The Field of Mars () is a large square in the centre of Saint Petersburg. Over its long history it has been alternately a meadow, park, pleasure garden, military parade ground, revolutionary pantheon and public meeting place.

The space now covered by the Field of Mars was initially an open area of swampy land between the developments around the Admiralty, and the imperial residence in the Summer Garden. It was drained by the digging of canals in the first half of the eighteenth century, and initially served as parkland, hosting a tavern, post office and the royal menagerie. Popular with the nobility, several leading figures of Petrine society established their town houses around the space in the mid eighteenth century. Under Peter the Great it was laid out with paths for walking and riding, and hosted military parades and festivals. During this period, and under Peter's successors it was called the "Empty Meadow" and the "Great Meadow". Empresses Anna and Elizabeth built their Summer Palaces here, and it was redeveloped into a pleasure park with pavilions and walkways for promenading. Theatres were built on the land during this period, and with the imperial patronage, the square became the "Tsaritsyn Meadow". New townhouses and palaces developed along the square's boundaries and across its frontage onto the Neva. During the reigns of Emperor Paul I and his son Alexander I, the square took on more of a martial purpose, with the construction of military monuments in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In acknowledgement of this, and its role in hosting military reviews and parades, it was renamed the "Field of Mars" in 1805. (Renaming took place in 1818, not 1805, according to the Oxford Revised edition of War And Peace)

The square was part of the further development of the area by architect Carlo Rossi in the late 1810s, involving new buildings around the perimeter, and the extension of streets and frontages. During the nineteenth century the Field of Mars alternately hosted large military reviews, and public festivals. Sports and other leisure activities took place into the early twentieth century. After February 1917 the square became the ceremonial burial place of a number of those killed during the February Revolution. Construction of a memorial, the Monument to the Fighters of the Revolution, took place between 1917 and 1919 at the centre of the Field of Mars. The monument became the centre of an early pantheon of those who died in the service of the nascent Soviet state, and burials of some of the dead of the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War, as well as prominent figures in the government, took place between 1917 and 1933. Between 1918 and 1944 the Field of Mars was renamed the "Victims of the Revolution Square". The square was laid out with vegetable gardens to help feed the city during the siege of Leningrad, and also hosted an artillery battery. Restorations took place after the war, including the installation of the first eternal flame in Russia. In the post-Soviet period the Field of Mars has become a popular location for demonstrations and protests.

Location

The square covers an area of nearly . Bordering the Field of Mars to the north are the Marble Palace, Suvorov Square, the and the Saltykov Mansions, separated from the square by Millionnaya Street. To the west are the of the Pavlovsky Regiment. The Moyka River forms the boundary to the south, across from which is the Mikhailovsky Palace and Garden. The east side is bounded by the Swan Canal, which separates the Field of Mars from the Summer Garden.

Imperial period Petrine park In the early 18th century the land which eventually became the Field of Mars was a marshy area with trees and shrubs, lying between the Neva to the north, and the Mya (now the Moyka) and Krivusha (now the Griboyedov Canal) rivers to the south. With the establishment of the imperial residence in the Summer Garden in 1704, the area became a buffer zone separating the royal property from the rest of the city. Between 1711 and 1721 two canals, the Swan, and the Red, were dug to the east and west respectively with the purpose of draining the land. This created a roughly rectangular parcel of land, initially called simply Pustoi (), meaning "Empty" - after the trees that grew here were felled, and from the 1720s, the "Great Meadow" ().

A tavern was built in the northwestern part of the land in 1712, being rebuilt in 1714 as a post office. Between 1713 and 1717 the area hosted the royal menagerie, containing various birds and animals, including an elephant. With the construction of the Red Canal, the menagerie was transferred to Hamovaya Street (now Mokhovaya Street). With the completion of the Red Canal in 1721, the western edge of the Big Meadow became a popular site for the nobility to construct large townhouses. Those that settled in the area included Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Alexander Rumyantsev, Adam Veyde, and Pavel Yaguzhinsky, and Peter the Great's daughter, Elizabeth Petrovna. With the canals dug to carry away water, the land was soon drained, and on the orders of Peter the Great, it was levelled, cleared and sown with grass, with alleys laid out for walking and riding. The Great Meadow became a location for military parades and festivals. Celebrations of the 1721 Treaty of Nystad were held here, with a triumphal arch built to commemorate the treaty. The area became known as "Amusement Field" (). The Gottorp Globe was initially installed on the field shortly after its arrival in Saint Petersburg, housed in the former elephant quarters. A special building was constructed for it, and opened to the public for a time, before the globe was moved to the Kunstkamera on Vasilyevsky Island in summer 1726.

