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Sightseeing tour of St. Petersburg

Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to St Petersburg! I am very glad to see you today. I will be your guide. My name is … Now let me introduce our driver to you. His name is … All together we’ll have a sightseeing tour around St Petersburg on board this bus. Its number is… (The license’s number is…..below the front window). Our tour will take us 3 hours. During the tour I’ll show you the main street of the city –Nevsky Prospekt, architectural ensembles, places of historical interests, palaces, churches, squares, monuments and many other interesting things which surely catch your eyes. During our tour we will have several stops at some exciting spots getting out of the bus and you will have your chance to taking pictures there. So let me hope you will enjoy the tour and you will love the city as I do.

St. Petersburg is one of the largest industrial and cultural centers and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. St Petersburg is Russia’s most European city. It is the second largest city in this country after Moscow. The population is less than 5 million people (4,730). The city covers the territory of 650sq.km, spreads on 42 islands, has 68 rivers and canals and is connected by some 363 bridges. St Petersburg’s climate is maritime and much milder than its northern latitude (latitude is 59°57’N and longitude 30°19’E) would suggest. January temperatures average -8°C; a really cold day will get down to -15°C. It is a windy city though and in some areas exposed to the Gulf of Finland the wind chill is quite fierce. Summer is cool and takes a while to get going: snow in late April is not uncommon as temperatures suddenly drop when the melting ice blocks from Lake Ladoga come floating through the city’s main waterways. Warm weather doesn’t really start until the period between June and August, when temperatures usually surpass 20°C. On rare hot days of highs up to 30°C, the city becomes unbearable and residents flee to the beaches on the north bank of the Gulf of Finland or to their dachas in cool but mosquito-infested forests. The city’s northern latitude means long days in summer and long nights in winter. During the summer White Nights festival, around the time of the summer solstice, night is reduced to a brief dimming of the lights at around 1am, only to turn to dawn a couple of hours later. And in winter the city seems to be in constant dusk. Sometimes they call the city as Northern Palmyra or Venice of the north.

St Petersburg is a rather young city, it is 305 years old. It was founded in 1703 by Peter the First (the Great) as his “window on the West” and for over 200 years (from 1712 till 1917) was the capital of Russia. The 16th of May 1703 (27th new style) is considered the birthday of the city.

St Petersburg is the original name of the city. However, the name of the city was changed a couple of times. In 1914 the city was renamed in Petrograd for the first time. Russia was at war with Germany, so the German sounding St Petersburg was changed for the Russian Petrograd. In 1924 after Lenin’s death, Lenin’s name was bestowed on our city, it was renamed Leningrad, because Lenin’s life was connected with the city. It became St Petersburg once again in September 1991.

The city is compared with the young city, but it is greatly enforced by the history of our country. Many famous Russians from the world of science and culture are connected with the city. St Petersburg saw the flowering of Russian music, opera and ballet, and such composers as Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Borodin and Shostakovich lived and worked here. Then again, many great writers, poets and artists like Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Gorky, Bryullov, Fedotov, Kramskoi and Repin created their best-known works here in St Petersburg.

Many important historical events took place here. The history of the city is also closely linked with the development of the revolutionary movement in Russia. In December 1825 an armed uprising took place against tsarism and serfdom, which was organized by members of the progressive nobility, who have gone down in history under the name of the Decembrists. This insurrection was brutally put down by the forces of autocracy. By the turn of the century St Petersburg had become the leading center of the revolutionary movement. The city played a decisive role in the February Revolution of 1917, which overthrew tsarist autocracy, and later the October Social revolution won in the city, which laid the foundations for the building of the world’s first socialist state. During the Great Patriotic War (1941-45) or WWII (World War 2) the city of Leningrad underwent terrible sufferings of 900 days of the siege. The whole population took part in the heroic defense of the city, which was blockaded from all sides. Despite the deprivations, the lack of food and the continued bombing and artillery fire, the defenders of the city steadfast repulsed the attacks of the enemy, and the city’s industry never ceased to supply the front with weapons and ammunition. For 900 days the heroic defense of Leningrad continued. More than 650,000 Leningraders died from hunger, cold or during the bombing. Both within the city and in its environs priceless historical monuments were destroyed, as were hundreds of factories. Altogether 3,174 buildings were destroyed completely and 7,143 damaged severely. In memory of the tremendous sacrifices made by Leningrad during the blockade large memorial complexes were built in 1960 and 1965 at the Piskarevskoye and Serafimovskoye cemeteries, where those who died defending the city lie buried, for heroism and gallantry displayed by our people in 1965 the city was awarded the title Hero-City.

