News: 2006-11-21

St Petersbutg metro: the history of undeground art.

Almost every citizen and many guests of St. Petersburg use this city's metro for quick, efficient commuting. In fact, over 3 million passengers board the metro trains everyday; some of them read the newspaper or books, some just look aimlessly at the windows while daydreaming or meditating, some even sleep. However, when the more observant passengers alight from the train in the underground they realize that St. Petersburg's metro is more than just a rapid transport system serving a large city; it is a work of art!

History

The plans for St. Petersburg's first metro existed as early as 1899 but subterranean building turned out to be generally difficult because of underground rivers and cavities. Also, wars and revolutions halted progress in the construction of the St. Petersburg metro more than once. The modern system's history really began in 1940 when construction of a line linking together all of the central rail terminals commenced. Offset by World War II, the system was finally triumphantly opened on 20th November 1955 with just eight stations from Ploshchad Vosstaniya to Avtovo. Today's metro system consists of 59 stations on four lines criss-crossing the city.

Artistic Design

The St. Petersburg metro is one of the most beautiful underground transport systems in the world. Many of the stations are a true work of art, having been designed by numerous architects, painters and sculptors. This creative work includes various mosaic panels, bas-reliefs, monuments, columns, arched ceilings and even bronze chandeliers. A wide range of materials has been used from stone to modern finishing materials such as artificial pitch, metals, ceramics and glass. Due to the fact that the St. Petersburg metro was built during the period of the Soviet Union, most of stations' art features ideas of glorifying revolutionary, military and labour exploits of the Russian people and also of outstanding achievements in science and art. To appreciate the attractiveness of the St. Petersburg metro stations you should certainly visit the original eight stations from Ploshchad Vosstaniya to Avtovo on Line 1. Although these were the first in the metro system, they are still to this day the most fascinating stations with typical soviet design and artwork. Many of the stations built in the second half of last century have abundant decorations but there are also recently constructed examples of more modest design where cheaper materials were used.(look at the mosaic from the Sportivnaya station
 
Be sure to visit the Pushkinskaya station where the architects Polyakov and Petrov applied motives of 19th century Russian architecture. The hall is finished with soft white and cream colours and a panel on the centre wall depicts the image of the park at Tsarskoe Selo, highlighted so that you can imagine being there on an early summer morning. In front of this panel is a white marble monument of the famous Russian poet Pushkin, work of the sculptor Anikushin. The poet is displayed sitting on a stone near a pond.

The decor of the Narvskaya station is dedicated to glorifying the labour of the Soviet people. There are high reliefs on pylons with images of people from different professions such as metallurgists, scientists, sailors, pilots and miners. The wide, bright underground hall of the Kirovskiy Zavod station is divided by two rows of columns which were the first of their kind in the history of the metro because they were built of cast iron tubes and coated with light grey sparkling marble. At the top of these columns there are metal reliefs with an industrial theme and the columns are united with flat arcs.

Not all the stations have such serious themes; there is an amusing bas-relief at the Pl.Alexandra Nevskogo station which pictures five men and only four horses. The two-storied Sportivnaya station has an ancient Greek sport-related theme.

The ground-based hall of the Baltiyskaya station is decorated with sculptural medallions housing portraits of such famous Russian naval commanders as Ushakov, Lazarev, Kornilov and Nahimov. The walls are finished with a very striking kind of blue marble which has light and dark stripes reminiscent of waves in the Baltic Sea. There is a panel called "1917" which displays the cruiser Aurora flying the red flag. This panel was made in the style of a Florentine mosaic with huge pieces of marble and various other finishing stones.

Facts and Figures

The St. Petersburg metro has other features, besides its wonderful artistry, which make it stand out. For example, it is one of the deepest metro systems in the world due to the hydrogeological conditions of the area, since the "Venice of the North" was built around a huge, branching river and swamp on a multitude of islands. As a result of this enormous depth the St. Petersburg metro can also boast some exceptionally long escalators among its 200 in total; the maximum being 132m! The escalators at the stations of Pl.Lenina 1, Komendantskiy Prospect and Chernyshevskaya are reputed to be the longest metro escalators in the world.

Nowadays the metro in St. Petersburg has grown to encompass 59 stations (6 interchange stations) and a total 101.7 km of track in four lines (Line 1 - 29.6km, 43 minutes; Line 2 - 27.8km, 43min; Line 3 - 20.6km, 33min; Line 4 - 23.7km, 34min). Train speed averages 35-40km/h with trains arriving every 2-3 minutes and having in total over 1,300 carriages. In addition there are over 13,000 people employed to enable the system to function. Currently the St. Petersburg metro is the only one in the former Soviet Union that extends outside the city's borders into the Leningrad Oblast.