Smolny Convent — construction that took a century, y’all!! (well, almost)
Also, the very 1st public educational institution for girls in the whole of Europe circa 1764 #duh (tell me about the roots of the basic human rights for women now💁🏻♀️).
And the most important thing — obviously😏 — the actual first Alma Mater of yours truly. School of International Relations of St. Petersburg State University, ladies and gents, which some of the cathedral’s buildings started housing — what a coincidence💁🏻♀️ — in the year of yours truly’s birth, 1994.
Construction years
Well, what I said — one mfkn century. The reason was not the difficulty of constructing something so magiestek😏, but rather a series of unfortunate events. In the 1740s Elizabeth the 1st, Peter the Great’s daughter and the then empress (the most beautiful of all, btw, in my humble opinion😁), initiated the project, which at first covered only one cathedral. All preparations were finished by 1751 when the actual construction started, and involved not only 1500 regular construction workers, but also about 2000 military soldiers🤯
But then, bugger, The 7 Years’ War — a global conflict that was fought between 1756 and 1763 — started, which demanded for Russia’s unlimited attention, so all the $$ were thrown in there.
The thing was left unfinished for the next 50 years until after Nicolas the 1st, emperor of the time, started planning for its renovation in the 1820s with the last brick being laid in 1835.
Architect
Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, one of Elizabeth’s favourites who also was #surprisesurprise the main court architect of the country while she was in power. I mean, can you blame her? You wouldn’t be able to resist that squint😏 No wonder why almost all important projects of the time were assigned to him to manage. The most famous was the Winter Palace which only the ignorant can doubt the beauty of.
Then in 1762, when the empress died, Rastrelli moved back to Italy and didn’t finish this grand design. Catherine the Great who acceded to the throne right after Elizabeth wasn’t so fond of the ‘whipped cream’ kinda style that Rastrelli invented restraining him from working. And that, kids, is the squarest example showing that no matter how hard you can be working your ass off cooking a fruit salad, there can always be a new chef who doesn’t like the way you cut peaches. I know right? #thequeenofmetaphors
Style
Elizabethan Baroque – developed by Rastrelli and inspired by Liz, obviously. It’s the same as what is called Rococo or Late Baroque. Before it was developed, the whole of St. P. was dedicated to Petrine Baroque which — you can tell from its name — was created under the influence of Peter I The Great who founded the town in 1703, and died in 1725. Petrine Baroque is a very classy version of baroque without any of the over the top details and ruffles, which Peter saw in Denmark and Holland.
Elizabethan Baroque, though, tended to create the architecture of grandeur in order to glorify the might of the Russian Empire. So the buildings were normally gigantic with golden splendour decorations.
Story time 💔
Though neither did Catherine the Great like the style, nor Rastrelli himself, and wasn’t particularly concerned about finishing the project the way it was intended, she did find an application for it. In 1764 she founded what was called the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens designed to “give the state educated women, good mothers, useful members of the family and society”.
According to its charter, girls were supposed to be enrolled at the age of 6 and stay there for 12 years being totally removed from their parents with the condition that under no circumstances the latter would demand them back. The Empress hoped that removing children for a long time from an ignorant environment could create a “new breed of people”. Well, she wasn’t entirely wrong about that, but it didn’t exactly ‘create’ a new breed of people. After graduation the majority of girls ended up being ladies-in-waiting at the court, and while back in the day it was prestigious, it didn’t really give them the power to change stuff on the state level.
One of the most famous graduates (1830) was Varvara Nelidova who became the most favourite lady-in-waiting to Alexandra, the wife of the then emperor — Nicolas the 1st. The story wouldn’t be as interesting if she wasn’t also believed to be his mistress of 17 years — the longest of all relationships he had on the side.
Despite unconditionally loving his wife, her health was totally shattered at the age of 34 after giving birth to 7 children, and having one more could kill her. The only kind of contraception at the time was total celibate, which the couple opted for. Or, should I say only its better half. This set off a series of affairs of the emperor, and Nelidova became the most prominent of all.
Such a sad story, honestly: she was described as the Russian Italian beauty with dark features and very kind and humble character, which was very rare amongst noble women. Obviously, he couldn’t help but notice when she appeared at the court, and she herself had little to no chance of not falling for the mightiest man in the country. Some say that she could’ve had it all had she started using and manipulating him, but apparently she was better than this. And Nicolas, not only he loved, but also trusted her — and we’re talking about the man who barely trusted anyone. They were so secretive about the affair that no one really knows how many children they had together because all of them were gave out for adoption by some of her relatives.
Even though Alexandra knew all about it, because Nelidova was her favourite lady-in-waiting, and because she knew the feelings between the two were real, she never actually rebelled against it. And when the tsar died in 1855 (pneumonia — how silly), the women shared the grief, and the empress even gave Nelidova a bracelet with Nicolas’s portrait.
– Julia xx
