Talking to each other: architecture of Irkutsk and St. Petersburg

The art of buildings and structures, the environment in which people live and work, is called architecture. The space in which we live determines our creativity, spirituality, development. Cities speak to us in the language of architecture. And sometimes their voices sound in unison. There are cities in Russia that look like brothers - the younger and the older. These are Irkutsk and St. Petersburg. Irkutsk is an old Russian city. First of all, it is famous for its wooden architecture and proximity to Baikal. But, walking along its central streets, we see many buildings of the 19th-20th centuries, built of stone, which give it a metropolitan look and make Irkutsk look like the former capital of the Russian Empire - the city of St. Petersburg. The architecture of the center of Irkutsk, as well as St. Petersburg, is made in the style of baroque, classicism and empire. Why did it happen? Merchants, rich old Irkutsk could afford to hire the same architects who built buildings in St. Petersburg. For example, both the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens in St. Petersburg and the house of the merchant Sibiryakov, the White House in Irkutsk, were built by the Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi at the very beginning of the 19th century. Victor Schroeter worked on the building of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and the building of the Okhlopkov Theater in Irkutsk. The Grand Hotel on Karl Marx Street and the Chernov Dacha in St. Petersburg were built by the architect Alexei Kuznetsov at the beginning of the 20th century. The tradition of inviting St. Petersburg architects to build Irkutsk has been going on for centuries. Vladislav Kudelsky, Vladimir Rassushin, Ivan Efimov, Vadim Kolyanovsky, Vladimir Pavlov - these leading Irkutsk architects learned their craft in St. Petersburg. In the 19th century, after the Irkutsk fire of 1879, the appearance of the city center was determined. Many wooden buildings that make up the highlight of Irkutsk have been destroyed. They are replaced by stone houses. The Russian-Asian Bank of Kolyanovsky, the Medvednikovskaya Hospital of Kuznetsov are the buildings that determine the image of the center of Irkutsk even now. The house of the merchant Vtorov and the house of Fainberg, which were built at the beginning of the 20th century, resemble old baroque palaces in St. Petersburg. The streets of Karl Marx and Lenin in Irkutsk are similar to Nevsky Prospekt and Ligovka in St. Petersburg. Buildings in Irkutsk are slightly lower, but the general architectural style is very clearly visible. This similarity is noticed by the residents themselves and the guests of the city. Traveling in Russia, we can see the grandeur and beauty of Russian cities. We can see how urban space shapes our character, our Russian culture. Irkutsk and St. Petersburg, like brothers, speak to each other in the language of architecture, Russian history and culture. In the language of our life.