Restoration Workshops and Organizations

Categories / Architecture/Construction Materials and Industry, Architectural Monuments Restoration
RESTORATION WORKSHOPS AND ORGANIZATIONS. Restoration work in St. Petersburg has developed since the end of the 19th century. The reconstruction of historical and cultural monuments was first considered by the Imperial Archaeological Commission, the Commission for the Studying of Architectural Monuments of the 18th Century (associated with the Academy of Fine Arts), and the Society for the Protection and Preservation of Monuments of Art and Russian Antiquity. After October 1917, restoration workshops called "Leading Science" were created; methods for the reconstruction of monuments were developed by a society called Old Petersburg. The formation of the Leningrad School of Restoration was stimulated by work done throughout the city during the Siege of 1941-44 by the Committee for the Evaluation and Preservation of Historical and Architectural Monuments. Restoration work in Leningrad and its suburbs started immediately after the Lifting of the Siege in 1944. In 1945, the Industrial Art College at the Solyanoy settlement was reopened, where young specialists were trained at special scientific-restoration workshops organised by the Chief Architectural-Planning Administration of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad Soviet. Issues of restoration were considered by the Leningrad Project Institute Workshop № 9. In 1974, a number of restoration organizations and workshops were included in the Specialised Scientific-Industrial Union (from 1988, part of the planning-construction union called Restavrator). In 1987, the only restoration college in the country was connected to this union. Restoration planning and work was executed by the Leningrad Restoration Project Institute, at the Special Project Restoration Institute workshops, the Project Theatre Institute, the Administration for Construction and Restoration in the Capital, and by restoration workshops connected with important museums, such as the State museums of Tsarskoe Selo and Peterhof. Petersburg restorers developed methods for the comprehensive reconstruction of damaged architectural monuments (such as Elagin Palace, Moscow Triumphal Gates, and the Peterhof, Pavlovsk, Gatchina, and Tsarskoe Selo palace-museums). Since 1945, over 3,000 objects and sites were restored (the Hermitage, the Main Admiralty, Shuvalov Palace, the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace, Spas-na-Krovi, and many others). Restoration specialists and architects (such as A.A. Kedrinsky, M.M. Plotnikov, S.I. Gaziyants, N.I. Ode, and G.F. Tsygankov) were awarded state prizes, orders, diplomas, and the Golden Apple International Award for Reconstruction and Preservation of Art and Architectural Monuments.

A. A. Alexeev. Gaziyants S.I.
Kedrinsky Alexander Alexandrovich
Ode N.I.
Plotnikov Mikhail Mikhailovich
Tsygankov Georgy Fedorovich
Archaeological Committee
Academy of Arts
Academy of Arts
Old Petersburg, Society
Siege of 1941-44
Lifting of the Siege, 1944
Solyanoy Settlement
Tsarskoe Selo, Park Museum
Peterhof Museum Park
Elagin Palace
Moscow Triumphal Arch
Hermitage
Hermitage
Admiralty
Admiralty
Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace
Holy Resurrection Cathedral, (Spas-na-Krovi)
1945
1984