Gostiny Dvor

Categories / Economy/Commerce
GOSTINY DVOR (Trading Court), a trading center made up of rows of shops. The first city market of this kind consisting of numerous wooden shops appeared in Berezovy (Gorodskoy) Island near the present-day Troitskaya Square. It burnt down on 28 July 1810. The first Gostiny Dvor in St. Petersburg, a two-storied tiled clay-walled house, was erected nearby in 1712-13, and was called Novy (New) for a long while. Swedish prisoners of war took part in building it. The shops were located on the first floor, while goods were stored on the second floor. There was also a wooden city hall inside Gostiny Dvor, as well as an exchange, a custom house, and an auction chamber. The first bookshop in St. Petersburg was opened there in January 1714, and remained the only bookshop in the city till the 1760s. Trade in Novy Gostiny Dvor ceased in 1737, its premises were later on used for storing military ammunition. A two-storied Gostiny Dvor, a quadrangle building with a yard inside, was built on Admiralteisky Island, near the bridge over the Moika River and the present-day Nevsky Prospect in 1719-20. The facades of the both stories were designed as arched open galleries. This Gostiny Dvor burnt down on 11 August 1736. After the trade port was moved to the Spit of Vasilievsky Island in 1733, the building of Mytny Dvor was assigned to serve as Gostiny Dvor. The new building was built by architect D. Trezzini in 1722-35 and was intended for commerce. It was initially called Portovy (Port) and Stary (Old) later on. It is on the model of this Gostiny Dvor that other trade courts were built in St. Petersburg and other cities. After the fire of 1763, the premises of Portovy Gostiny Dvor were used as a storage facility. The building was demolished in 1912, nothing but a small part has been preserved at 1 Tiflisskaya Street, which now accommodates a branch of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Novobirzhevoy (Novy) Gostiny Dvor was built by architect G. Quarenghi at the present-day No. 5 Mendeleevskaya Line in the 1790s, operating near Portovy (Stary) Gostiny Dvor in the 1810s. The building was reconstructed by architects Y. Y. Ketcher and K. I. Kashin with the assistance of V. I. Pilyavsky and handed over to Leningad (St. Petersburg) University in 1936 to accommodate the Faculties of History and Philosophy. Bolshoy Gostiny Dvor on Nevsky Prospect has been the largest commercial center in the city from the 1780s.

Reference: Богданов И. А. Большой Гостиный двор в Петербурге. СПб., 2001. С. 6-32.

I. A. Bogdanov. Kashin-Linde Konstantin Ivanovich
Ketcher Yakov Yakovlevich
Pilyavsky Vladimir Ivanovich
Quarenghi Giacomo
Trezzini Domenico
Mendeleevskaya Line/Saint Petersburg, city, house 5
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city
Tiflisskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 1
Городской остров
State University, St. Petersburg
Bolshoy Gostiny Dvor
1704
1723