The way to pushkin

Route; Nevsky Prospect - the Fountain River Embankment - Moscow Prospect - Kievskoye Shosse

The name of the Fountain River goes back to the time of Peter I when its water was used to feed the fountains of the Summer gardens. The left bank of the river was built up in the 19th century.

LEFT - the former palace of the family of Prince Beloselskv-Belozerskv

(mid-19th century, Stakenschneider). From the 1880s it was owned by the royal family; its last owner was Grand Duke Dmitry, a participant of the plot against Grigory Rasputin. At present the building houses a municipal cultural centre.

LEFT - the building next door is the former homestead of St Trinity Lavra in Moscow (the 1840s, Gornostayev). At present there is the Central Municipal Library.

RIGHT - Lomonosov Bridge is one of the 7 identical stone bridges across the Fountain River built in the 1780s. Only two have been preserved. This used to be a drawbridge and the four corner granite towers contained lifting mechanisms.

RIGHT - Lomonosov Square across the river is formed by a monumental semi­circular building of the former Ministry of Education (the 1830s, Rossi).

STRAIGHT ahead in a distance there are the blue domes of St Trinity Cathedral (1835, Stasov), which was built for Ismailovsky Royal Regiment.

RIGHT - the modern building known as the Press House. It accommodates a number of editorial offices of St Petersburg newspapers.

RIGHT - the green building next door is one of the most popular drama theatres of the city, the Bolshoi Drama Theatre (1870, Fontana).

This section of the river was built up with different banking establishments in the late 19^th and early 20^th century.

LEFT - the former barracks of Moscow Guards Regiment (late 18^th century). The building is associated with the Decembrist uprising of 1825. It was from here that the insurgent regiment set out for Senate Square where the uprising took place.

LEFT - the Obukhov Hospital, one of the city's oldest hospitals opened in 1799. Many famous doctors of Russia worked here. The first medical school of the

country with a four-year term of education was established here in 1821, which marked the beginning of paramedical training in Russia.

RIGHT - the College of Railway Engineering, one of the oldest higher schools In Russia. It was founded in 1809 by order of Alexander I (the 1790s, Quarenghi).

Moscow Prospect is one of the city's longest streets. It is 9.5 km (7 miles) long. From the early 18^th century this was part of the main road which connected St Petersburg to Moscow and Tsarskoe Selo, the summer residence of I he tsars. In the 18^th century, the road was called the Tsarskoe Selo Perspective Road. Later it was renamed many times:

in 1806-1878 it was called the Great Road to Tsarskoe Selo; from 1878 it was called Trans-Balcan Avenue in honour of Russia's victory In one of the Russian-Turkish wars;

from 1922 it was called International Avenue;

in 1950 it was named Stalin Avenue;

in 1956 it was eventually named Moscow Avenue.

RIGHT - a marble milestone with a sundial (1744, Rinaldi). It marked the beginning of the road to Tsarskoe Selo, to Moscow and the southern provinces of Russia in the second half of the 18^th century.

RIGHT - the yellow-and-white building of a cadet school with four 19^th century guns at the entrance. The building (1809, Paulson) was constructed for the military orphanage founded by Paul I in the late 18^th century.

RIGHT - the building next door houses the Research Institute of Metrology where the great Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleyev worked in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. The facade of the building next door is decorated with a mosaic periodic table of elements, discovered by Mendeleyev. There is a monument to Mendeleyev in front of the building (1931, Ginzburg).

LEFT - the Institute of Technologies (1831, Postnikov, Anert), one of the oldest higher schools of the country (founded in 1828), where Mendeleyev also worked.