Sennaya Square
[
]
or Sennaya Ploshchad (russian: Сeннáя Плóщадь, literally: ''Hay Square''), known as ''Peace Square'' between 1963 and 1991, is a large city square in
Central Saint Petersburg
Central Saint Petersburg is the central and the leading part of Saint Petersburg, Russia. It looks nothing like the downtown district of a typical major city, and has no skyscrapers. The Central Business District's main borders are Neva River ...
, located at the crossing of
Garden Street
Sadovaya Street or Garden Street is a major thoroughfare in Saint Petersburg, Russia, passing through the historic city center.
From east to west, it begins near the Field of Mars, crosses the Moika River at the First Sadovy Bridge, then pas ...
,
Moskovsky Prospekt, and
Grivtsova Lane.
The square was established in 1737 as a market where
hay,
firewood
Firewood is any wooden material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form, compared to other forms of wood fuel like pellets or chips. Firewood can ...
and
cattle were sold. It was built under the extension of the Garden Street, and grew quickly, becoming the cheapest and the most active market in
Saint Petersburg. The Hay Market was a place where merchants and farmers could trade. It was there that malefactors were flogged before a large concourse of people.
In 1753 local merchants commissioned the building of the
Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God in a sumptuous
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
style. In the middle of the square is a former guardhouse (1818–20).
Cholera riots
Cholera Riots refers to civil disturbances associated with an outbreak or epidemic of cholera.
In Russia
The Cholera Riots (''Холерные бунты'' in Russian) were the riots of the urban population, peasants and soldiers in 1830–183 ...
took place in the square in 1831. The
surrounding district was known for its infamous slums, which provide the setting for
Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...
's novel ''
Crime and Punishment''.
In 1961, at the height of
Nikita Khrushchev's anti-religious campaign, he had the church blown up to make way for a new
metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
station; a chapel now marks the site. The 17.5 meter high "Peace Column", a gift of
France for the tercentenary of St. Petersburg, was dismantled during the
heatwave of 2010. The column featured the word "peace" written in 49 languages.
Three metro stations serve the square;
Sennaya Ploshchad,
Sadovaya and
Spasskaya. It is also a
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
and
marshrutka station. It used to have regular
tram transportation until 2010, a fragment of the tram rails having been preserved as a historical mark.
See also
*
List of squares in Saint Petersburg
References
Sources
*
External links
Illustrated history of Sennaya Square* {{commonscat-inline, Sennaya Square
Squares in Saint Petersburg