Suvorov Square () is a

city square A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Rel ...

in Tsentralny District,

Saint 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 ...

. It is located between

Palace Embankment The Palace Embankment or Palace Quay (Russian: Дворцовая набережная, Dvortsovaya naberezhnaya) is a street along the Neva River in Central Saint Petersburg which contains the complex of the Hermitage Museum buildings (includin ...

and the junction of the embankment of the

Swan Canal The Swan Canal () is a waterway located in Saint Petersburg. Dating from the early years of the foundation of the city, it connects the Moyka River, Moyka and Neva Rivers. Originally built as part of a system of drainage channels and canals, the ...

and Millionnaya Street, at the southern end of the Trinity Bridge and the northern end of the

Field of Mars The term Field of Mars () goes back to antiquity, and designates an area, inside or near a city, used as a parade or exercise ground by the military. Notable examples of places which were used for these purposes include: * Campus Martius, an area i ...

. It is bordered to the east by the

Saltykov Mansion The Saltykov Mansion (, , ''Palais Soltikoff'') is a Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical palace situated between Palace Embankment and Millionnaya Street in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was built to the design of Giacomo Quarenghi in the 1780 ...

and to the west by the service wing of the

Marble Palace The Marble Palace () is one of the first Neoclassical palaces in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is situated between the Field of Mars and Palace Quay, slightly to the east from New Michael Palace. Design and pre-1917 owners The palace was bu ...

Location

Construction on the left bank of the

Neva The Neva ( , ; , ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of , it is the fourth- ...

began in the early years of the city's foundation. The riverbank was strengthened with wooden embankments, and from the early 1760s, by stone ones. The embankment was rebuilt between the

Summer Garden The Summer Garden () is a historic public garden that occupies an eponymous island between the Neva, Fontanka, Moika, and the Swan Canal in downtown Saint Petersburg, Russia and shares its name with the adjacent Summer Palace of Peter th ...

and the

Winter Palace The Winter Palace is a palace in Saint Petersburg that served as the official residence of the House of Romanov, previous emperors, from 1732 to 1917. The palace and its precincts now house the Hermitage Museum. The floor area is 233,345 square ...

in the 1770s and the river frontage became a popular site for the palaces and townhouses of the wealthy and powerful. One plot, now occupied by the Saltykov Mansion, passed through a number of owners, before being gifted to Count

Nikolai Saltykov Count, then Prince Nikolay Ivanovich Saltykov (, 31 October 1736 – 28 May 1816), a member of the Saltykov noble family, was a Russian Imperial Field Marshal and courtier best known as the tutor of the eventual Tsar Paul I of Russia and h ...

by Empress Catherine the Great.

Development

By the late eighteenth century, the plot of land to the west of the Saltykov Mansion was owned by

Alexander Vorontsov Count Alexander Romanovich Vorontsov () (4 February 17412 December 1805) was the Chancellor of the Russian Empire during the early years of Alexander I of Russia, Alexander I's reign. He began his career at the age of fifteen in the Izmailovsky ...

. Vorontsov passed on the land and it became a garden for the Saltykov Mansion, stretching between the mansion and the Marble Palace, and separating the Tsaritsa Meadow from the bank of the

. In 1818, the garden was bought by the treasury and redeveloped into a square to the designs of architect Carlo Rossi.

Mikhail Kozlovsky Mikhail Ivanovich Kozlovsky (Russian: Михаил Иванович Козловский; 6 November 1753 – 30 September 1802) was a Russian Neoclassical sculptor active during the Age of Enlightenment. Biography Beginning his training at th ...

's monument to Alexander Suvorov was moved to the centre of the new square, and from 1823, it became known as Suvorov Square. Rossi reworked the facade of the Saltykov Mansion facing the square, adding new window openings to the previously blank walls, and creating a porch entrance onto the square. He also continued Sadovaya Street alongside the Field of Mars, connecting it with Millionnaya Street at the square. From 1824, a pontoon bridge across the Neva linked Suvorov Square with , becoming known as Trinity Bridge. The pontoon design was replaced by a permanent structure in 1903. During the winters from 1895 to 1910, of the Neva from the square towards the of the river, and later to the . The square today is crossed by the access roads for the Trinity Bridge, and those connecting from Swan Canal embankment and Millionnaya Streets to the Palace Embankment. The Suvorov Monument is on a

traffic island A traffic island is a solid or painted object in a road that channels traffic. It can also be a narrow strip of island between roads that intersect at an acute angle. If the island uses road markings only, without raised curbs or other physica ...

at the centre of the square.

References

{{Coord, 59, 56, 45, N, 30, 19, 47, E, type:landmark, display=title Squares in Saint Petersburg