Silver Rows

Silver Rows — a monument of architecture. Located in Saint Petersburg, the modern address is Nevsky Prospekt, 31.

Silver Rows

Серебряные ряды
Type	building

At the left — City Duma building and tower, originally resembling the Silver Rows. 1830s

History

Since the mid-18th century, wooden shops selling silver were located on the site; they burned down in 1783. In 1783–1784 (according to other sources, in 1787,^[1] or in 1784–1787,^[2] 1784–1786^[3]), a stone building was erected in their place by Giacomo Quarenghi.^[4]

The construction was initially funded by merchants, and later the building belonged to the Society of Shopkeepers of the Silver Rows.^[2]

After the Great Patriotic War, a sports goods store opened in the building.^[2]

In 1955, the internal walls of the building were dismantled, and a long-standing sports store “Dynamo” was placed in the resulting hall.^[2]

From the 1980s, the building housed the Saint Petersburg Culture Fund (initially the Leningrad branch of the Soviet Culture Fund).^[3]

After reconstruction in 1982, the “Isoproduktsiya” store opened in the building.^[2]

In the 1990s, the jewelry salon “Ananov” opened on the ground floor.^[2][5]

In December 2023, the restoration project for the facades of the “Silver Rows” was estimated at 2.7 million.^[6]

Appearance

Initially, the lower floor of the three-story^[7] building was treated with an open arcade^[4], which was closed in 1878 — its place was replaced by shop windows and entrances to the stores^[2]. The lower floor is also rusticated^[3], and the upper part of the building is decorated with half-columns in the Tuscan order^[7] and false arches^[3].

In 1799–1802, a tower was erected at the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and Dumskaya Street, uniting the rows and the City Duma building.^[2]

In the 1840s, the gallery of the Silver Rows was glazed.^[2][5]

In 1981–1982, the lower gallery was opened (according to the project by architects T. A. Boldyrev, V. P. Kozlov, V. A. Kharlamov).^[2][5]

In 1999, the arcade was glazed again. The authors of the project were Andrey Ananov and Irina Alexeeva — the president and chief artist of "Russian Jewelry Art - Ananov".^[2][5]