The Admiralty in St. Petersburg — engraving

The Admiralty in St. Petersburg. Based on an 18th-century engraving.

"Die Admiralitat zu St. Petersburg. Nach einem Stich aus dem achtzehnten Jahrhundert".

Technique, Material: Woodcut / Paper
Artist:,  Engraver: 
Date, Publisher: "Illustrirte Weltgeschichte. VI", Verlag von Otto Spamer, Leipzig, 1883.
Size: sheet 24.5x16, image 20x12.5 cm.

The engraving depicts the Admiralty as it appeared in the 18th century — long before the majestic Neoclassical building we know today was constructed. The Admiralty was founded on November 5, 1704, according to a personal drawing by Peter the Great, as Russia's main shipyard on the Baltic Sea. Initially, it was a single-story, wattle-and-daub structure in the shape of a "U," opening towards the Neva River.

Surrounding the Admiralty stretched the vast Admiralty Meadow — an open space necessary for defensive visibility. There were no gardens or boulevards, only an open field where, as accurately captured in the engraving, soldiers drilled and military exercises were conducted . Public festivities began to be held here only in the mid-18th century, and the meadow was not fully paved until the end of Catherine the Great's reign.

At the center of the main facade stood a tower with a spire, built in 1711 and reconstructed in the 1730s by architect Ivan Korobov. It reached a height of 72 meters — this is the tower that Alexander Pushkin would later call the "Admiralty Needle". The spire was crowned with the famous ship-shaped weather vane, which became one of St. Petersburg's main symbols.

Three of the city's main thoroughfares — Nevsky Prospekt, Gorokhovaya Street, and Voznesensky Prospekt — converged at the Admiralty, cementing its role as the city's urban planning center. This engraving is a valuable record of an era when meadows still stretched where the Alexander Garden and Palace Square would later stand, and where regiments of Peter's army marched in steady formation.