Granite This durable, durable and beautiful stone became a favorite building material in many cities and countries around the world. Of it are made facing facades and flooring, portals, fireplaces and magnificent monuments, balusters and balls adorn the bridges and ladders. Different granites have played a leading role in the architecture of the two Baltic cities – St. Petersburg and . First of all, this was due to close proximity to the Fennoscandian shield geology, where the granites are widespread. Moreover, this field allows you to produce solid blocks of stone of large dimensions. From one such piece is made barrel Alexander Column, installed in the northern capital of our country. The length of it in finished form is 25.58 m, weight – about 700 m.

For facing the Hermitage bridge over the Winter Canal and the Palace Embankment of the Neva brought extracted on the islands of the Gulf beautiful pink marble, and became the symbol of St. Petersburg imperial times. The same stone with a unique pattern was used for the manufacture of interior columns of Kazan and St. Isaac's Cathedral podium buildings Quarenghi J., Rossi and other masters of classicism. For thin decorative works in St.

Petersburg brought carbonate rocks from the quarries of Estonia – where they are most strong and durable. Of particular value consisted of a dense red-brown, purplish-brown, yellow colored stone from quarries on the island of Oland in Sweden. He was decorated with slabs of the floors and tombs in churches and castles of the Baltic Cities and many other, more distant places, such as the old Polish capital of Gniezno.