Saint Petersburg – Great Capital of Europe

The earliest urban planning initiatives in Russia, in the modern sense of the term, date back to the time of Peter the Great. Saint Petersburg became the first Russian city to be developed according to a regular plan. As early as January 1716, Peter I approved a development plan for Vasilyevsky Island, drawn up by Domenico Trezzini. The following year, French architect Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond presented his own plan for the layout of the new Russian capital. This was a remarkably beautiful scheme for an ideal city shaped as an oval within a system of fortifications. Unfortunately, Le Blond’s project was never implemented — Peter quickly lost interest and returned to Trezzini’s simpler but more realistic ideas. This was also the time when the first standardised residential building designs in Russian history were introduced, which significantly accelerated the construction of streets and embankments in Saint Petersburg.

The next major milestone in the city’s development came during the reign of Catherine the Great, with the establishment of the Commission for the Stone Construction of Saint Petersburg and Moscow. In 1763, the Commission launched a competition for the general plan of Saint Petersburg — the first architectural competition in Russian history to be held according to publicly announced and strictly regulated rules.

Two years later, the winning proposal by Alexei Kvasov was approved, though it was later amended and expanded. The plan called for further development of the radial scheme implemented earlier by Pyotr Yeropkin, with three main avenues converging at the Admiralty. The design envisioned new public squares (including a chain of squares on the site of the Admiralty bastions), grand stone embankments, and masonry bridges. It also introduced regulations for building alignment and uniform building heights, which necessitated the development of standardised facade designs. A clear boundary was established between the city and its suburbs.