The point of vasilievsky island

St Petersburg is located in the delta of the Neva; that is why there are about 63 (80) rivers and canals which divide the city into 42 islands. Vasilievsky Island is the largest of the city’s islands, and a broad panoramic view of St Petersburg opens from its eastern point.

The island was originally intended to become the administrative, cultural and political centre of the new capital city (which was transferred to St Petersburg in 1712). However, it appeared more convenient to have all the main offices on the mainland, and eventually the city centre was shifted to the left bank of the Neva. The island preserved its significance as the harbor of St Petersburg. Vessels from all over the world used to tie up here, and the buildings were constructed for the commercial port. The commercial port functioned here between 1733 and 1885. Then it was moved to the south-western edge of the city. The architectural ensemble of the Point (Spit) of Vasilievsky Island was formed in the early 19^th century. Nowadays most of the buildings of the former seaport house various museums. There are a total of 8 museums in the Point of Vasilievsky Island.

The imposing building in the centre with 44 white columns, which resembles an ancient Greek temple, is the former Stock Exchange (Thomas de Thomon, 1810). The sculptural group on the facade represents the sea god Neptune riding a chariot pulled by seahorses. On either side of Neptune are symbolic figures of the Russian rivers Neva and Volkhov. The former Stock Exchange is the Central Naval Museum, one of the oldest museums of Russia founded by Peter I. It has a collection of models of almost every ship launched in Russia since Peter I’s time, a total of 1,500.

The two red columns (32 m high) in front of Stock Exchange were formerly used as light-houses. They are known as Rostral Columns (architect Thomas de Thomon). The name comes from the word “rostrum” – Latin for a prow of a ship. The columns are decorated with imitation prows of ancient Swedish ships, a symbol of Russia’s victory over Sweden in the Northern War of 1700-1721. The custom of putting up triumphal columns decorated with prows of enemy ships to celebrate major naval victories was borrowed from ancient Rome. Nowadays gas torches are still lit on top of the columns during national holidays. The four symbolic statues around the pedestals of the columns represent the four major Russian rivers – the Neva, the Volga, the Volkhov, and the Dnieper.

The two similar buildings on either side of Stock Exchange are former warehouses (Luccini, 1832).

One of the former warehouses accommodates Zoological Museum. It is one of the world’s largest zoological museums, with over 40,000 exhibits, including a unique stuffed mammoth which lived 44,000 years ago, and was discovered in the permafrost zone at the Arctic circle of Siberia in 1902. These bodies of animals remained almost in tact with part of the fur and with remains of still indigested food in the stomachs.

Next to Zoological Museum the green-and-white Baroque building with a tower (Mattarnovi, Chiaveri, and Zemtsov, 1734) was put up in the early 18^th century to house the first national museum of natural science and fine arts. The museum was established by Peter I as an exhibition of rarities and curiosities. It has been known ever since as the Chamber of Curiosities. Among the collections of the museum there is a collection of Dutch doctor Ryush purchased by Peter the Great in Holland, which contains embryos of abnormal children in spirits, bones of rare forms and so on. Nowadays it still houses a museum – the Central Museum of Ethnography and Anthropology; there is also the memorial museum of Mikhail Lomonosov, an outstanding Russian 18^th-century scientist and scholar who lived and worked there. There is a monument to Mikhail Lomonosov along the University Embankment, unveiled in 1986 (sculptors B. Petrov and V.Sveshnikov) to mark 275 anniversary of Lomonosov’s birthday. Lomonosov was a man of human originality; he came from a small fishermen village in the north of Russia to Moscow to get his first education when he was 19. He was very talented, skilful and got a grant to study abroad, in a University in Germany. When he returned to Russia, he worked for the Academy of Science in St Petersburg for a long time.

The Russian Academy of Science founded in 1725 had also been housed in the Chamber of Curiosities building until a special building was constructed for the Academy of Science. It is the yellow-and-white classical building (Quarenghi, 1788) next door to the Chamber of Curiosities. At present it is the main building of St Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Science.

