Smolny. Photoletting. Album

The strict, exquisite building of the former Smolny Institute, built by the great architect J. Quarengi, occupies a special place both in architecture and in the history of St. Petersburg. In its walls for more than a century there was an imperial educational society of noble girls, which played a noticeable role in Russian culture and female education. After 1917, when Smolny became the center of the political life of Petrograd, party and Soviet authorities were located here. During the Great Patriotic War, the defense and ensuring the vital activity of the blockade Leningrad was carried out from here, and in the post -war period - the restoration and development of the glorious city. And today Smolny is a government building, the residence of the governor of St. Petersburg. He has long become one of the symbols of the city on the Neva - it was no coincidence that anniversary postage stamps, postcards, and memorable signs came out with his image in different years.
The beauty of the building, its picturesque location in the bend of the Neva, in the very center of the northern capital, for centuries attract the attention of artists, graphs, photographers. Different visual material has been collected in this album - drawings of the architect, lithography, painting works and, above all, the work of first -class photomasters of the XIX -XXI centuries that allow you to recreate the documentary chronicle of the building, make a small tour of time on it and make a holistic impression of a wonderful architectural and park Ensemble.
Compiled by A. Yu. Sheleev