A pleiad of Polish engineers and architects, who designed and built representative stations together with technical infrastructure, entered the history of the Russian railway from the 19th century to the early 20th century. Suffice it to mention that in the capital of the empire, the co-developer of the Moscow (Nikolaevsky) Station building was Rudolf Zheleziewicz, who supervised all construction work on the St Petersburg-Moscow line. Along with him, his managerial duties were performed by Antoni Klewszczyński and Ksawery Skarżyński vel Skórzyński, who was the designer of the stations in St Petersburg, Tsarskoye Selo and Gatczyn, as well as the chief architect of the St Petersburg - Warsaw Railway. The chief engineer for the construction of this line was Stanislav Kierbedź. At the construction of the Nikolaevsky Station, under the supervision of Antoni Klewszczyński, a graduate of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg, Stanislav Brzozowski - the future chief architect of the Vitebsk Station - gained experience.

History of V itebsk Railway Station
In 1901-1904, a complex of buildings was built, consisting of: Tsar Pavilion (a separate station building exclusively for the use of the emperor and his family), a magnificent two-storey station building and railway infrastructure buildings.

The Vitebsk station was the third of its kind. The oldest railway station in Russia - Tsarskoye Selsky - had stood almost on the same spot 65 years earlier, in 1837. In the mid-19th century, the first wooden building was replaced by a stone one designed by Konstantin Thon. With the construction of Vitebsk Station, the former suburban route from St Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk was transformed into the initial section of the route to Vitebsk and onwards to Odessa. Thus, the new station became the start of the route from the capital to the south, from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

The building was constructed in an unusual way. When all the plans and sections had come off the drawing board of Stanisław Brzozowski, a competition for the façades was announced in early 1901. Twenty-four entries were submitted, but - according to the St Petersburg Society of Architects - none of the authors were up to the task. As a result, the design work was entrusted entirely to Brzozowski, who decided to apply a number of innovative functional, structural and decorative solutions.

Architecture of Vitebsk Railway Station
In the literature on the subject, the Vitebsk Railway Station is referred to as an "encyclopaedia of early Art Nouveau". This is because it was one of the first public buildings in St Petersburg built in the "modern", or Art Nouveau, style, with references to Viennese patterns. The new architectural style of the Vitebsk Railway Station is expressed in the free, asymmetrical composition of the body and plan, the irregular arrangement of windows, doors and decorative details. The decoration of fancifully curved shapes, geometric and floral, is accompanied by a number of architectural and sculptural elements that are clearly historicist, although transformed in the spirit of Art Nouveau. At the same time, the originality of the form harmonises with the modern understanding of the building's function.

The main entrance is located in the right-hand risalit of the northern façade and leads into a spacious vestibule, with an area of 335 square metres and a height of over 20 metres, topped by a quadrilateral metal dome. To the left, a clock tower was erected on the axis of the small vestibule. Inside, the arrival and departure areas and the passenger areas were separated. On the left, the ticket offices were located on the ground floor, while the first floor was occupied by a waiting room for class III passengers. On the right, the first floor is occupied by the restaurant and the Class I and Class II waiting areas. Large glass surfaces allow daylight to enter the rooms. The main vestibule is illuminated by an arcade with a stained-glass window - one of the largest in St Petersburg. The interior is decorated with bas-relief ornamentation with motifs of female heads and the Roman god Mercury.

The first floor is reached by a marble staircase with a platform on which a bust of Nicholas I is placed. In the former first and second class waiting room, there are painted panneaux depicting the history of the Tsarskoye Selo Iron Road. The adjacent restaurant attracted the bohemia of the Silver Age, with Anna Akhmatova, Nikolai Gumilev and Alexander Blok sitting at the huge oak buffet.

An engineering masterpiece
At the time, it was the most modern railway station in Russia, built using innovative technical solutions, fully electrified, with central steam heating, electric passenger and freight lifts. For the first time on such a scale, new materials were used: steel and reinforced concrete. The platforms, located at first-floor level, are covered by a steel and glass structure.

The Vitebsk railway station aroused undying admiration from its contemporaries. Over time, however, the monument underwent far-reaching degradation. It was only thoroughly restored as a centenarian in 2001-2003, thanks to the planned celebrations of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. At that time, the historical decoration, dome, marble staircase were restored; the facades were restored to their original colours. Today, it continues to serve the city's residents and visitors as an important transport hub. Russian filmmakers have taken a liking to its scenery, and nearly 150 music videos and feature films have been made here.

1901-1904

Stanisław Brzozowski (architekt; Polska, Rosja)(preview)

Ewa Ziółkowska