St Petersburg Public Council Meeting

16 October 2009, St Petersburg Public Council Meeting was held in Menshikovsky Palace (branch of the State Hermitage Museum). The main issue discussed was preservation of Historic Centre of St Petersburg.

Mikhail Piotrovsky, the Director of the State Hermitage Museum, was the keynote speaker. He opened his speech with most unfavourable statement of fact: "We can not protect our city; it is losing its historic face". One of the issues raised by the Director of the Hermitage was the use of Palace Square - the period of validity of the previously adopted regulations has expired, and for the past few years the city executive authorities have failed to adopt new regulations to come into effect.

Mikhail Piotrovsky claims: "The building restrictions for zones around Dvortsovaya Square have to be established - no facilities or installations can be erected over a long period of time, no temporary construction can exceed a height of 3,5 meters, be erected nearer than 10 meters to the Winter Palace and to the General Staff building, 50 meters to the Alexander Column. Temporary podiums can not exceed a height of 2,5 meters, and a scene - that of 1,5 meters". This is the only way the Square will be protected from external exposure and become unsuitable for those who would like to use it without following the protection rules. Unfortunately, not all of these requirements are observed during the time when mass activities are held, that causes both aesthetic and practical damage to the unique historic ensemble.

Mikhail Piotrovsky positively appraised the decision adopted by the St Petersburg City administration on approval of the parking place for cars and busses on Pevchesky Bridge and Pevchesky Lane. But he used the epithet 'vandalism', directing it to unknown abusers who have stolen the eagles from the fence around the Alexander Column. "When the Intarcia Company was manufacturing the eagles for the fence, no one could imagine that the idea to dismantle the birds would occur to certain persons. Now the eagles are expected to be restored from more thick, non-permissive metal".

The participants of the Public Council meeting also discussed the issue of the fence around the Saltykovsky Sadik which separates the side of the Winter Palace and the traffic area of the Nevsky Prospect. The lattice with a double eagle and imperial cipher was dismantled during 1917 revolution. Only 27 sections of the lattice fence have been preserved to the present day, some of them serve now as decorative sections of the assembled fence around the Park of Victims of 9th of January at Stachek Prospect. The issues of the return of the fence to its original place, restoration of its missing sections and lost stone pedestal are now under discussion.

According to the survey conducted by the Hermitage Museum, the colour for the Winter Palace is now one of the most emotional issues discussed not only at the Public Council meeting but also among all levels of the population in St Petersburg. It is a well known fact that the Winter Palace was repainted several times even in pre-revolutionary, 'autocratic' times - from yellow-grey to purple. Therefore, any of the potential colours would be historically validated and 'national',- says Vera Dementyeva, Head of the Committee on State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Landmarks, an attendant at the Public Council Meeting.