Now St Petersburg is a high-tech center - one in 10 Russian scientists works here – and is the country’s largest commercial seaport. Various industries- car-making, ship-building, chemical, paper and plastics are accumulated in the city.

The city has a high concentration of some of the country’s best schools and colleges. There are 22 military colleges, some 70 sports schools, several dozen universities, some 200 technical, medical, economic and trade colleges, over 400 primary and secondary schools, 250 kindergartens and dozens of specialized schools. Today St. Petersburg has about 300 research institutes and more than 80 higher educational institutes. Sometimes our city is called the cultural capital of Russia.

The early history of the city began with the Peter and Paul Fortress. Peter the Great laid down the Fortress on Zayachy Island or Hare Island, which was a strategic point to protect the city from Sweden. The city was founded during the war against Sweden. This war became known in our history as the Northern War. The war began in 1700 and ended only in 21 years with the victory over Sweden. It was Peter the Great who unleashed this war just to get back the lands on which he created the city. These lands had a very significant geographical position for the vital trade route “from the Varangeans to the Greeks”, and in the 12th century it became part of the Novgorod lands. However, in 1617 Sweden took these lands under its power, and for 86 years Russia didn’t have the outlet to the Baltic Sea. In 1721 Russia got its access to the Baltic Sea, and after that it became possible to develop economic, political and cultural relations between Russia and Western Europe. By founding the city on the banks of the Neva and on the coast of the Gulf of Finland Peter the First opened his “Window to Europe”.

Nevsky Prospekt or Nevsky Avenue is the main street in the city. Prospekt means a wide straight road. Originally it was a road cut out in a deep forest to connect the city with the old trading centers Novgorod and Moscow. It is about 3 miles (4,5km) long. Driving along Nevsky Prospekt we’ll pass a number of palaces, churches, institutes, theatres, museums, libraries, department stores, shops, cinemas, restaurants, cafes. We love our main street, and call it Nevsky for short. There are a lot of people here at any time of the day. Many buildings on N.P. are interesting for their history, for the architects, who constructed them and for whom they were constructed, for the events that happened within their walls.

Gostiny Dvor: on the right you can see the 18-th century building. It is the large block with arcades occupied by the largest department store in the city named as Gostiny Dvor or Merchant Yard. It was built between 1757 and 1785 by the architect Vallin de la Mothe. Gostiny Dvor was not only a commercial center; it attracted a lot of different people. Representatives of all the estates of the capital could be met here, as well as Petersburg cranks and eccentric persons. Duke Wellington visiting Russia invited by the Emperor Alexander I often walked along the galleries of the Gostiny Dvor. The building faces 4 streets, stretches 230m along N.P. (its perimeter is over 1 km long or 1mile long). The Department store is located both on the ground floor and on the first floor. On the model of G.D. many shopping centers were built in Old Russia. In 1965 while repairing a wall workmen found a hoard of 8 bricks made of pure gold and their weight was 128kg.

The Former Town Hall is on the left from G.D., the building was constructed by the architect Quarenghi in 1784-1787. At the beginning of the 19-th cent., in 1802, the architect Ferrari added the tower which was first used as the fireman’s watch tower. A watchman stood on top of the tower on the alert. If he noticed smoke anywhere over the city, he would run up signals announcing where the fire had broken out. Later the tower ceased to serve as a fire watching post and became a relay station for the mirror telegraph linking the Winter Palace with the Summer Residence of emperors in Tsarskoye Selo. The telegraph mast crowns the tower till now. A clock has been installed on 3 sides of the tower, it strikes every 15 minutes. The Former Town Hall or Town Duma on Dumskaya Street was the seat of the pre-revolutionary city government.

