LinaGroza
St Petersburg-Vitebsky
Photo © Lina Groza 2022
St Petersburg-Vitebsky is a railway station terminal in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Formerly known as St Petersburg-Tsarskoselsky station because its first line led to the suburban royal residences town of Tsarskoye Selo, it was the first railway station to be built in Saint Petersburg and the whole of the Russian Empire (while its present-day building is much newer). Later, with considerable extension of its lines, the station was renamed after a much farther destination - Vitebsk, a city in Belarus.
Construction of new building started in 1901 and lasted for three years. Stanislaw Brzozowski gave the new two-storey station an ornate frontage in an assortment of historical styles, with decorative reliefs, floriated Jugendstil detailing, outsize semicircular windows and two regular features of 19th-century train stations: a pseudo-Renaissance dome and a square clocktower.
However, it was Sima Minash's opulent Art Nouveau interior that established the building as the most ornate of St Petersburg stations. Minash was responsible for the sweeping staircases, foyer with stained glass and spacious halls boasting a series of painted panels that chronicle the history of Russia's first railway. The building's soaring arches and expanses of glass proclaimed the architect's familiarity with advanced construction techniques of the West.
St Petersburg-Vitebsky
Photo © Lina Groza 2022
St Petersburg-Vitebsky is a railway station terminal in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Formerly known as St Petersburg-Tsarskoselsky station because its first line led to the suburban royal residences town of Tsarskoye Selo, it was the first railway station to be built in Saint Petersburg and the whole of the Russian Empire (while its present-day building is much newer). Later, with considerable extension of its lines, the station was renamed after a much farther destination - Vitebsk, a city in Belarus.
Construction of new building started in 1901 and lasted for three years. Stanislaw Brzozowski gave the new two-storey station an ornate frontage in an assortment of historical styles, with decorative reliefs, floriated Jugendstil detailing, outsize semicircular windows and two regular features of 19th-century train stations: a pseudo-Renaissance dome and a square clocktower.
However, it was Sima Minash's opulent Art Nouveau interior that established the building as the most ornate of St Petersburg stations. Minash was responsible for the sweeping staircases, foyer with stained glass and spacious halls boasting a series of painted panels that chronicle the history of Russia's first railway. The building's soaring arches and expanses of glass proclaimed the architect's familiarity with advanced construction techniques of the West.