Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange and Rostral Columns

The Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange at the tip of Vasilyevsky Island, seen across the Neva in 2010 with one of its red rostral columns in front. Jean-François Thomas de Thomon built it between 1805 and 1810 as a Greek temple, modeled on the Temple of Hera at Paestum, and the columns followed in 1811, studded with ship prows because this was a port exchange where merchants traded the cargoes coming up the river. It makes the point that an exchange could be a city's grand set piece, placed to face the Winter Palace. Trading here ended long ago, and for decades the building housed the Central Naval Museum.