Next is the building of the Former Silver Bazaar which faces Nevsky Prospect. It was designed also by Quarenghi in 1784. They used to be jewelry shops, hence the name of the building. Today there is the Ananov Jewelry shop on the ground floor.

On the opposite site of N.P. is the Grand Hotel Europe built by the architect Fontana. It was used as the hotel since it was constructed at the end of the 19-th cent. Built between 1873 and 1875, it was redone in Style-Moderne in the 1910s and completely renovated from 1989 to 1991. It is one of the city’s architectural gems, boasting shameless splendor: marble and gilt, sweeping staircases and antique furnishings. The hotel faces Mikhailovskaya Street, which is rather short, and links N.P. and Arts Square named after its cluster of museums and concert halls. The square itself is a remarkable architectural ensemble and at the same time has become one of the most important cultural centers of the city. A statue of Pushkin, erected in 1957 (sculptor Anikushin), stands in the middle of the tree-lined square. The square and Mikhailovskaya Street were designed as a unit by Rossi in the 1820s and 1830s. The very imposing building behind the monument is the former Mikhailovsky Palace, now the Russian Museum, built by the same architect Carlo Rossi between 1819 and 1825 for Grand Duke Mikhail (brother of Tsars Alexander I and Nicholas I). The museum was founded in 1895 under Alexander III, but was opened three years later in 1898. The Benois building (a left-hand side wing), now connected to the original palace and built between 1914 and 1919 became an extension to the museum. The 100-year old history of Russian Art is represented in the 130 halls of the museum, you can see here works of Repin, Vasnetsov, Kuindgi, a famous collection of icons of 15-16 cent., works of modern art of Shagal, Malevich, Kondinsky and others. The museum currently boasts over 400,000 items in its collection and now owns three other city palaces where temporary exhibitions are also held: the Marble Palace, the Stroganov Palace and the Engineer’s Castle. The right hand side building is another extension to the Palace; it is the Museum of Ethnography built by arch. Svinyin in 1911. Where on display there are traditional crafts, customs and beliefs of the over 150 people who make up Russia’s fragile ethnic mosaic. It has a marvelous collection: the sections on Transcaucasia and Central Asia are fascinating, with rugs and two full-size yurts (nomad’s portable tent-house).

The Academy Maly Theater of Opera and Ballet named after composer Modest Mussorgsky (present day’s name is Mikhailovsky Theater), the building was designed by the architect Bryullov in 1883. Across the square there is another musical institution, the large Philharmonic Hall, the former building of the Nobility Assembly designed by Jako in 1839. St Petersburg Society was founded in 1802. The works of Glinka, Borodin, Rakhmaninov and other composers were first heard at today’s Philharmonic Society. Richard Wagner was there in 1863. Today the Philharmonic Society bears the name of Dmitry Shostakovich. It was him who created his famous 7^th Symphony during the first year of the siege in his unheated room in between fire watching on the roof of the Conservatory while enemy’s bombs fell around. He called his work “The Leningrad Symphony”. The concert was held in the spacious auditorium (hall) of the Leningrad Philharmonic Society in August 9^th, 1942.

Now we are leaving Arts Square for Sadovaya Street backward N.P. On the corner of turning to the right from Sadovaya St. across N.P. one can see a grey colored building of the National Public Library, which is the biggest in St Petersburg with some 31 million items, nearly a sixth of which is in foreign languages. It is one of the world’s biggest libraries, and certainly the world’s largest store of Russian books and manuscripts. The first library building was put up in 1801 (architect Sokolov); the corner grey one was added to the library in the 1830s. Its facade is decorated with bas-reliefs and busts of ancient scholars, philosophers and writers. It was designed by architect Rossi.

