Avtovo (russian: А́втово) is a station on the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro. Designed by architect , it opened as part of the first Leningrad Metro line on November 15, 1955. In 2014,

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

included it on the list of 12 most beautiful metro stations in the world. Avtovo's unique and highly ornate design features columns faced with ornamental

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

manufactured at the

Lomonosov Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (; russian: Михаил (Михайло) Васильевич Ломоносов, p=mʲɪxɐˈil vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ , a=Ru-Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov.ogg; – ) was a Russian Empire, Russian polymath, s ...

factory. Although the original plan envisaged using glass on all of the columns in the station, white

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

was substituted on some due to time constraints. This marble was supposed to be temporary, but it has never been replaced. The walls are faced with white marble and adorned on the north side by a row of ornamental ventilation grilles. At the end of the platform a mosaic by V.A. Voronetskiy and A.K. Sokolov commemorates the

Leningrad Blockade The siege of Leningrad (russian: links=no, translit=Blokada Leningrada, Блокада Ленинграда; german: links=no, Leningrader Blockade; ) was a prolonged military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the Soviet city of L ...

(1941-1944) during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Unlike the other stations on the first line, Avtovo is a shallow-level station, constructed using the cut and cover method. It belongs to the shallow column class of underground stations. Avtovo has as its entrance vestibule a large Neoclassical building with a domed

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

, located on the east side of .

Gallery

Image:Metro SPB Line1 Avtovo pavilion.jpg, Avtovo entrance vestibule

References

External links

*
Description of the station on Metrowalks.ru

{{Foot zones of Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg Metro stations Railway stations in Russia opened in 1955 Railway stations located underground in Russia Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Saint Petersburg