskiy, head of the Department of Foundations and Foundations, the city is not ready strategically for the development of underground space - there is no single plan for underground construction.

Here is a HUGE amount of pictures of old Peter.

Thanks to the author of the site for such a job.

Notes of a boring person. Saint Petersburg.

And here are the buildings built in the 18th century, according to similar projects …

Man-Tess. The small hotel is located in the very center of the city in old Riga. The hotel building (18th century) belonged to the famous Riga architect Kr. Haberland. (The height of the first floor is what it should be.)

House of Degtyarev (Degtyarevs, an old KALUGA merchant family). Fedor Fedotov, son of Degtyarev - MUROMSKY merchant of the 3rd guild. The book of those who signed up for 1781 from the bourgeoisie to the merchant class. (The first floor is as it should be).

The main event in Moscow education in the 18th century was the opening of Moscow University in 1755 (The height of the first floor is normal.)

The building of the old station in Taganrog. (The height of the first floor is clearly higher, everything is as it should be).

Hotel Big Moscow. Rostov-on-Don. (The first floor is ok).

Penza School of Railway Transport. (The first floor is ok).

Here is a whole selection of photographs of Moscow buildings of the same age as the St. Petersburg buildings. As I didn’t look closely, as I didn’t compare the floors, Moscow buildings were built correctly, with foundations, or powerful basements. So why did the architects build completely different houses at the same time, in St. Petersburg with dungeons, and in Moscow without them?

There is a strange feeling of understatement, why all over Russia and Europe, at the same time, buildings very similar in design were built, and only in the only city of St. Petersburg were they buried on the floor of a floor, and in some places on the floor in the ground? Maybe they were dug up on the contrary, and then completed, leaving the first floor where it really was?