Vitebsky railway station
The Vitebsk Station (Russian Витебский вокзал ) is one of the five passenger stations ( head station) in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Originally it was called Zarskoselski Woksal ( Царскосельский вокзал ) and after 1917 Detskoselski Woksal ( Детскосельский вокзал ), but he was parallel to these two designations also referred to according to the later end point of the railway line as Vitebsk railway station.
History
The Vitebsk railway station is the oldest station in Russia. The first Russian railway ran from St. Petersburg to Tsar Residence Tsarskoye Selo ( Царское село ). It was designed under the direction of the professor of the Vienna Polytechnic Institute Franz Anton von Gerstner and running until 1837. According to his plans, the terminus of the line should the Fontanka River in downtown St. Petersburg. But lack of money forced them to shorten the route and build a modest wooden building at its present location. The platforms were made of wood. Simultaneously with the opening of the railway line was inaugurated on 30 October 1837. It housed rooms for the passengers and service rooms for the personnel. In addition to the railway station, engine shed, a blacksmith shop and a workshop were. The first railway station in St. Petersburg and soon developed into one of the city sights, to the day, thousands of people flocked to visit the new transport.
The first trip from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo took 35 minutes.
The wooden station building held soon with the requirements of the increased number of passengers no longer stand in the years 1849-1852 was designed by the German - Russian architect Konstantin Thon a two-story, executed in stone station building. It stood in a row with the barracks on Zagorodny Prospekt. In subsequent years, the railway line via Tsarskoye Selo has also extended to Vitebsk. Already in the years 1874-1876 a reconstruction and expansion of the Vitebsk railway station was necessary.
By the end of the 19th century, beginning at Vitebsk Railway Station became one of the main routes in the Russian Empire. They now joined the Russian capital with Odessa on the Black Sea. As a result, the urban railway system through bank of earth was lifted up to five meters, while in the years 1901 to 1904 was the new, representative and still existing station building, which according to the designs of architect S. A. Brschosowski ( С. А. Бржозовский ) and S. I. Minasch ( С. И. Минаш ) was performed in the Art Nouveau style. The platforms are located at the level of the upper floor and are covered by a sheet construction of steel and glass, which by the engineer W. S. Gerson ( В. С. Герсон ) has been designed. In its outward form, the Vitebsk Station shows with a dome in the middle of the building and a high clock tower. The spacious vestibule in the interior is richly equipped with a marble staircase, crown molding as a female mask and a representation of the god Mercury, considered the protector of travelers and merchants. On the walls are pictures of the fortress of Petropavlovsk and the port of Odessa are finding that by the artists W. I. Bystrenin ( В. И. Быстренин ) and A. S. Dudin ( С. И. Дудин ) have been created. In later years, other murals have been added that illustrates the history of the railway to Tsarskoye Selo and their stations.
Since 1956, the Pushkinskaya metro station is next to the train station ( Пушкинская ).
Since 1987, a model of the first, built by Yefim and Miron Cherepanov Russian steam locomotive is housed in a glass pavilion.
In the years 2001 to 2003 on the 300 th anniversary of St. Petersburg Vitebsk railway station was completely restored. All the essential elements were in the original state ( dome windows of the facade, main staircase, " Imperial Café", etc ).
From Vitebsk railway station now run suburban trains down to the 180 km distant Veliky Novgorod and long-distance trains, inter alia, to Vilnius, Homel, Dnipropetrovsk, Kaliningrad (Königsberg ), Kiev, Lviv ( Lemberg), Minsk, Odessa, Riga, Smolensk and Kherson.