Svetlanovskaya Square

Before the revolution, there was an intersection of the Vyborg highway (now Engels prospect) and Murinsky avenue (now - 2nd Murinsky), as well as the courtyard of the Arzamas Novodevichy Alexy man of God Convent ^[2] .

In 1906, a chapel was built at the courtyard, as reported by the newspaper Kolokol No. 165 of August 5, 1906:

At present, a large, rather beautiful architecture chapel is being constructed along the Vyborg highway in Lesnoy. At the chapel there is a courtyard of the Arzamas nunnery of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese. The consecration of the chapel will take place these days. In a short time she will be converted to the temple. This will be the sixth temple in the Forest.

Later, the chapel was actually converted to the church of St. Alexis the man of God, and by 1916 a new chapel had been built by the project of A. A. Bieber , consecrated in 1918 . In April 1920, in the chapel, they were allowed to serve liturgy , and the peace- giving icon of the Mother of God "Soothe my sorrows" was transferred from the monastery that was already closed. The services in the chapel continued until 1930 . During the Great Patriotic War, in the chapel of the icon of the Mother of God "Soothe My Sorrows" there was an evacuation center. From the nearby houses, sand-buggers brought here half-dead children. They were fed soy milk, registered and sent to the mainland. Here, dozens, if not hundreds of lives have saved from starvation. The chapel itself stood until the beginning of the 60s of the 20th century , when the formation of the ensemble of Svetlanovskaya Square proper was completed.

In 1929, a tram ring was built near the Svetlana enterprise, which actually marked the beginning of the square.

In the early 1960s, the formation of the eastern part of the square was completed: Svetlanovsky Prospekt was extended to the square, and the tram ring was liquidated.

Initially, according to the general development plan of the district, it was supposed to erect a dominant area on the site of the square - a building of the district executive committee, and to place a fountain in the center, but these plans were not destined to come true.

In the second half of the 1970s, the Svetlanovskiy market was liquidated, tram tracks of the new highway, Bogatyrskiy Prospect, lay in its place, lawns were laid out and trees were planted. The area has gained its current look.

The appearance of the square is formed by three buildings located in a semicircle - houses 21, 23 and 25 along Engels Avenue. They represent a single architectural ensemble , united by a large pilaster order . The authors are architects Belov V. F., Savkevich M. P., L. L. Schreter ( 1950s ) ^[3] . The central building housed a radiopolitical school , now a University Polytechnic College , in the other two Svetlanov Department Store (now a branch of Sberbank and a restaurant Eurasia) and a laboratory building of the Svetlana association. On the other hand, there is no dense development area, two buildings of the same type ( 1959 - 1961 ) on the even side of Engels Avenue are separated from the roadway by small squares, and there is also a green zone in the central circle of the square.

From the beginning of 2007, a conflict arose between the developers of the green zone near House 28 along Engels Prospect (the construction of a fast-food restaurant was originally planned, then the construction of a shopping and entertainment complex was planned) and the residents of the neighboring houses. During the public investigation numerous violations were discovered during the preparation of the construction. The developer tried to conduct illegal development of the pit. Some of the trees on the site of the square was cut down.

The officials, in turn, recognized their mistake and did not change the recognized decisions :

Yes, they probably made a mistake, but they already cut everything out under this restaurant, it was resold

It is necessary to finish building - this is my opinion, since it happened

- Vice Governor Alexander Vakhmistrov ^[4]

After this statement, the struggle for the preservation of the public garden was continued, he was asked to assign the name of the elected president, D. A. Medvedev ^[5] . The epic with the construction of a restaurant on Svetlanovskaya Square was completed on November 25, 2008 , when the St. Petersburg government canceled four resolutions on design and construction at the corner of Svetlanovskaya Square and Engels Avenue ^[6] . The consequences of illegal construction were removed, and in the spring of 2009, landscaping of the public garden began.

In September 2009, residents of Svetlanovskaya Square took the initiative to install in the Medvedev Square a sculpture “ Blockade Madonna ”, made by Petersburg artist and sculptor Mikhail Zvyagin ^[7] .

May 9, 2011 at the Svetlanovskaya Square in the square was the action "900 ships of memory and hope." Hope that the sculpture in memory of the Blockade will still be installed in the park. ^[8] .

• Gorbachevich K.S. , Khablo E.P. Why are they so named? On the origin of the names of streets, squares, islands, rivers and bridges of Leningrad. - 3rd ed., Corr. and add. - L .: Lenizdat , 1985. - p. 341. - 511 p.
• Leningrad: Guide / Comp. V. A. Vityazev , B. M. Kirikov . - Edition 2, stereotypical, with changes. - L .: Lenizdat , 1988. - 366 p. - ISBN 5-289-00492-0 .
• City names today and yesterday: Petersburg toponymy / comp. S. V. Alekseeva, A. G. Vladimirovich , A. D. Erofeev, and others. - 2nd ed., Revised. and add. - SPb. : Lick , 1997. - p. 113. - 288 p. - (Three centuries of Northern Palmyra). - ISBN 5-86038-023-2 .
• Gorbachevich K.S. , Khablo E.P. Why are they so named? On the origin of the names of streets, squares, islands, rivers and bridges of St. Petersburg. - SPb. : Norint , 2002. - 353 p. - ISBN 5-7711-0019-6 .