A Walk Around Moskovsky Railway Station, St. Petersburg, Russia

Moskovsky railway station (Saint Petersburg)
For other uses, see Moskovsky.
St.Petersburg-Glavny
October Railway terminal
Spb 06-2017 img19 Moskovsky railway station.jpg
View of the station from Vosstaniya sq.
Location 85, Nevsky av., St. Petersburg, Russia
Platforms 6 (5 island platforms)
Tracks 11
Connections
Construction
Parking yes
Other information
Station code 03181
Fare zone 0
History
Opened 1847
Rebuilt 1952, 1967, 1976
Electrified 1962
Previous names Nicholaevsky (1851-1923)
Oktyabrsky (1923-1930)
Services
Preceding station October Railway Following station
Terminus Saint Petersburg – Moscow Railway
Navalochnaya
toward Moscow Passazhirskaya
St.Petersburg-Glavny (Russian: Санкт-Петербург-Главный), is a railway station terminal in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is a terminus for the Saint Petersburg – Moscow Railway and other lines running from Central and South Russia, Crimea, Siberia and Eastern Ukraine.

History

The oldest preserved station in the city, it was erected in 1844-51 to a design by Konstantin Thon. As Nicholas I of Russia was the reigning monarch and the greatest patron of railway construction in the realm, the station was named Nicholaevsky after him. Rechristened Oktyabrsky to memorialize the October Revolution in 1924, the station was not given its present name until 1930.

Although large "Venetian" windows, two floors of Corinthian columns and a two-storey clocktower at the centre explicitly reference Italian Renaissance architecture, the building incorporates other features from a variety of periods and countries. A twin train station, currently known as the Leningradsky railway station, was built to Thon's design at the other end of the railway, in Moscow.

While Thon's facade remains fundamentally intact to this day, the station was expanded in 1869-79 and 1912. It was completely redeveloped internally in 1950-52 and 1967. A bronze bust of Peter the Great in the main vestibule was unveiled in 1993, replacing a bust of Lenin. The station is served by the Mayakovskaya and Vosstaniya Square stations of the Saint Petersburg Metro, with both stations linked to the station building by an underground corridor.