Vocabulary

1. festivity, dozen, prototype, landscape, gift, fabulous, porphyry;

2. to lay out, to conceive, to arrange, to cover, to draw, to preserve.

Notes to the text

¹ Cupid and Psyche — Купидон и Психея (Купидон — бог любви, Психея — богиня души, дыхания)

² Nemesis — Немезида (богиня возмездия, карающая за преступления)

³ Ceres — Церера (богиня плодородия и земледелия)

⁴ Coffee House — Кофейный домик, построен в 1826 г. арх. К. Росси

⁵ Tea House — Чайный домик, построен в 1827 г. арх. Л.И. Шарлемань

⁶ a porphyry vase — порфировая ваза, подарена королем Швеции в 1883 г.; состоит из пяти частей и сделана из красного порфира.

Exercises

1. Practise the pronunciation of the following words:

Cupid, Psyche, Nemesis, Ceres, statue, prototype, flood, landscape, century, vase, marble, pleasure, social, fabulous, allegorical.

2. Translate the following word-combinations into Russian:

1. the' city's oldest sights, clearly defined lines, in the «geometrical» style, all sorts of festivities, dozens of fountains, marble statues, fabulous fountains, landscape parks, a tall pedestal, a porphyry vase, pleasure ground;

2. to come to be known, to restore to the former glory, to begin to resemble, to come into fashion, to look very much like, to be well preserved.

3. Open the brackets and write the verb in the required tense and voice:

1. The Summer Gardens (to lay out) in 1704.

2. The Gardens (to conceive) in the «geometrical» style.

3. All sorts of festivities (to arrange) there.

4. The fountains of the Summer Gardens (to draw) water from the Fontanka River.

5. Two floods (to destroy) the fountains and many marble statues and trees.

6. The Summer Gardens not (to restore) to its former glory.

7. The Summer Palace of Peter I (to build) by Trezzini in 1710-1714.

8. A huge porphyry vase on a tall pedestal (to present) by the King of Sweden.

9. Klodt (to erect) the monument to the Russian fabulist I. Krylov in 1855.

4. Talking points:

1) How can you get to the Summer Gardens if you are in Professor Popov Street?

2. What is the name of the poet who used to walk about the Summer Gardens early in the morning?

3. What protects the city from floods nowadays?

4. Where else in the city can we find landscape parks?

5. What are the Summer Gardens' decorations?

Part II

The Field of Mars. The history of the Field of Mars goes back¹ to the beginning of Saint-Petersburg's existence. This is one of the city's oldest squares. During Peter the Great's lifetime Russian military victories were celebrated here. Such festivities usually ended with fireworks or «amusement» lights² as they were then called. So the first name of the square was the Amusement Field³.

It later became the place of recreation of the court nobility⁴ and was renamed the Tsarina's Meadow.

From the 18^th century the Tsarina's Meadow⁵ was used for holding military parades and reviews. Subsequently, a monument to the celebrated Russian soldier Alexander Suvorov was unveiled here. He was presented in the allegorical image of Mars, the God of War. Since then the square has been called the Field of Mars.

So the panorama of the Field of Mars opens up from the statue of Suvorov. You see a beautiful park stretching over an area of ten hectares.

The park is surrounded by imposing buildings on its northern and western sides. In the northern part of the field is one of the finest monuments of Early Classicism, the Marble Palace. It was built by Antonio Rinaldi in 1768-1785. Thirty-two kinds of marble were used for the facing and the interior decoration of the palace. By order of tzar of Russia Paul I the Mikhailovsky Castle (Engineer's Palace) was built in the south-east corner of the Field by the architects Bazhenov and Brenn. This building is of great interest from the architectural point of view. East of the Feild of Mars is the Summer Gardens, the oldest in the city.

During the February Revolution of 1917 the Field of Mars was the scene of major political events. On March 23,1917 soldiers and workers who had lost their lives in clashes with the police were buried here. Later the Field of Mars became the burial ground of those who fought in the defence of revolutionary Petrograd. In 1919 the majestic monument to the heroes of the Revolution was set up in the centre of the Field of Mars. Later an Eternal Flame⁶ was lit in the centre of the granite platform.

The green grass of the Field of Mars, the ancient trees of the Summer and Mikhailovsky Gardens in the background and the buildings of great architects all combine in a single magnificent whole.