St. Petersburg: Architecture of the Tsars

Before becoming a city St. Petersburg was a utopian vision in the mind of its founder Peter the Great. Conceived by him as Russia's window to the West it evolved into a remarkably harmonious assemblage of baroque rococo neoclassical and art nouveau buildings that reflect his taste and that of his successors including Anna I Elizabeth I Catherine the Great and Paul I. Crisscrossed by rivers and canals this Venice of the North as Goethe dubbed it is of unique beauty. Never before has that beauty been captured as eloquently as on the pages of this sumptuous volume. From the stately mansions lining the fabled Nevsky Prospekt to the magnificent palaces of the tsars on the outskirts of the city including Peterhof Tsarskoe Selo Oranienbaum Gatchina and Pavlovsk photographer Alexander Orloff's portrait of St. Petersburg does full justice to the vision of its founder and namesake. The text by art historian Dmitri Shvidkovsky chronicles the history of the city's planning and construction from Pe