Vasilyevsky Island is a special place in St. Petersburg. It is with him that many pages of the formation and development of the city are connected. One of the places on the island will be discussed now.
Vasilyevsky Island: pages of the "original" history of St. Petersburg
The very first stage of construction and development of young St. Petersburg is associated with the Petrograd side (then Berezov, or Fomin Island), or rather with Troitskaya Square: it was there that the first center of St. Petersburg was located and life was in full swing.
After moving in 1712 to St. Petersburg all government agencies and associates of Peter I, the city became the capital of the Russian state. And the tsar decided to transfer the city center to Vasilyevsky Island, which was located at the point where the Neva was divided into two large branches - the Bolshaya and Malaya Neva, and went along the coastline to the bay, and therefore was more suitable for the development of trade and shipping. And it was decided to transfer the port to hisarrow.
The development of the city development plan in 1714 was entrusted to the first architect of St. Petersburg, Domenico Trezzini, but the French architect Jean Baptiste Leblon, who arrived in the northern city in 1716, received the same task: Peter I was not satisfied with Trezzini's project, which turned out on that moment. But Peter did not like Leblon's project either. It was decided to return to the Trezzini plan, but modified taking into account the comments of the king. The development plan of the island was based on a system of canals that cross the island and each other perpendicularly.
However, for some reason, the channels that began to be dug were never dug, and instead streets appeared, where each side was a line. They crossed three avenues: Bolshoi, Sredny and Maly.
Vasilyevsky Island - the center of the industry of the city
From the very beginning, St. Petersburg began to develop as an industrial center. Under Peter I back in 1703-1704, sawmills appeared here, and a little later - the Powder Yard, Green Workshops, etc.
In the second half of the 19th - early 20th century, large factories appeared in the southern and northern parts of the island, such as the Pipe Plant (a branch of the St. Petersburg Cartridge Plant), the Cable Plant, Siemens - Schuckert and Siemens - Halske, which manufactured electrical mechanisms and devices, and during the First World War switched to the production of equipment for military equipment, the B altic Shipyard - a center for the production of ships for the B altic Fleet, etc.
Leather line in St. Petersburg
The line was located on its ownside along the shore of the Gulf of Finland, and therefore the name was - Beregovaya. In the second half of the 18th century, Kramp founded a rope factory on the street in houses No. 5 and No. 6, and various enterprises were located in other houses of the line.
The current name was given to her only in 1845. What is a leather line? This is a place associated with the production of leather products that opened here: the first to operate were tanneries - workshops for processing and dressing leather, and then - private factories, of which there were already nine on the island by the end of the century. One of them was the plant of Nikolai Mokeevich Brusnitsyn. In addition, the Egorovs' leather factory is located in house No. 31, the building of the Vladimir Tannery is located in house No. 32, and J. Lyutsha's cotton-printing factory is located in house No. 34.
In dd. No. 17 and No. 18 housed the mechanical foundry founded by Carr and McPherson. Gradually, its territory greatly increased and began to occupy sections from No. 7 to No. 26. In houses No. 38-40 and No. 39, the Siemens-Halske plant was located. In house number 23 - a factory for the production of records.
In addition to the tanneries, warehouses and production facilities of the cement pipe plant were equipped at the St. Petersburg Leather Line.
Brusnitsyn's house
The land next to the one now on the Kozhevennaya line is house number 27, at the end of the 18th century belonged to the merchant's widow, Anna Ekaterina Fisher. She was supposed to set up a leather business in the area.
A residential property was being sold nearby along the same linea stone house with an office, which N. M. Brusnitsyn bought in the 19th century, where he settled with his family. And then he began to build a tannery here and develop production. After the death of Nikolai Mokeevich, his son Nikolai Nikolayevich, a real state councilor and honorary citizen, continued his work. Industrial buildings made of red brick can still be seen at the indicated address.
But the house at number 27 was rebuilt and became so luxurious that it entered the collection of architectural masterpieces of St. Petersburg as one of the most beautiful mansions built in the eclectic style. In fact, this house was originally rebuilt by A. S. Andreev, who added an additional volume from the west, increased the windows of the first floor and the height of the second floor. Then A. I. Kovsharov increased the height of the second floor even more and added an extension from the east - for the main staircase. A Winter Garden was organized in the courtyard, for which a greenhouse was built.
The facade of the mansion is decorated with rustication in the form of small rectangular blocks on the first floor, and on the second - in the walls between the windows in the form of elongated rectangles turned horizontally. In addition, the second floor is decorated with one rectangular and two semicircular bay windows, triangular and arched pediments, sandriks over the windows and stucco molding in the form of garlands.
After the revolution of 1917, the building passed to the tannery. Radishchev and became the plant management.
The neighboring building at number 25 was built by the same A. I. Kovsharov as a residential building for the workers of the tanneryBrusnitsyn.
Wine Factory
The Peretz winery on the Kozhevennaya line was founded at the beginning of the 19th century. It was located in a specially built one-story house at number 30. The author of the building was the famous St. Petersburg architect Vikenty Ivanovich Beretti, and in the second half of the century, the no less famous architect Rudolf Bogdanovich Bernhard built on the third floor.
The front facade of the house is decorated with three classic porticos. And the walls are painted red brick.
From 1820 to 1850, this house housed the wine warehouse of the Treasury, and then the building was taken over by the Vladimir Tannery. Recall that the same plant also owned the neighboring building under No. 32.
Siemens - Halske
Next to the historic building of the cable factory, located in house number 40, there are two buildings that are surprising in their contrast with the industrial development of the site: a rather dilapidated wooden house and a small turret resembling Gothic buildings. These are houses number 36-38. Probably, the owners of the plant lived in them.
The wooden residential building was erected on a stone foundation with a high plinth and built in the form of a log cabin according to the traditions of ancient Russian architecture.
One-story house has six windows on the front facade and three windows on the end, a residential equipped attic and an attic with three windows. The decorative finish is laconic and made in the style of folk woodcarving. The carving adorns the attic and the second floor of the end facade along with the pediment. Alsodecorative carved slats are also trimmed with window frames.
The outbuilding with a Gothic turret is built of stone or brick, plastered and painted with red-brown paint.
The decor of the facades is very strict: they are painted white. The round turret is crowned with an elongated octagonal pommel with a slightly curved edge, which is decorated with a Latin cross on top. Most likely, it was a family or factory church - Catholic, since the founders of the factory were Germans - Werner Siemens and Johann Halske, inventors and engineers.
In the panoramas of St. Petersburg, the Leather Line occupied a special place - the industrial center of Vasilyevsky Island. It created the impression of the city as a large industrial center, and with the opening and development of the B altic Shipyard - as a modern shipbuilding center. This means that she played a big role in creating and strengthening Russia's image in the international arena.
