The Mosque of the Congregation of Moslems

1. The Mosque of the Congregation of Moslems

Arch. N. Vasiliev, S. Krichinskiy, A. Gogen (1909-1920), Kronverkskiy prospekt, 7.

The Saint Petersburg Mosque when opened in 1913, was the largest mosque in Europe, its minarets attaining 49 meters in height and the impressive dome rising 39 meters high. The mosque is situated in downtown St Petersburg, so its azure dome is perfectly visible from the Trinity Bridge across the Neva. It can accommodate up to five thousand worshippers.

The founding stone was laid in 1910 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the reign of Abdul Ahat Khan in Bukhara. By that time, the Muslim community of the Russian capital exceeded 8,000 people. The projected structure was capable of accommodating most of them. The architect Nikolay Vasiliev patterned the mosque after Gur-e Amir, the tomb of Tamerlane in Samarkand. Its construction was completed by 1921.

Worshippers are separated by gender during a worship service; females worship on the first floor, while the males worship on the ground floor. The Mosque was closed to worshippers from 1940 to 1956.

History

In 1882, Selim-Girei Tevkelev who in 1865 was appointed the Mufti of Orenburg turned to and obtained agreement from minister Count Tolstoy with the requirement for a mosque in St. Petersburg. In 1906, the Minister formed a special committee headed by Ahun Ataulla Bayazitov to collect 750 000 rubles within 10 years for the construction of the mosque. They organised collections in towns and providences of Russia and received donations from rich sponsors. In addition the committee input securities in total amount of 142, 000 rubles and also stamps for mosque»s project. The biggest donor was Said Abdoul Ahad, Emir of Bochara who undertook all expenses for the building.

The location of the mosque was symbolic, sited opposite the Peter and Paul»s Fortress, in the city centre. The permission to purchase the site was given by Emperor Nicholas II in Peterhof on 3 July 1907. That autumn, the committee approved the project by architect Nikolay Vasiliev, the engineer Stepan Krichinskiy, and construction was overseen by academic Alexander von Gogen. The building facade was made by combining both oriental ornaments and turquoise blue mosaic.

On 3 February 1910, the brick laying ceremony was performed by Ahun Bayazitov, attended by government, religious and social figures. Among those who attended was Amir Buharskiy, Harusin, Novikov, the ambassadors of Turkey and Persia, Sultanov the Orenburg»s Muftiy, and Tevkelev, the leader of the Muslims party in the Duma.

The walls were made with grey granite and the dome and both minarets (tower) are covered with mosaic ceramics of sky-light-blue colour. Skilled craftsmen from Central Asia took part working on the mosque. The facades are decorated with sayings from Koran using the characteristic Arabian calligraphy. Internal columns are made from green marble. woman pray in on the first floor, above the western part of the hall. The mosque was covered by huge special made carpets woven by the Central Asian craftsmen.

The St. Petersburg Mosque was closed and was made into a warehouse during the Second World War. At the request of the first Indonesian President, Soekarno (whilst visiting the city), the mosque was returned to the Muslim community of the city in 1956, ten days after his visit. A major restoration of a mosque was made in 1980.

2. The Museum of the Political History of Russia (The Mansion of M. Kshesinskaya ballet dancer)

Ulitsa Kuybysheva, 2/4.

How did the appearance of politicians vary in the period from the Imperial Russia till our days? How did social crises and dominating ideology influence clothes of ordinary citizens in the XXth century? What did the first ladies of the country wear? These questions are in the focus of attention of the exhibition «Politics and Fashion».

Fashion as a «range of habits and the tastes dominating in a certain social environment during a certain period of time» reflects brightly and picturesquely different epochs. At all times clothes had a distinct indicative content, showed involvement in various social groups, and sometimes underlined political predilections.

This exhibition shows how, during the Soviet period, fashion which was considered a phenomenon of the bourgeois West, overcame a number of barriers to take a legal place in the life of our society. At the exhibition you can see how the appearance of the population depended on political, social and economic conditions. Certain clothes could tell about observance of social behavior rules or cases of deviation.

The Exhibition consists of 7 sections

Section I. Appearance of the population in the Imperial Russia in the early XXth century.

Section II. The Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War. Attributes of revolutionary fashion.

Section III. Fashion of the NEP period and struggle against it. Searches for the ”Soviet style» in clothes (the 1920s).

Section IV. Influence of the first five-year plans epoch on the Soviet people»s appearance. “Prosperity” course in the mid-1930s. Formation of the Soviet elite»s fashion and its influence on people»s tastes.

Section V. Difficulties of a post-war life. Passion for the western fashion and struggle against «servilities to the West» in the late 1940s – early 1950s.

Section VI. Formation of the consumer society in the 1950 – 1980s and its adaptation to the Soviet conditions. Deficiency and fashion. Arrival of the world fashion in Russia.

Section VII. «The Party fashion».

3. The Grand Ducal Burial Vault (Peter and Paul Fortress)

Arch. D.Grimm (1896-1908).

