Intellect and the City - Paperback

by Prof Michael Bank (Author)

The present album is an attempt to trace a connection between intellect and city architecture. The architecture of Saint Petersburg (Petersburg further on) was taken as an example. The city is about 300 years old. According to Alexander Pushkin, Tsar Peter the Great had founded this place as a "Window to Europe", but the city had obviously grown into a wide gate rather than a window. Huge scientific and cultural contribution has been made to the whole world through this gate. The population of this city was about one million people in the 19th century. It was situated in a country which could hardly be called rich, considering the amount of "poor people" (see title of Feodor Dostoevsky's novel). And yet, Petersburg has always been one of the most cultural cities in the world. Wonderful architecture of Petersburg is well known to have influenced life and character of people living there. This fact was depicted in classic literature repeatedly. And in turn city inhabitants influenced its development creating new scientific institutions, libraries, museums, theatres and concert halls. Only the well-known scientists and cultural workers, whose life and activity were at least partially connected with Petersburg, are mentioned here. The places of interest reminding us of these extraordinary people and their heritage are shown alongside. Of course it's impossible to include all the remarkably talented scientists, musicians, painters and writers who are not widely known in the world due to the language barrier, former political regime, the iron curtain and not always objective attitude to the Russian culture. But even the concise list of the names mentioned here strikes by the intense intellectual power concentrated in a relatively small but incredibly beautiful city.