The monument in the centre of the square is to Empress Catherine II (the Great), unveiled in 1873 (designed by artist Mikeshin; sculptors Chizhov and Opekushin). The Empress stands on the granite pedestal; around its base there are the figures of some of Catherine’s eminent contemporaries and renowned statesmen of the 18-th century and military leaders of her time: Prince Potyomkin who won the Crimea for Russia in the Russian-Turkish War; the “invincible general”, Prince of Italy, Count Suvorov-of-Rymnik, Field Marshal Count Rumiantsev-of-Chesme; Chichagov, Conde Bezborodko, Betskoy, poet Derzhavin, Dashkova, the first and only woman President of the Russian Academy of Science; and other famous people of the 18^th century, including her lovers Orlov, and above-mentioned Potyomkin). Note that the Empress’s figure is almost twice as tall as the others (The Empress’s figure is 4m 35cm high, the pedestal is made of 576 pieces of stone). An enormous statue of Catherine the Great stands amid the chess, backgammon (нарды, игра) (and sometimes even mahjong) players that crowd the benches here. The airy square around is commonly known as the Catherine Gardens, was created by Carlo Rossi in the 1820s and 1830s, as well as the theater, in the background of the square, an impressive yellow-and-white Classical building, known as the Alexandrinsky Drama Theatre. It is one of the oldest drama theatres in Russia, the first imperial theater in the city named after the wife of Nicolas I Empress Alexandra, who patronized the theatre in the 19^th century (present Pushkin Theater), where the greatest Russian 19^th-century actors performed. The building is crowned by Apollo’s chariot; it was built around 1830 to Rossi’s design. Behind the theater there is a street bearing Rossi’s name. Carlo Rossi was an architect who contributed a lot to the creation of beautiful Classical architectural ensembles in St Petersburg, and the street running immediately behind the theatre is named after him – Architect Rossi Street. The street is formed by two identical buildings in Classical style built in 1834 to Rossi’s designs. This is one of St Petersburg’s most fascinating sights. The street is remarkable for its severe proportions: 22 metres high, 22 metres wide, and 220 metres long. One of the buildings in this street houses the Vaganova Russian Ballet Academy (formerly called Imperial Ballet School), the oldest ballet school of Russia founded in 1738. The school became the Kirov Ballet’s training school, where Pavlova, Vaganova, Nizhinsky, Karsavina, Ulanova, Nuriyev, Baryshnikov (to mention just a few) were its graduates and others learned their art.

Rossi Street comes into the square, in the center of which there is a bust of the 18-th century scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, (to the design of sculptor P.Zabello) unveiled there in 1892. The bronze bust is placed on the pedestal made of the grey marble and granite. The square is flanked with two similar looking buildings; they housed formerly the Ministry of Public Education and Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The bridge across the Fountain River, bearing the same name as the square, is one of the 7 stone bridges decorated with four towers, connected with chains, across the river once built in 1780. Only two of them survived today: Lomonosov Bridge and Kalinkin Bridge. In the 18-th century they were draw-bridges. (The Fountain River issues from the Neva, forms a bow around the city centre and flows into the Neva again at the Gulf of Finland. Its name goes back to the early 18^th century, when the water from the river was used to feed the fountains of the Summer Gardens, the oldest public garden in Russia. Until then it had been called the Small Neva. The river is 6.7 km long, 35-70 m wide and 2,6-3,5 m deep. The river was the city’s boundary till the mid-18^th century. The left bank was a forest, which was famous for the robbers who mugged passers-by and travelers, so the owners of the country houses on the left bank were ordered to cut down the forest around their estates to keep the robbers from hiding there. The river embankments were faced with granite at the time of Catherine II.)

Now we are driving back to N.P. The next very imposing bridge over the Fountain River is Anichkov Bridge. It gained its name from Lieutenant-Colonel Anichkov, who was in command of the Fountain River army construction squad. This was the first bridge over the Fountain River, built in the 18^th century. The bridge is famous for the four sculptural groups of rearing horses at its four corners. They symbolize man’s struggle with eventual taming of nature. The sculptures were made by Pyotr Klodt, an eminent Russian sculptor, in the middle of the 19^th century (1840).

The corner pink- reddish building on the opposite side of Nevsky, on the corner of the Fountain River Embankment, is the former Palace of Prince Beloselsky-Belozersky (Stakenschneider, 1848). The palace was formerly a home of Communist Party officials and is now the Historical Museum of Wax Figures and a municipal cultural centre. There are two displays: “Russia from the 7^th to 18^th Centuries” and “From Alexander to Putin”.