4. St. Apostles Peter and Paul Cathedral (Peter and Paul Fortress)

Arch. D.Trezini (1712-1733)

5.The State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg (Peter and Paul

Fortress)

6. The Boat House (Botnyy Domik) (Peter and Paul Fortress)

Arch. A.Vist(1762-1765), Zayachiy Ostrov

On May 27, 1703 the Sankt-Petersburg fortress was founded on Zayatchy (Hare) island. The island is only 600 meters long and 350 meters wide. However, the fortress was constructed in the strategically important place of the Neva River»s estuary. At first, the fortress was called Sankt-Petersburg (Saint-Petersburg) - the city of Holy Peter. Later, the Saints» Peter and Paul Cathedral was built on the territory of the island and the name was changed to the Petropavlovskaya (Peter and Paul) Fortress.

The Peter and Paul Fortress was supposed to be the Russia»s key to the European maritime communications - Russian outlet to the Baltic Sea, by Peter the Great. The enterprising emperor designed the plan of its construction himself. The fortress has an elongated form from East to West and the walls repeat the island»s outline. Pentagonal bastions at the corners of the fortress constructed under the supervision of Peter the Great and his close associates got their names - His Majesty»s, Menshikov,, Zotov,, Trubetskoy,, Golovkin, and Naryishkin,. The bastions are connected with the others by six curtains - Peter»s, Catherine»s, Neva»s, Basil»s, Nicholas and Kronverk. A canal was dug through the island to supply the garrison of the Saint-Petersburg fortress with ammunition, hardware and fresh water that was later covered with earth in 1882. The walls of the fortress were mainly made of earth and wooden planks in 1703. Their replacement with solid masonry constructions started in May 1706 and lasted till 1740. The Swiss architect Domenico Tresini designed bastions and curtains of the fortress to 12 meters high and to 20 wide. These military fortifications consist of two parallel walls. The external walls are from 4 to 8 meters thick, while the internal ones are to 2,5 meters. Casemates for soldiers and storage of ammunition were arranged between two walls. The fortress has six gates and the main is the Petrine Gate designed by Domenico Tresini. The gate was rebuilt in stone to the design of the same architect in 1718. The Petrine gate imitates a triumphal gate of the Russian victories over Sweden. The construction of ravelins - additional fortification structures, designed to protect Eastern and Western gates of the Peter and Paul fortress, started in 1731. The Eastern Ioanovsky ravelin is called in honour of Peter I»s brother - Ivan, while the Western Alekseevsky ravelin - after his father Aleksey Mikhailovitch.

Domenico Tresini presided the construction of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1712-1733. At first the 122,5 meters belfry was constructed to symbolize the Russian steadfast position on the banks of the Neva River and the Baltic Sea. It was the highest structure on the territory of Saint-Petersburg from 1718 to 1963, when the present 316-meters TV-tower was built. The bell tower ends with a 32-meters high golden spire, a turning cross with the figure of an angel. A Dutch chiming clock bought by the order of Peter the Great was placed on the top. The Peter and Paul Cathedral has an elongated rectangular form with a high belfry on the western side instead of a high central cupola in the Old Russian architecture. Inside the cathedral is divided into three naves by two rows of pylons that support groined vaults. Murals and sculptures depicting angels, chirrups and instruments of Christ»s torture decorate the vaults. One of the most precious exhibits of the Peter and Paul cathedral is an 18th-century iconostasis. It was made of oak and linden by a group of skilled craftsmen headed by Ivan Zaroudny in Moscow in 1722-1725. Then it was transported to Saint-Petersburg and was placed inside the cathedral in 1727. The iconostasis was designed in the form of a triumphal arch, symbolizing the Russian victory in the Northern war over Sweden. The tsar»s place, the pulpit and copies of Turkish and Swedish military banners impart a solemnity to the decoration of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. In 1756, a thunderbolt struck the high spire, the belfry with the figure of the angel burnt to the ground, and the inside of the cathedral was badly damaged as well. Only twenty years later the bell tower was completely rebuilt. The badly weathered frameworks of the belfry were replaced with the exact copies made of steel to the design of civil engineer Zuravsky in 1858. Then the height of the bell tower was increased to 122.5 meters due to the computation error. The Peter and Paul Cathedral was a burial place of all Russian tsars. All Russian emperors from Peter I to Nicholas II, except Peter II and Ivan IV, all Russian empresses and many Grand Dukes were buried there. The Grand Ducal Burial Vault, designed by Grimm, Tomishko and Benua, was constructed near the Eastern side of the Peter and Paul cathedral in 1896-1906. Thirteen members of the Romanovs» family were buried there before the Bolshevik October Revolution in 1917.

A number of subsidiary buildings were constructed on the territory of the Peter and Paul fortress: ordnance depot, commandant»s house, mint, guardhouse, engineers» house, jail of the Trubetskoy bastion. Today many buildings accommodate exhibitions about the foundation, construction and history of Saint-Petersburg. An excursion route called the Neva»s gala panorama was arranged on the bastions and curtains of the fortress that overlook the Neva River.

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