The building of a house is a much more costly undertaking in St. Petersburg than in any other part of Russia. Provisions are dear, and the price of labour always comparatively high. Then the ground brings often enormously high prices. There are private houses, the mere ground of which is valued at 200,000 rubles, a sum for which, in other parts of the empire, a man might buy an estate of several square leagues, with houses, woods, rivers, and lakes, and all the eagles, bears, wolves, oxen, and human creatures that inhabit them. In particularly favourable situations for business as much as 1000 rubles a year has been paid by way of rent for every window looking out into the street. The next thing that renders building so costly, is the difficulty of obtaining a solid foundation. The spongy marshy nature of the soil makes it necessary for the builder to begin by constructing a strong scaffolding under ground, before he can think of rearing one over it. Every building of any size rests on piles, and would vanish like a stage ghost were it not for the enormous beams that furnish it support. Such is the pedestal on which stands the citadel with all its walls ; and even the quays along the river-side, the foot pavements, and the framework of the canals, must be secured in a similar way. The foundation alone for the Isaac's Church cost upwards of a million of rubles, a sum for which a magnificent church might have been finished in most countries. Even with all this costly precaution, the builders do not always succeed in getting a solid basis to build on. After the inundation of 1824, the w^alls, in many houses, burst asunder, in consequence of the foundation having given way. The English Palace, as it is called, w^hich lies on the road to Peterhof, has fairly separated from the steps leading up to it ; either the palace has draw n itself back one way, or the steps the other. On all the fine quays the blocks of granite of which they are formed have settled more or less, and the street pavement in spring may be said to approach to a state of solution ; when carriages drive over it the ground shakes like a bog, and, in many places, the stones rise up or sink into the earth, forming often the most dangerous holes.
Pine logs, laid horizontally on each other, furnish the usual material for the construction of the wooden houses. Stone houses are built either of bricks or of Finland granite. The brick-walls are of extraordinary thickness. In our part of Europe we have frequent occasion to wonder at the great height to which our architects venture to run up their thin walls ; in Russia the wonder is reversed, for it is astonishing to see the thickness given to walls intended for so trifling an elevation. Five or six feet is no unusual thickness for a brick-wall in St. Petersburg;. Granite is less suitable to architectural ornaments than marble, and is but little used by the Russians, who seldom care much for the solidity or durability of their constructions. A handsome outside, and pompous and spacious rooms, are the chief desiderata. Wood is the favourite material, and where this is forbidden by the police, bricks are resorted to. Still, upon the whole, a huge quantity of granite has found its way from the Finnish swamps to the banks of the Neva since St. Petersburg was founded, and mighty blocks that had probably lain imbedded in the marshes for thousands of years, now display themselves proudly in the capital of the czars, in the shape of monoliths, pillars, cariatides, pedestals, &c. The airy sylphs of St. Petersburg, however, seem to have conspired, as much as the gnomes of the earth, against the architects of the city. It is quite afflicting to see how much the fine granite monuments frequently suffer from the effects of the atmosphere. The frosts of winter are particularly destructive. The moisture that finds its way during autumn into the pores of the stones, freezes in winter, and some of the largest stones are then rent and torn, and on the return of spring fall asunder. Most of the monuments of the capital have ah-eady suffered from this cause, and in another century will probably be falling into ruins. Even the magnificent Alexander column has in this way received an ugly rent.f