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The most important urban developments of the eighteenth century in St. Petersburg were the Palace Square, Admiralty Square and Senate Square. A decisive factor in these schemes was the Winter Palace, which was to be integrated into a comprehensive urban development design.
The Winter Palace was built in a pure French late Baroque style. Its façade dominates the Neva embankment, and, with the Admiralty, forms the core section of the city. Rastrelli planned the Smolny Convent opposite, with its powerful dome and four towers, as a foil to the palace. The convent's main church (catholicon or sobor), a blue-and-white building, is considered to be one of the architectural masterpieces of the Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
The picture shows the façade of the church of Smolny Convent.
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