Great Gostiny Dvor () is a vast department store on Nevsky Avenue in

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, Russia. This '' Gostiny Dvor'' is not only the city's oldest shopping centre, but also one of the first shopping arcades in the world. Sprawling at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and Sadovaya Street for over one kilometer and embracing the area of , the indoor complex of more than 100 shops took twenty-eight years to construct. Building works commenced in 1757 to an elaborate design by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, but that subsequently was discarded in favour of a less expensive and more functional Neoclassical design submitted by Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe (1729–1800). Throughout the following century, Gostiny Dvor was continuously augmented, resulting in ten indoor streets and as many as 178 shops by the 20th century. By that time, the Gostiny Dvor had lost its popularity to the more fashionable Passage and New Passage, situated on the Nevsky Prospekt nearby. During the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

reconstructions, its inner walls were demolished and a huge shopping mall came into being. This massive 18th-century structure received a face-lift and entered the 21st century as one of the most fashionable shopping centres in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. A nearby station of Saint Petersburg Metro takes its name from Gostiny Dvor.

References

*Bogdanov I.A. ''Bolshoi Gostiny dvor v Peterburge''. SPb, 2001.

External links

Official website of Great Gostiny Dvor in St Petersburg
{{coord, 59, 56, 03, N, 30, 19, 56, E, region:RU-SPE_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Shopping malls in Russia Shopping malls established in 1785 Buildings and structures in Saint Petersburg Nevsky Prospekt Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg