Field of Mars

This open plot of ground used to be called at different times the great Meadow, the Amusement Field (because the “amusement lights” or firecrackers set off here during court festivities) and the tsarina Meadow (because Catherine I’s palace was situated close by)/ Later it came to be called the Field of Mars because of the military parades and reviews held here from the late 18th century onwards.
In the 18th and 19th centuries several imposing building building were erected on the Field’s periphery: The Marble Palace, now the branch of the Russian Museum, by Antonio Rinaldi (1768 – 85), the Mansion of field Marshal Nikolai Saltykov, now the Academy of Culture and Arts, by Giacomo Quarengi (1784 – 88), the Pavlovsky Regiment of the Guards, now the Peterburgenergo building, by Vasily Stasov (1817 – 19), and others.
In 1917 the heroes of February and October revolutions were buried here.
On November, 7, 1919, in the center of the Field of Mars, a memorial ensemble was enveiled dedicated to the heroes of Revolution. This memorial by Leo Rudnev is one of the most significant achievement ob Soviet monumental art.