Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/576

 552 SAINT PETERSBTJKG in and without with military trophies. The English church, W. of the admiralty, is richly ornamented. St. Petersburg is a city of pal- aces. The Winter palace is said when the emperor occupies it to have more than 6,000 inhabitants. It was burned in 1837, and re- built in 1839 on a more magnificent scale. It is one of the largest palaces in the world, and is in the form of a square, 455 ft. long and 350 ft. broad. Its halls are of wonderful beauty, and filled with the richest statuary, gems, and pictures, and magnificent tables and vases of malachite. The Hermitage, built by Catharine II., is connected with the Winter palace, and contains 40 rooms of paintings, a museum of statuary, arms, and gems, a theatre, and a li- brary with many engravings. The marble pal- ace, a massive, gloomy-looking building, lies near Troitzkoi or Trinity bridge, considerably E. of the Hermitage. A mile further E., on the banks of the Neva, is the Taurida palace, which has a ball room 320 ft. long and 70 ft. wide. The Annitchkoff palace, the favorite residence of the emperor Nicholas, is on the Neva perspective near the Fontanka canal. One of the finest new palaces is that of the grand duke Vladimir, completed in 1871. The government buildings are remarkable for their immense size, and some of them possess great architectural beauty. The principal are the admiralty, half a mile long and with two wings 650 ft. in length, the holy synod, the headquarters of the ecclesiastical direction of the Greek church, the hotel de Vital major, and the war office; and on the opposite side of the Great Neva, on Vasili island, the ex- change and custom house, both imposing edi- fices ; on Citadel island, the citadel and the mint ; and further down the river, on Vasili island again, the Mtel des mines, the academy of arts, the academy of sciences with its mu- seum and observatory, and the fine barracks of the cadets. The imperial library contains 1,100,000 volumes and 85,000 manuscripts, many of them of great value. The academy of sciences and the Hermitage have 120,000 volumes each. The academy of sciences, found- ed by Peter the Great under the direction of Leibnitz, has Asiatic, Egyptian, and ethno- graphic museums, and numismatic, anatomi- cal, mineralogical, and other collections; in 1873 it was attended by 303 students. The academy of arts, recently much improved un- der the direction of Prince Gagarin, is noted for its galleries of pictures and sculptures. The museum of the mining school has a celebra- ted collection of minerals, and the Rumiantzeff museum of oriental objects. One of the most prominent learned bodies is the imperial geo- graphical society. The university was founded in 1819, and in 1872 had 1,413 students. There are several colleges and special schools and in- stitutions of all grades. Female gymnasia and a female normal school were opened in 1873, and new compulsory schools at the end of 1874. St. Petersburg has many extensive char- itable institutions, including the famous found- ling hospital. (See FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.) The Gostinnoi Dvor, the principal market, is a co- lossal pile of buildings, with many shops and warehouses, resembling a perpetual fair. The Great theatre for Italian opera, and the Mi- chael for French and German plays, are most frequented ; the Marie and Alexander are for Russian performances. The English club, called so after the original founders, though now not much frequented by Englishmen, is the prin- cipal one ; the most exclusive is the imperial yacht club. The principal park is the Sum- mer gardens ; military reviews are held on an adjoining square. At the entrance of the park is a chapel erected in 1866 to commemorate the escape of the present emperor from assas- sination. The city is deserted in summer by the nobility. In winter it is one of the most brilliant and also most expensive capitals of Europe. The mean annual temperature of St. Petersburg is 89 F. ; the mean summer tem- perature is 62, that of winter 18. The ex- tremes are 99 and 51. The cold is very severe, but, protected by furs, the residents do not feel it so much as in milder climates. But the sanitary condition of the city is unsatis- factory, owing to the cellars of nearly all the houses being inhabited. The number of fever patients in the hospitals in the beginning of 1875 exceeded 10,000, or about 1 in 70 of the population, besides the sick in private houses, few of which were at that period free from typhus fever. The imperial manufactories of Gobelin tapestry, of glass, porcelain, malachite and other precious stones, military surgical in- struments, and embroideries, are on a large scale. There are also extensive founderies of cannon, and manufactories of cotton, silk, mus- lin, and woollen goods, leather, fringes, paper, tobacco, soap, clocks, jewelry, &c. The com- merce has received a new impulse from the opening of the Finland and Baltic roads, and about 8,000 vessels now arrive and depart an- nually. St. Petersburg is also the centre of the Russian book trade. The docks were in 1875 connected by rail with Moscow and other cities, and a canal to Cronstadt is expected to be completed in 1879. St. Petersburg was founded May 27, 1708, by Peter the Great. He first erected a fortress on the site of the present citadel, and such were the obstacles with which he met in the treacherous charac- ter of the soil, the climate, and the insalubrity of the location, that a man of less resolute will would have abandoned the undertaking. But his perseverance triumphed over nil diffi- culties, and in 1712 he declared it his capital, instead of Moscow. At his death the city had only a few good buildings. His successors embellished and almost created it, especially Catharine II. In 1824 it was visited with a terrible inundation. The city formed part of the government of St. Petersburg till 1871, when it was made a separate administrative district.