Гранит в Санкт-Петербурге

Конспект открытого урока

Тема: «Интерактивная экскурсия «Гранит в Санкт-Петербурге».

Интегрированный урок химии и английского языка.

Школа: ГБОУ СОШ №593.

Учителя: Грищенко М.В.- учитель химии, Корчемкина Т.Ф.- учитель английского языка.

18 февраля 2012 г.

Ход урока:

Hello, dear guests! We all live in a wonderful city- St-Petersburg. I think you are fond of walking around our city but have you ever thought that the history of our city can be connected with chemistry? Today we will try to prove it with the help of our tour. As we are the students of specialized English school, we will speak English.

2. Let us start our tour, but at first a few words about granite.

Granite is a magmatic mountain substance, consisting of various dark-colored minerals. There are large-, middle- and small-grainy rocks. Granite is the most widespread mineral on the Earth and it can be found only on our planet.

3. One of the main features of granite is the richest palette. We can found lots of shades of this rock:

1. From light to dark grey;
2. Pink, salmon, red;
3. From light to dark brown;
4. Dark green;
5. Bluish-green;
6. Navy blue;
7. Black.

4. Due to its unique nature – it is very resistant to severe sea climate, easy in work, has variety of colors; the north-west of our country (near our city) is very rich in granite, that’s why architects have widely used granite since the foundation of St.Petersburg.  

Large-grainy granite-rapakivi (from Karelian - “crumbling”), from light pink to dark red shades, was often used. Despite the fact that this kind of granite is one of the most quickly-damaged, its durability is quite enough even for damp windy climate of our city. It is widespread in Finland, Sweden, Karelia, the Ukraine and in Leningrad region.

5. Маршрут

We have discussed, what the granite is, now let’s take a tour around our city. Our first step will be the Palace Square. Then we will visit Admiralty and Isaakievskiy Cathedral. After that we’ll go to the Senatskaya Square, where we’ll pay attention to the Bronze Horseman and the building of Senate and Synod. When we will pass the Blagoveschenskiy Bridge, we’re going to walk down the Admiralty embankment, where the Petrovskiy pier descends. Also we can’t miss the famous monument «Peter-carpenter». And we’ll finish our excursion walking down the Palace embankment.

6. Дворцовая пл.

Architectural ensemble of Palace Square contains the Winter Palace, the building of Guardy Staff, the General Staff with its famous arch and the Alexander Column.

7. Александровская колонна

The monument in the center of Palace Square, one of the main symbols of St.Petersburg – Alexander Column is made of granite-rapakivi. It is the highest triumphal column in the world. It was erected in honor of the victory of Russian army over Napoleon in the Patriotic War of 1812.

8. Адмиралтейство

The first building of the ship yard – Admiralty – was built in 1704, a year after foundation of St.Petersburg, and projected by Russian Emperor Peter the Great. The first Russian military ship was launched here. It was the birth of Russian fleet.  During its long history the Admiralty was rebuilt several times. The modern building was designed by architect A.D.Zakharov in 1806-1823.

9. Granite-rapakivi plays an important role in the decoration of the Admiralty:

1. The building is faced with pink-grey granite;
2. The pedestals with the symbols of navigation — cast-iron anchors — are made of pink granite;
3. The pedestals with the sculpture groups, representing nymphs with the Globe in their hands, are made of grey granite.  

10. Исаакиевский собор

One of the tallest and the most magnificent edifices of the city. This monumental building, wrapped in mystery, was being built during 40 years. There are a lot of beautiful bas-reliefs and sculptures.  

Once Ahmatova wrote about it:

Once more St. Isaac’s wears robes

Of cast silver

And frozen in fierce impatience

Stands the horse of Peter the Great.

A harsh and stifling wind

Sweeps soot from the black chimneys…

Ah! His new capital

Displeases the sovereign.

11. The Cathedral is decorated with 112 dark-pink granite monolithic columns.

12. Памятник «Медный всадник»

The monument to Peter the Great – ‘The Bronze Horseman’ – is the symbol of our city, just as the Admiralty and Winter Palace. The author of the monument is a great French sculptor Etienne Falconet. His pupil Marie Collot created the head of the rider.

13. The pedestal is as famous as the statue of Peter the Great. The granite block for it was found in the village of Lahta. The legend says that Peter often climbed this rock to survey the environs of the new city. It was difficult to deliver the 1,600-ton monolith to St.Petersburg. The rock was mounted on a platform of logs and rolled on copper balls along the rails with grooves to the shores of the Gulf of Finland. Then it was delivered to the city by a specially constructed barge.

14. Сенат и Синод. Конституционный Суд РФ и Президентская библиотека имени Ельцина.

Senate and Synod. The higher judicial instance and President’s library, named in honor of B.N. Eltsin. The buildings were built by the architect Carlo Rossi in 1829-1834 in classical style. They housed the Senate and the Sacred Synod – government organs. After the Great October Social Revolution in 1917 they were occupied by The Central Historical Archives. Now the buildings house the President library and the higher judicial instance.

15. The socle of building of Senate and Synod facing pink-grey granite. Rampants and stairs are also made of granite. Lions, only cast-iron,were  planned to be in each of establishments by Charles Rossi, but the rule of the most Saint Synod opposed it. As a result, until the recent times the pedestals have been remainding empty.

16. Мемориальные доски

The names of famous people are commemorated in our city. Everybody can see memorial plaques all over the city. Usually they are made of different types of granite.

But besides memorial plaques, reminding of famous people, in the North capital there are memorable boards, set in honor important events. Very often they are made out of granite of different colors.

17. Благовещенский мост

Blagoveschenskiy Bridge is the first permanent bridge across the Neva. It connected Vasilyevskiy and the 2nd Admiralty islands. The present bridge was built between 1843-1850 and was the longest in Europe (300 m). In 1930 it was rebuilt.

18. The foundation of the bridge is made of grey and pink granite. A railing, decorated with representations of sea horses and exquisitive  ornament attracts people’s attention.

19. Granite is excellent material for facing of embankments. In the slide, there is a descending to Neva in the different places of the English embankment to direction from the Blagoveshchensky bridge to the Palace pier.

20. Адмиралтейская набережная. Петровская пристань.

Descending to Neva between the The Bronze Horseman and Admiralty is decorated by two Porphyry vases, are made from the darkly-grey polished porphyry (material, on properties near to granite). Pedestals are made of the blocks of darkly-pink granite-rapakivi.

21. «Петр-плотник»

The monument «Peter-carpenter», erected on the Admiralty embankment, is one of the youngest and most unusual monuments in Saint-Petersburg. It reminds Peter\s the Great life in Holland, where he worked as a simple carpenter.

The bronze sculpture is mounted on the pedestal of light granite.                                          

22. Дворцовая пристань.

It was our last stop. Here we are going to finish our excursion.

To sum up, I would like to read some words about Petersburg from Pushkin’s poem «The Bronze Horseman»:

I love you, citadel of Peter’s

I love your elegant, austerity of line,

Your broad Neva, whose gracious waters

Mid granite – clad embankments shine.

I love your traceried iron of gate and railing,

The moonless brilliance of the light

That sheds a beauty never paling

Upon your meditative night.

When, neither lamp nor candle needing

I sit composing verse or reading,

And slumbering mansions, towering high,

Stand clear against the lucid sky.

We hope that our excursion was informative for you. And now, walking around Saint-Petersburg you’ll pay your attention not only to the monuments, palaces, museums and other pieces of architecture, but also to the materials, which were used for constructing these sightseeings. Thanks for your attention!