Circus Ciniselli was the first stone-built circus

Circus

A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...

 in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

; it is situated beside the Fontanka

Fontanka

Fontanka is a left branch of the river Neva, which flows through the whole of Central Saint Petersburg, Russia. Its length is 6,700 meters, its width is up to 70 meters, and its depth is up to 3,5 meters. The Fontanka Embankment is lined with the former private residences of Russian nobility.This...

 in Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

. The building, which still stands, was opened on 26 December 1877, with a large stage (13 meters in diameter) and stables (housing 150 horses). The architect was Vasily Kenel

Vasily Kenel

Vasily Alexandrovich Kenel was a Russian architect.He studied in the St.Petersburg Academy of arts, where Konstantin Thon was his teacher. In 1860 he was sent by the Academy abroad as a pensioner for 4 years, where he worked at capturing images from the nature and the figures found at the Pompeii...

.

The Italian circus performer Gaetano Ciniselli (1815-81) first visited Saint Petersburg in 1847, as part of the troupe of Alessandro Guerra. He returned to Russia in 1869, this time working with Carl-Magnus Hinne, his brother-in-law, in his circuses in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 and Saint Petersbrug. Ciniselli settled in Russia, and inherited Hinne's circuses in 1875.

The Ciniselli family managed the circus until 1921, when they emigrated. They would often lease the building to stage high-profile entertainment events, such as the World Wrestling Championship in 1898 and Max Reinhardt

Max Reinhardt

----Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theater and film director and actor.-Biography:...

's production of Oedipus Rex

Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King , also known by the Latin title Oedipus Rex, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BCE. It was the second of Sophocles's three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the internal chronology, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone...

which featured Alexander Moissi in 1911. In 1918 Iury Iurev revived the play using the original set. This was followed by the production of Macbeth

Macbeth

The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

featuring Maria Andreeva

Maria Andreeva

Maria Fyodorovna Andreyeva was the stage name of Maria Fyodorovna Yurkovskaya , a Russian/Soviet actress and Bolshevik administrator....

 and Fedor Chaliapin.

Two halls in the building house the first circus museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

in the world, opened in 1928 and boasting more than 80,000 exhibits as of 2002.

External links

Entry in the online St Petersburg Encyclopedia