Gostiny dvor

These structures originated as collections of small shops where merchants from other cities could, at designated times, come to sell their wares.

Some such structures, constructed in every large Russian town during the first decades of the 19th century, are fine examples of Neoclassical architecture.

Sprawling at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and Sadovaya Street for over one kilometer and embracing the area of 53,000 m2 (570,000 sq ft), the indoor complex of more than 100 shops took 28 years to construct.

This massive 18th-century structure got a face-lift recently and entered the 21st century as one of the most fashionable shopping centres in Eastern Europe.

Giacomo Quarenghi, the favored architect of Catherine the Great, in 1789 replaced those medieval buildings with a new shopping mall designed in a sober Neoclassical style with innumerable Corinthian columns and arcades.

Osip Bove made some modifications to adapt to the slope in the area and to finish following Quarenghi's original plans in 1830.

[2] Recently a modern glass roof in 1995 was installed, when Gostiny Dvor was being converted into a fashionable exhibition ground.

A small museum was established to exhibit some of the numerous finds which include the contents of a pantry from a 17th-century merchant home that had been destroyed by fire.

[2] The exhibit hall is open daily, Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.[4] The Merchant Court (Гостиный двор) is a network of fortified depots built on the Pur-Navolok promontory in Arkhangelsk by a team of German and Dutch masons between 1668 and 1684.

The complex consisted of the Russian and German courts (for native and foreign merchants, respectively) and the so-called Stone Town (Каменный город) wedged in between.