The first inhabitants of Petersburg were "working people"—those brought from all over Russia to build the city. Among others, behind the Kronverk of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Tatar settlement arose, where, according to contemporaries, lived "entirely Tatars, Kalmyks, Kazakhs, Turks, and other similar peoples." Felt yurts stood here, a market resembling an Eastern bazaar appeared, and after the work period ended, many Tatars stayed in the city. The memory of the settlement is preserved in the name of Tatar Lane and the Cathedral (Tatar) Mosque. The market also remained—not a market in the usual sense where groceries are bought, but a place for trading ready-made food in taverns, shops, from stalls, and on the go—as is typical for the East.
This is the very first market in Saint Petersburg. Spontaneously arising in 1705, it was initially located at Trinity Square. On July 28, 1710, a fire occurred, and Trinity Square burned down with all its buildings. A new market, called Obzhorny (Gluttonous), was set up on a wasteland opposite the Kronverk of the Peter and Paul Fortress, where it remains to this day.
Volkov Adrian Markovich. Obzhorny Row in Petersburg. 1858.
Later, the market was called by different names: some called it Obzhorny, others Sytny, and some Sitny. Folk etymology produced several legends: some claimed that in old times flour was sold at the market, first sifted through sieves (hence "sitny bread"), sieves were also sold here, and some said that following the fashion for all things foreign, the market was named after the English word "city."
In the journal "Russian Antiquity" No. 8 of 1873, N. Sazhin asserted that the market's name came from the word "syta," which was the folk name for water sweetened with honey. He recounted that when horses were sold at the market, many people gathered. Women sold edible supplies, most often oat kissel, and for sipping, they gave syta—water sweetened with honey.
According to one legend, the name arose because the first governor of Saint Petersburg, Menshikov, usually treated himself at this market to pies with hare meat and each time exclaimed: "How satisfying!" Some claim that flour sellers sifted it through sieves, hence the name. But these are all theories. Most likely, it is assumed that Sytny Market is a more euphonious name for the former Obzhorny Market.
From its inception, Sytny Market served as one of the city’s venues for public proclamation of royal decrees, and in the mid-18th century, also for public executions and corporal punishments. It gained especially grim fame during the bloody decade of Anna Ioannovna’s reign, or rather her favorite Biron’s. Approximately where the "Music Hall" building now stands was the Lobnoye Mesto (Execution Place). Here heads were chopped off, people were hanged, whipped, and the bodies of the executed were displayed.
Thus, on July 12, 1736, the adjutant of one of the executed princes Dolgorukov, twenty-year-old Yegor Stoletov, who was a supporter of limiting monarchical power, was beheaded here, and on June 17, 1740, those accused of conspiracy against Anna Ioannovna—A. P. Volynsky, P. M. Eropkin, and A. F. Khrushchov—were executed here. Executions at Sytny Market continued later. The last one, on September 15, 1764, was the execution of V. Ya. Mirovich for attempting to free Ivan Antonovich from the Shlisselburg Fortress and place him on the throne.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Petersburg side was inhabited by poor people. At that time, Sytny Market, according to contemporaries, presented a pitiful sight, resembling "a dilapidated ruin in some provincial town."
New life on the Petersburg side and at Sytny Market began with the opening of the Trinity Bridge in 1903. In 1906, merchants financed a competition for the construction of a new stone building, and in 1912–1913, according to the project of M. S. Lyalyevich, a new market building was erected, now included in the list of newly identified architectural monuments.
After the October Revolution, the market was closed. It resumed operation in 1936.
Today, Sytny Market, with its 300-year history, is located almost in the same place. The modern market building, constructed in 1838, was reconstructed in 1912–1913 according to the design of architect M. S. Lyalyevich.
Sources:
https://antennadaily.ru/2018/07/11/markets/
https://www.ipetersburg.ru/sytnyy-rynok/
https://sytrynok.ru/about/