We are turning now to the left backward to N.P. The yellow building on the left is the former Anichkov Palace, the city’s second palace (located between Ostrovskogo Square and the Fountain River). It was commissioned by Empress Elisabeth in the 18^th century for her secret husband, Count Razumovsky, and later Catherine the Great presented it to Potyomkin. The construction of the palace started in 1741, but later it was reconstructed several times, so there were a lot of architects who contributed to its design: Zemtsov, Rastrelli, Starov, Rossi, to mention just a few. The two garden pavilions were designed by Rossi (1818); the sculptures between the columns represent Russian warriors.

Since 1935 the palace has housed the Children’s Palace with over 100 after school clubs for over 10,000 children with wide choice of activities: engineering, outdoor activities, art, sport, natural sciences, libraries, and many others. Today there is a small museum inside, where one can see some ornate interiors.

The Palace is part of the architectural ensemble of Ostrovsky Square named after the prominent Russian playwright of the 19^th century. On the right hand side at Nevsky Pr.56 is the Yeliseevsky Food Shop, the most sumptuous “grocery store”, built in Style Moderne between 1901 and 1903, it is decorated with sculptures and statues on the outside, and a gorgeous mirrored ceiling and stained glass windows on the inside. A very pleasant street is the newly pedestrianised Maly Sadovaya Street. A number of statues and sculptures have been placed here, including a marble ball with a fountain underneath which makes it spin forever.

Crossing another street called simply Sadovaya, we are entering the commercial part of N.P. You can recognize the largest Department Store Gostiny Dvor on your left, opposite is another large department store specializing in goods for ladies, the Passage (Kozlov, 1900). Inside it looks very pretty because of the glass ceilings and packed with pricey goods. Downstairs in the basement is a well-stocked supermarket.

Next blue-and- white building worth mentioning is the Armenian Church of St Catherine (1771-80). The church is open to visitors. There is a huge crystal chandelier inside.

The yellow-and-white building on the opposite side of Nevsky Prospect is the Roman Catholic Church of St Catherine. It dates from the 1760s and is one of the finest Early Classical ensembles in the city (architects Vallin de la Mothe and Rinaldi).

Next blue-and–white building on the right is the former Engelgard house, it belonged to a very rich landowner in 1800. It became a real center of musical and literary life in St Petersburg at that time. Many famous musicians, composers gave concerts there. Nowadays it houses Maly Philharmonic Hall named after the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka.

On the corner of this building some distance from N.P. to the right on the Griboedov canal embankment we can see the multi-domed Church on Spilled Blood. It is also known as the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, it was built by the architect Parland between 1883 and 1907 on the spot where Alexander II, despite his reforms, was blown up by the People’s Will terrorist group on March 1^st in 1881 (that explains the gruesome(страшный, ужасный) name). The church was built in the same style as St Basel Cathedral in Red Square in Moscow. Here cupolas are covered with colored ceramics. It’s now most commonly known as the church that took 24 years to build and 27 to restore. In August 1997, with much fanfare, it finally opened its doors after painstaking work (трудоемкая работа) on the 7000 sq metres of mosaics by over 30 artists which line the walls inside. Last year, i.e.2007, the church marked its a hundred anniversary of the foundation.

(A few facts: There are 20 granite plaques on the façade which record, in gold letters, the main events of Alexander II’s reign; the steeple is 81m high; the mosaic panels about half-way up detail scenes from the New Testament; and the 144 mosaic coats of arms each represent the provinces, regions and towns of the Russian Empire of Alexander’s time, which all joined in mourning the death of the tsar).

On the corner of Nevsky Prospect and the canal crossing it there is a massive dark grey building faced with granite, with a glass globe on top. The building, originally constructed for the American Singer Sewing Machine Company (arch. Suzor, 1904), houses the city’s largest bookshop known as the House of Books. The upper floors of the building are occupied by a number of publishing houses.

Across Nevsky Prospect from the House of Books stretches the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan put up in the early 19^th century (between 1801 and 1811). It is the major work of the Russian architect Voronikhin and a real masterpiece of High Classical style. The colonnade of the cathedral is made up of 144 columns.