Imperial meadow During the reign of Empress Catherine I, the field was termed the "Meadow in front of the Summer Palace" (), and during the reigns of her successors Empress Anna and Empress Elizabeth, it became the site of their Summer Palaces, designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. Under Empress Anna, the land was used to host military exercises and parades for two weeks every autumn. After these parades the officers dined in the Summer Palace, while the soldiers ate on the meadow. In February 1740 Empress Anna ordered repairs and improvements to the square, including the planting of trees and the removal of some buildings. Architect Mikhail Zemtsov designed 24 garden pavilions, and oversaw the laying out of new paths and tree planting carried out by Harmen van Bol'es and his apprentice Ilya Surmin. A fountain decorated with dragons, dolphins, and mascarons by Konrad Osner was placed in the centre of the square. Further work took place in the early reign of Empress Elizabeth, with new walkways and tree planting. The square became known as the "Promenade" (), and it continued to house attractions and kiosks on public holidays. It was still a popular location for the houses of the rich and powerful, with the former residence of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp presented by Empress Elizabeth to her favourite, Alexei Razumovsky. Also with their houses here at this period were the court physician Jean Armand de Lestocq and the military commander Stepan Fyodorovich Apraksin.

In 1750 a theatre, designed by Rastrelli, was built on the square, replacing an earlier one that had stood on the corner of the Catherine Canal and Nevsky Prospect but had burnt down in 1749. The new theatre was of wooden construction on a stone foundation, and had three tiers of boxes. It was built by 353 soldiers of the garrison regiments, and was completed on 25 April. It hosted its first performance, a comedic opera, on 3 May, becoming the first opera house in Russia. It eventually fell into disrepair and was demolished towards the end of the eighteenth century. From 1751 the area in front of the Summer Palace became known as the "Tsaritsyn Meadow". It also hosted the Maly Theatre on the banks of the Moyka, and was the venue of a German troupe led by Karl Knipper, which performed with the pupils of the city's Foundling Home. It was rebuilt in October 1781 by order of Catherine the Great, and continued to host performances. Ivan Dmitrevsky, an actor in the troupe, and later its director, arranged for it to present the first productions of comedic works by Denis Fonvizin, including The Brigadier and The Minor. The theatre also hosted performances of Catherine's own plays, and the first performance of Pierre Beaumarchais's The Barber of Seville in Russia. The Maly Theatre was eventually demolished in 1797 on the orders of the new emperor Paul I. The Theatrical Bridge, part of the Tripartite Bridge, is a reminder of the theatre's existence.

The city continued to expand during the second half of the eighteenth century and large townhouses and palaces were built along the northern boundary of the meadow, along the Neva embankment. The Marble Palace was the first, built between 1765 and 1785. Yury Felten designed the three-storey Lombard building to replace the Razumovsky residence on the west side of the meadow, at the junction with the prestigious Millionnaya Street. A severe flood in 1777 damaged or destroyed many of the features of the Promenade, after which military parades began to be held once more. This largely completed the destruction of the lawns and vegetation. The Red Canal was filled in during 1780, becoming a roadway, which was given the name Tsaritsynskaya Street in 1798. Expansion across the meadow's Neva frontage continued in the 1780s with the construction of the service wing of the Marble Palace, and the and the Saltykov Mansions.

Military parade ground In 1799 an obelisk designed by Vincenzo Brenna was installed in the centre of the field in honour of Pyotr Rumyantsev, and in 1801 Mikhail Kozlovsky's Suvorov Monument was unveiled on the south side of the field. During the brief reign of Paul I, the Tsaritsyn Meadow was used mainly for military parades and drill, with his son, Alexander I transferring the land from the city authorities to the military. On 16 May 1803 carousels, booths and other amusement pavilions were erected on the land as part of the celebrations of the centenary of the founding of Saint Petersburg. The martial nature of the area was reinforced with the renaming of the Tsaritsyn Meadow as the "Field of Mars" in 1805, commemorating Mars, the God of war in Roman mythology, whom Kozlovsky had depicted Alexander Suvorov as on his monument. The new name also referenced the Campus Martius in Rome and the Champ de Mars in Paris, drawing parallels and asserting that Saint Petersburg was also to be considered as a great European capital. The name "Tsaritsyn Meadow" however continued to appear on some maps up until 1917. Pushkin acknowledged the military connection in his 1833 poem The Bronze Horseman;

I love the military vigourParaded on the Field of Mars:Stout-hearted foot troops and hussarsIn orderly and pleasing figure;Torn battle colours held on high;Smart ranks in measured rhythm swaying;Glint of brass helmets, all displayingProud bullet scars from wars gone by. Military use trampled the remaining grassy surface to dust, which when raised by the soldiers' boots, blew across the city, often settling in the trees of the nearby Summer Garden, and earning the Field of Mars its nickname of the "Saint Petersburg Sahara".