The territory of the modern Apraksin Dvor was formed from two parts, named after their owners — the merchant Ivan Shchukin and Fyodor Apraksin. In the mid-18th century, merchant Ivan Shchukin acquired from Count G. P. Chernyshev a plot near the Fontanka River, opening trading rows for agricultural products there. This market was called "Shchukin Dvor." In 1744, Fyodor Apraksin was granted by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna a large land allotment between the Fontanka and Sadovaya streets for his diligent service. In 1754, his son Matvey decided to establish a market on the plot — he began building wooden stalls and renting them out. In 1802, Matvey Apraksin received permission to build a "tolkuchiy torg" — a place for free trade. By agreement with the city authorities, police were always on duty there. By the beginning of the 19th century, the market had already acquired the name "Apraksin Dvor," colloquially "Aprashka." Gradually, the trading rows expanded, and in 1833 Emperor Nicholas I ordered to unite Shchukin and Apraksin Dvors into a single trading zone. After Matvey Fyodorovich, the market was owned and managed for more than half a century by Stepan. In 1841, the first passage with 50 stalls was built in Shchukin Dvor, stretching from the corner of Sadovaya to the modern Lomonosov Street. By the early 1850s, Shchukin Dvor had 16 stone buildings, and Apraksin — 8. In 1858 and 1861, under the direction of Ieronim Korsini, two new stone market buildings were constructed, connected by a wooden glazed roof. In April 1861, Korsini proposed installing new metal umbrella-canopies.

By the mid-19th century, Apraksin Dvor had become a center around which government institutions were located — Gostiny Dvor, the Page Corps, the State Bank, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and its archive, among others. The May fire of 1862 destroyed most of the market buildings and caused colossal damage to the funds of nearby institutions.

Various theories circulated in society about the incident — some suspected radical political opposition of arson, others accused the government of deliberate provocation. The Apraksin Dvor fire became a turning point in Alexander II’s domestic policy and, according to the then young Peter Kropotkin, in Russian history. Losses amounted to tens of millions of rubles.

After the 1862 fire, a rhyme circulated among the people:

Here is the fire of Apraksin Dvor!

Firefighters gallop,

Hiding half-pints in barrels —

There’s not enough water,

So they pour vodka,

To make it burn brighter.

The recently orphaned Anton Apraksin had to restore the burned market — having just lost his father, he became the guardian of his sisters and young niece. After the fire, Apraksin decided to build only stone buildings on the market. Reconstruction and construction costs plunged him into multimillion-ruble debts. The chief architect was appointed Ieronim Korsini, who had been working at Apraksin Dvor for several years. He developed a project for two passages along Sadovaya Street to Shchukin Dvor and turning into Apraksin Lane. In 1863–1864, buildings were completed according to the project of architect Alexander Krakau. The architect paid great attention to fire safety: his buildings used only metal floors and internal structures.

In 1875, a new, most active stage of Apraksin Dvor’s reconstruction began. Over the next two decades, architects Andrey Bertels, Alexander Krakau, Alexander Klimov, and Ludwig Fontana worked on it. In 1898, a wooden chapel was added to the end of the fruit passage from Mikhaylovsky Proezd.

Firefighting on July 3, 1914. Photo by Karl Bulla

By 1912, Apraksin Dvor already had over 40 stone buildings housing 652 trading stalls. On July 3, 1914, another major fire occurred at Apraksin Dvor, though it did not cause as severe damage as in 1862. In 1916, architect Leonid Kharlamov designed the Chapel of All Saints, built on the site of the wooden chapel near the fruit passage. Many sources call Apraksin Dvor the largest wholesale market in Europe before World War I. During the revolution and Civil War, the market declined, premises were empty, and some were used as warehouses.

In Soviet times, Apraksin Dvor became a center of commission trade; department stores opened in the front buildings along Sadovaya Street. During the blockade, a food distribution point operated at Apraksin Dvor.

According to architectural historians Mikhail Milchik, Alexandra Averyanova, and Natalia Glinskaya, the greatest damage to the Apraksin Dvor ensemble was inflicted in the 1960s, when Bolshaya Liniya was built up, four historic buildings and the Resurrection Church were demolished, and the Lenizdat building was erected in their place.

By the late 1990s, about 100 commercial organizations operated at Apraksin Dvor. During privatization, a significant portion of the premises passed into private ownership. The clothing market at Apraksin Dvor had a reputation for criminality, similar to the Cherkizovsky Market in Moscow — trade was often illegal, employees lacked documentation, and counterfeit goods made up a large share of the merchandise.

Recently, volunteers found a woman in the basements of the market complex who had been held captive for 20 years. Her identity could not be established, and years of captivity had affected her mental health. Therefore, the prisoner was immediately sent from the basements to a psychiatric hospital. Another similar case involving a visitor to "Aprashka" occurred several years ago. A man named Sergey recounted how he ended up in slavery right from the market. It began with a backgammon game with some Azerbaijanis in one of the complex’s basements. After Sergey won 45,000 rubles, he was invited to play more — with a Chechen named Vakha and Dagestanis. They, in turn, suggested playing with "money clients" from Vyborg, where they planned to go the next day. After drinking cognac to get acquainted, Sergey passed out after a couple of shots. Besides captivity stories, Apraksin Dvor regularly experiences conflicts with shootings and robberies.

