From Admiralty Meadow to Palace Square

While many have characterized St. Petersburg as the carefully planned creation of the ambitious autocrat Peter the Great, in fact the plans of Peter and his successors were often modified by the needs and habits of the city’s growing population. A key case in point is the process by which Palace Square, the locus of popular, civic and national festivities and solemnities, came to be the city center. This process took place in the eighteenth century and was linked to the gradual pull of the city population to the south, which was eventually recognized and accommodated by Peter’s daughter, Elizabeth, and her brilliant architect, Francesco Rastrelli

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