The epoch of Art Nouveau in St. Petersburg art was one of the most interesting cultural periods. The style that took roots in Western Europe acquired a special character in the Russian city on Neva River.

Art Nouveau came to Russia from Europe and penetrated many art fields. In this style, which implied the union of beauty and functionality, abandoned imitation and aligned with the aesthetics of natural patterns and shapes, interiors were designed, buildings were built, and dresses were tailored.

Art Nouveau is an international art movement, but in each and every country it developed unique national features. In Russia, St. Petersburg became the epicenter of its unfolding. The city on the Neva River held thematic exhibitions and published the World of Art magazine. There were branches of foreign companies here engaged in the production of household items to provide “beautiful life in a beautiful house”.

The exhibition shows the projects of buildings, bridges and interiors created by Nikolai Vasiliev, Alexander von Gohen, Nikolai Lansere and Andrey Ol’, as well as decorative parts (stained glass, tiles, and stove facing), deposited in the Museum of St. Petersburg History for the period of restoration of those constructions. The exposition is complemented with furniture (for example, from the Friedrich Meltzer Factory), lighting fittings decorated with colored glass, beads and glass beads, writing utensils, cutlery, porcelain products, women's garments and accessories.

A large part of the exposition is dedicated to the graphic art of the Art Nouveau era - the works by Leo Bakst, Konstantin Somov, and Alexander Golovin.

The exhibition can be seen in the Engineering House, located on the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Since its foundation in May 1703, the Peter and Paul Fortress has been considered the core of St. Petersburg. Co-designed by Peter I and engineer Joseph Lambert de Gerena, the ancient fortress has long become one of the symbols of Petersburg that attracts lots of tourists from around Russia and the world. The Fortress houses a number of monuments and museums, without which Saint Petersburg can hardly be imagined. One of them is the Mint, where all the coins, orders and medals were minted till the end of the 20th century and another is the house for Peter the Great's ship, which is jokingly called "the grandfather of the Russian fleet". Here was the main political prison of tsarist Russia - they kept the Decembrists in the casemates, and in the 1790s Radishchev was imprisoned here due to his denunciatory book "Journey from Petersburg to Moscow".

At present, the Peter and Paul Fortress has turned into a historical and museum complex, with a number of remarkable sculptural sets and memorials. More recently, a sculpture of Peter I as depicted by Mikhail Shemyakin appeared on its territory. The monument has stirred controversy: Peter the Great has a disproportionately little head, a huge body and long arms there. However, Petersburg dwellers and visitors like to take selfies with the first Russian emperor.

When? From 28 November 2016 to 31 December 2019

Open hours are from 11 am to 6 pm on Mon, Tue, Thu-Sun

Where: 3, Peter and Paul Fortress, next to the Gorkovskaya and Sportivnaya metro stations, Saint Petersburg.