The Main Admiralty building is an outstanding sample of Russian and world architecture, the major achievement of the early classical art. The Admiralty is the architectural and compositional center of Saint Petersburg. Three main thoroughfares of the city converge here, which are the Nevsky Prospect, the Voznesensky Prospect and Gorokhovaya Street. The gilded spire of the Admiralty is one of the landmarks of Saint Petersburg.
The first Admiralty was founded in 1704 as a shipbuilding yard, to the design of Peter I himself. The first Admiralty building looked like one-story clay-walled structures arranged in the form of the Russian letter Ï with a tower on the top. The territory was fortified by earthen ramparts and bastions. The yard was surrounded by an inner moat. The building contained warehouses and workshops, as well as different admiralty departments. The Admiralty was the place where the first Russian ships were built and where Russian fleet was born. In the time of Peter the Great the Admiralty building delighted the first citizens of Saint Petersburg.
The new stone building of the Admiralty was constructed in 1730s to architect Korobov's design. It was built in the same place and retained the former layout and the general outline. In the center, above the gates, a well-proportioned tower went up 72 meters high, topped by a gilt spire, which has remained there up to the present.
In the early 19th century, when the center of the city could boast of grand architectural ensembles, it became necessary to rebuild the Admiralty radically. The fortification structures were demolished. In 1806-1823 the third Admiralty, the present one, was put up to the great Russian architect Zakharov's design. The Admiralty building commemorates the naval power and victories of the Russian fleet. The grand structure (its main facade is 407 meters long) consists of two H-shaped buildings - the outer and the inner ones. The central part of the main building is topped with the tower having the weather-vane in the form of a ship on its top that has become the symbol of the city. The weather-vane, which we can see today, is the forth one, placed on the top of the Admiralty tower in 1886. It weights 65 kg and it's covered with 65 kg of pure gold, but still it turns around easily to indicate the wind direction.
The Admiralty building is an example of architectural and sculptural synthesis. The best Russian sculptors, such as Stepan Pimenov, Ivan Terebenev, Vasiliy Demut-Malinovskiy, headed by Feodosiy Shchedrin, decorated the Admiralty building. The 22-meters high-relief The Establishment of Fleet in Russia decorates the Admiralty tower. The relief represents Neptune who is handing Peter I the trident - the symbol of power over the sea. At the corners of the tower attic stand the statues of ancient heroes and commanders: Alexander the Great, Achilles, Ajax and Pyrrhus. The sculptural decoration of the Admiralty tower also includes the composition Nymphs carrying the globe. The statues above the upper colonnade of the tower symbolize the four seasons of the year, four elements of nature, and four main winds. Among them there are Isis, the patroness of shipbuilding, and Urania, the Muse of Astronomy.
In 1874, in front of the Admiralty building the Alexandrovsky garden was opened. In 1883, the garden was decorated with the busts of Russian writers and poets Nikolay Gogol, Vasiliy Jukovsky, Michael Lermontov, composer Michael Glinka and the Central Asia explorer Nikolas Prjevalsky.
In the days of the World War II and the blockade the Admiralty building suffered greatly from bombing. 58 shells and 26 high-explosive bombs destroyed the building. During the first years after the end of the war the facades and the interiors of the Admiralty were restored and reconstructed. The restorers renewed the Admiralty tower and covered the spire with gold. The gilded ship, the symbol of the city, was restored in special workshops, delivered to the top of the tower by plane and fastened to its usual place.