"Making the city come alive." Pre-revolutionary insurance signs have been given a new lease of life in St. Petersburg.
Two insurance boards and two address plates, which were attached to the walls of houses before 1917, were restored by local historian volunteers from the "Gang" team.
There are almost no such signs left on houses, and the remaining ones are difficult to find.
“Those that were, for example, plastered, have survived, explained co-founder of the team Ksyusha Sidorina. - Our sign at 10 Zheleznodorozhnaya Street was very heavily plastered over. Judging by Yandex Maps panoramas, it wasn't even visible until the façade renovation in 2014. Archival photos show the sign was last visible in the 30s..
Volunteers found, restored, and returned plaques to four buildings. They followed the following procedure: remove the plaque from the building (sometimes from three stories up), remove several layers of plaster and paint, prime it, apply new paint, and reattach it.
According to volunteers, it takes up to a month and a half and 25 to 30 rubles to create one plaque. Local history enthusiasts sometimes contribute.
When asked why these signs are needed, volunteers answer: "They are witnesses of history, we are bringing them back and making the city alive.".
The first insurance signs appeared in England – they were issued by an insurance company that took on fire insurance for a particular house. In Russia, they появились together with the first insurance company in 1827. Withdrawn from circulation in the 1960s.
Some local historians are trying to preserve these artifacts. For example, a Ryazan local historian Alexander Dudarev collected and restored over 100 insurance plaques. To do this, he traveled to Ryazan's regional centers and neighboring regions. According to him, there are no more than 20 collectors in Russia interested in insurance plaques.
Photo: courtesy of Fontanka