Since the early 2000s, city authorities have announced intentions to reconstruct Apraksin Dvor and turn it into a modern public-business center. The first project was published back in 2002, which included building a new bridge over the Fontanka and repurposing the Dvor into a trade and entertainment complex. This concept was soon abandoned. On September 6, 2007, city authorities announced a competition for the reconstruction of Apraksin Dvor. In 2008, the winner was named — the company "Glavstroy" from the "Basic Element" group of entrepreneur Oleg Deripaska, promising to invest up to 40 billion rubles in the complex’s reconstruction and implement a project developed for them by Wilkinson Eyre Architects. Chris Wilkinson proposed a radical project for the redevelopment of Apraksin Dvor, including creating a futuristic glass cloud-dome over the new bridge across the Fontanka and reconstructing historic buildings. In 2008–2009, the Civil Market was built at Rustaveli Street, 45. Commissioned at the end of 2009, it was intended to relocate trade from Apraksin Dvor. Glavstroy SPb claimed that "Apraksin Dvor will cease to exist by the end of 2012." However, in 2010, most of Apraksin Dvor’s buildings received cultural heritage status, after which Wilkinson’s concept became inapplicable and the project remained unrealized.

On May 15, 2012, St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko stated that although Apraksin Dvor had become a real urban dead end, he did not intend to allow the complete demolition of the complex. In February 2013, St. Petersburg authorities announced they would not renew the reconstruction contract with Glavstroy-SPb, as the company had only built a fence around the complex in four years and had not started work. The city then commissioned a new development project for Apraksin Dvor from Timur Bashkaev’s bureau. His proposed concept suggested allocating 40% of the area for coworking spaces, museums, and educational centers, and the remaining 60% for offices and apartments. This project was not implemented. After that, the concept of creating a residential quarter with a pedestrian zone and trading space was proposed by Studio 44 of Nikita Yavein. The project was divided into six stages: first, the passages, the western firewall, and Apple Square were to be reconstructed. Subsequent stages involved creating targeted quarters — museum, theater, and creative, restoring Shchukin Dvor, fruit rows, and the eastern firewall. Actual work was never started; in April 2018, the city terminated the agreement with Glavstroy-SPb through the Arbitration Court.

In 2018, the "Piter" concern, owning 65,000 m² of space at Apraksin Market, received strategic investor status from city authorities. A subsidiary of "Piter" called LLC "Investment and Construction Company 'Apraksin Dvor'" was created, which pledged to adapt 21 real estate objects of the complex for modern use by 2025, investing 5.1 billion rubles in the project.

In 2021, after several police raids, the overwhelming majority of tenants left the market. As of 2022, Apraksin Dvor included 57 buildings, of which 27 were owned by St. Petersburg, 17 in mixed ownership, and the rest belonged to private individuals. The total area of internal premises is 170,000 m². Many buildings of the complex have deteriorated, some are in emergency condition. Already in the 21st century, Apraksin Dvor repeatedly suffered from fires; the market was filled with unauthorized constructions, and many premises were illegally remodeled. In a 2021 survey by the Institute of Design and Urban Studies of ITMO University, St. Petersburg residents named Apraksin Dvor one of the three least liked places in the city.

In 2022, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Vice-Governor Nikolay Linchenko and GloraX President Andrey Birzhin signed an agreement on the comprehensive development of several city territories, including Apraksin Dvor. The developer, in partnership with the "Piter" concern, planned to invest up to 50 billion rubles in its reconstruction and adaptation for modern use as a public-business complex. The five-year reconstruction was scheduled to start in 2023–2024.

But at the end of 2022, the city government unexpectedly leased 29 objects in nine buildings of Apraksin Dvor for three years. This step became another obstacle to reconstruction — now, to start it, the developer would have to resolve disputes not only with private owners of market spaces but also with tenants through the courts. After appeals from urban preservationists, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, ordered an investigation into the city authorities’ inaction regarding Apraksin Dvor’s reconstruction.

In February 2023, GloraX’s first vice-president and co-owner Alexander Andrianov stated in the media that the agreement signed at SPIEF was declarative and did not oblige the company to specific actions or deadlines. Andrianov said that GloraX still had not decided whether to take on the project.

Apraksin Dvor market remains one of the cheapest in St. Petersburg; many illegal and counterfeit goods are still sold there, and the criminal situation at the market remains very tense. If you decide to visit it, it is recommended to hide your money and phone and not to bring valuables.

Source:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apraksin_Dvor

https://78.ru/articles/2022-10-14/prodavat_lyudei_vigodnee_chem_narkotiki_kak_rabstvo_v_peterburge_stalo_povsednevnostyu?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fdzen.ru%2Fnews%2Fsearch%3Ftext%3D

https://newia.ru/news/2022-10-17/kriminalnye-istorii-apraksina-dvora-spustya-20-let-iz-podvala-osvobodili-plennitsu-1977567

https://www.ibgroup.ru/news/2022/03/24/586/