The classical yellow-and-white building is the former Customs House (Luccini, late 1820s). Its dome served as a lookout post for signaling the approach of vessels. The former Customs House accommodates the Research Institute of Russian Literature and the Museum of Russian Literary History. The manuscripts, archives and letters of nearly all the eminent 18^th and 19^th-century Russian writers are preserved there: such as Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and others. In front of the building, there is a bust of Alexander Pushkin, an eminent Russian poet. We are turning to the left from the embankment named after the Russian Admiral Makarov, and on the right there is a scientific research institute of Physiology named after academician Pavlov. Nearby there is a monument of him. The yellow-and-white building opposite is the first trading center in St Petersburg, today this building houses two departments of the University – that of History and Philosophy. The grey massive building facing the square, named after the Soviet academician Andrei Sakharov, (the monument is that of him in the center of the square) houses the library of Academy of Science, it is one of the oldest libraries in our country. We are moving along the building of 12 Collegia, the red-and-white main office of the University towards the University Embankment. On the left there is a building which houses the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Maternity Hospital named after the gynecologist Otto.

*** This information you may insert at your convenient moment either on the Point of Vasilievsky Island or while passing by Palace Square.

Generally, St Petersburg is a big museum city. Its largest museum, the State Hermitage, is located on the opposite bank of the Neva. It is one of the world’s biggest art galleries with a total of about 3 mln. exhibits. The Hermitage is housed in five buildings; an excellent view of four of them is available from the Point of Vasilievsky Island. These are: the Baroque building of the Winter Palace (Rasrelli, 1754-1762); the Small Hermitage (Vallin de la Mothe, 1767); the Old Hermitage (Veldten, 1784); and the Hermitage Theatre (Quarenghi, 1787). The other building of the New Hermitage (Klenze and Yefimov, 1850-1852) is not seen from the Embankment, as it faces Millionaire Street.

The grey granite walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress can also be viewed from the Point of Vasilievsky Island. This fortress quite literally began St Petersburg. It was founded by Peter I in 1703 to protect the lands on the coast of the Gulf of Finland which Russia had recovered during the Northern War against Sweden. Later, the fortress was turned into a political prison. Since 1924 it has been opened as a historical museum. The museum comprises the former prison as well as the Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul, the burial place of Russian tsars and members of the royal family. The Cathedral is the highest architectural structure of the city (122.5 m high).

(A bit of history from these lands: Just a few words about the history of these lands. All these lands on the banks of the Neva-river, on the cost of the Gulf of Finland were primordially Russian lands. The territory of today’s city was a part of lands of Novgorod. But at the beginning of the 17^th century these lands were conquered by Sweden and Russia lost the outlet to the Baltic Sea, lost important trade roads (routes). This loss impeded further development of the whole country. When Peter the Great ascended the throne, it was one of his most important political aspirations to re-conquer these lands from Sweden. The war against Sweden lasted for 21 years from 1700-1721. It is known in the history as the Northern war. By 1703 these lands were returned to Russia by Peter the Great and to protect them he built a new fortress. So the Peter and Paul Fortress was built as a military fortress. A few years later another fortress Kronstadt was built on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland and that fortress became the main fortress protecting these territories. While the Peter and Paul Fortress was used as a political prison. And it became the most terrible political prison of Russia. There were many famous Russian people among the prisoners: Raditschev- a well known writer was imprisoned in this fortress. He wrote a book “Journey from St Petersburg to Moscow”. He exposed serfdom and autocracy in this book. Then in the middle of the 19^th century a famous Russian writer Dostoevsky also was a prisoner of the fortress. He waited for his death sentence in one of the cells of the fortress. He was arrested for his political activity, not for his writing. He was a member of the political society headed by Petrashevsky, 21 members of this society were sentenced to death. Then death sentence was substituted for 4 years of hard labor in Siberia. In the 2-d part of the 19^th century Lenin’s elder brother Alexander Ulianov also was a prisoner there. He was arrested for participation in preparation of the attempt on life of Tsar Alexander the third. At the beginning of the 20-th century another well known Russian writer Maxim Gorky was also imprisoned there. The only occasion when the guns of Peter and Paul Fortress were used was the 25^th of October 1917- the night of storming of the Winter Palace. In the 1920-s the fortress was turned into a museum. One part of that museum is the former prison; the second part is Sts Peter and Paul Cathedral. It is the highest building in the city. The height is 122,5m.