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Initially, the city center was located on Gorodskoy (now Petrogradskiy) Island close to the first summer residence of Peter the Great (preserved to this day) and separated from the Peter and Paul Fortress by a canal .

At the end of 1715, a decision was made to move the city center to Vasilyevsky Island. Under supervision of the Italian architect Tresini, the entire island was divided into a grid of avenues and streets (known as lines) and included an array of canals which were later filled back in. Along the major river embankments, business and civic buildings were constructed: the Merchant Port, the Stock Exchange, the Building of Twelve Colleges, Gostiny Dvor, Kunstkamera (the first museum of the capital), the Menshikov Palace, etc. Many of these buildings still exist.

In 1737, a General Plan of the City featuring streets, squares and public buildings was developed. The Admiralty became the center of this composition. Three streets extend or radiate from the Admiralty: Nevsky Prospect, Gorohovaya Street and Voznesensky Prospect (this "trident" is familiar now to city planners all over the world) .

These three streets were then connected by the curves of rivers, canals and other streets. This architectural framework became the basis for further city planning. Unlike the medieval character of most Russian cities in which houses are located behind fences, deep in gardens or on crooked, narrow streets, all the buildings of St. Petersburg were laid out in a well-ordered manner. At this time, the basis for the present administrative division of the city was created.

Menshikov Palace

Academy of Sciences and the Kunstkamera

The aspirations of courtiers wishing for residences to correspond to their positions in society led to the large-scale construction of noblemen's mansions in close vicinity to the imperial palaces of Peter the Great, Anna Ioannovna, Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great.

The city's urban development was heavily influenced by the importance of St. Petersburg as the military capital of Russia. The city garrison was always large - for example in 1725 it numbered 26,547.

In the beginning, the regiments were lodged in settlements or in private houses. This system created many problems for St. Petersburg's citizens and also caused the units to be spread all over the city. In 1740, a decree was issued for the construction of regiment settlements. These were located in areas that were at the time, outside of the city: Ligovsky Canal (now - Ligovsky Prospect), the Fontanka River and Zagorodny Prospect.

Block-wide square districts were especially designed for these settlements. These consisted of houses (usually one house for 8 families), a church, warehouses, detention barracks and a drill ground.

The 'trident' composition

The following names appeared on the spot that housed the Izmaylovsky Regiment: Izmaylovsky Prospect and Izmaylovsky Bridge which crosses the Fontanka River. In 1826, the streets to the right and left of the prospect were named the 1st-12th Roty (Squadrons) and Zarotnaya (in 1923, these were renamed the 1st-13th Krasnoarmeyskiye). Konnogvardeysky (Horse Guards) Boulevard also got its name from the mounted troops located in that region.

Reminders of these regiments can be found today throughout the city center. For example, names connected to the Preobrazhensky Regiment are Soldatsky Lane (between Vosstaniya and Radischeva streets), Paradnaya Street and others. Semenovsky Bridge across the Fontanka River on Gorohovaya Street is named after the Semenovsky Regiment which was stationed in the neighbourhood for almost 200 years. Kanonerskaya Street (not far from Nikolsky Cathedral) is connected to an old settlement of cannon gunners formerly stationed there.

During this period, Vasilyevsky Island Embankment along the Bolshaya Neva (now Universitetskaya Embankment) was completed. In 1732, the palace and estate of A. D. Menshikov was handed over to a newly-created exclusive military education institution - the Land Cadet Corps. The Menshikov Palace which as situated on the bank of the Neva River proved too small to accommodate all of the cadets, therefore, construction of a number of new buildings on the territory of the embankment began. The end result was a complex of dissimilar buildings pieced together that still exists today.

Catherine the Great, who considered herself to be a follower of the ideas Peter the Great, continued the development of St. Petersburg. To increase the prestige of the country, she intended to "put St. Petersburg on the map and make it into the glorious and splendid capital of a great country".

In connection with Catherine's efforts, in 1762, the Committee on Stone Building in St. Petersburg and Moscow was established.

The Committee developed an extensive city-planning program. It presupposed everything that "could multiply the beauty and splendour of the city", including: "filling the heart of the city with noble buildings" and increasing the "regularity of squares" and "continuous linking streets".

The Committee developed reconstruction projects for all of the administrative districts of St. Petersburg. The projects envisioned the creation of a system of squares, the reconstruction of old canals and the building of new canals with a standard height of their embankments. The projects also included the further development of embankments and the complete reconstruction of embankment buildings.

Towards the end of the 1760s, the Committee developed a new building code - introducing a firewall 2-3 storey, building system. The passage to a central courtyard was designed as a first-storey arch along the lateral axis of the building. In 1765, the Committee approved an addition to the code to construct buildings of one and the same height along major streets.

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