The cathedral, completed in 1811, became a memorial of the Russian-French war of 1812. In front of the cathedral there are two monuments to Barclay de Tolly and Kutuzov, the two commanding generals of the Russian army in the Napoleonic war (sculptor Orlovsky, 1837).

Many trophies of the Napoleonic campaign are kept in the cathedral; Fieldmarshal Kutuzov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army in the war of 1812, who died in 1813, is buried there.

Further down Nevsky, on the opposite side of the street, there is the yellow building of the Lutheran Church of Sts Peter and Paul. The original Lutheran church was built here in 1730; the present-day church building was put up on the same site in the 1830s (architect Bryullov). During the Soviet time in the 1950s it was used as a swimming pool, the high diving board was placed in the apse(апсида). They say it was the best in the city. In August 1991 it was moved out of the church, and the church was open for services again.

The building on the opposite side of Nevsky, on the corner of the Moika embankment, is the former Palace of Count Stroganoff’s family, one of the wealthiest Russian noble families. The Stroganovs were a prominent family in pre-revolutionary Russia and were noted as art collectors. Count Stroganov’s son was a famous patron of the arts and President of the Fine Arts Academy. Their chef (cook) did create a certain beef dish, named after the family as beef-stroganov. The palace, one of the finest Baroque buildings in the city, was constructed in 1754; its architect was Rastrelli who designed the Winter Palace. The palace now houses part of the Russian Museum collection, and there is a gallery of wax figures of the Romanov family.

The stretch of Nevsky from the Admiralty to the Moika River is the Prospekt’s narrowest section: it reminds of how wide the Prospekt originally was. It gets much wider after crossing the Moika. In its widest part, Nevsky Prospekt is 60 metres wide; its length is about 4.5 kilometres.

Now we are crossing the Moika river. The Moika had been the city’s southern boundary till 1709.

The Moika is 4.67 km long, 20 to 40 m wide and 2.3 to 3.2 m deep. It flows at a speed of 8.3 to 11.3 cubic m per second. The earliest houses built on the river banks in 1705 were small wooden dwellings of naval officers and shipbuilding workers who worked at the nearby shipyard.

The pink building on the opposite side of the Moika, decorated with two-storied columns and pilasters, used to be quite famous in St Petersburg in the 18^th and 19^th centuries and was known as the “House with Columns”. It was built in the 1760s on the site of a wooden Winter Palace where the first Russian professional theatrical performances had been given (in the palace theatre). Later on, towards the end of the 18^th century, concerts of the first musical club were held in the “House with Columns”. The building is one of the best monuments of early Russian Classicism. Nowadays it houses the Barrikada Cinema.

The building across Nevsky Prospect from the cinema dates from the early 19^th century (architect Stasov, 1816). It houses the popular Literary Cafe, which has been opened in the premises of the famous 19^th-century cafe frequently visited by writers and poets. Alexander Pushkin had his last meal here on January 27^th 1837, then he moved to the place of his duel at the Black river, was mortally wounded in his stomach and in two days died in his last flat on the Moika river embankment in building 12. His killer was a French soldier of fortune (наёмник; кондотьер), Baron d’Anthes, who had been publicly courting Pushkin’s beautiful wife, Natalia. Today there is a museum there dedicated to Alexander Pushkin. On display are his death mask, a lock of his hair, and the waistcoat he wore when he died.

Further down Nevsky Prospect, a short section of a street crossing it runs off to the left and is closed up by the arch of the General Staff building. This section of the street, which connects Nevsky to Palace Square, was built by the architect (Rossi) along Pulkovo Meridian; so when it is sunny you can set your watch by it – at noon the houses on either side cast no shadow at all.

On the façade of building 14, built in 1939, one can see a blue-and-white stenciled (трафарет) sign maintained since WWII: “Citizens! At times of artillery bombardment this side of the street is most dangerous!” It was a very vulnerable site on N.P.

The dark grey stone building on the corner of Nevsky Prospect and Malaya Morskaya st. was originally built for the Vavelberg Bank (architect Peretyatkovich, 1912) in imitation of the Palace of Doges in Venice. The granite facing, arcade blocks and the sculptures decorating the facade were brought from Sweden by the banker himself. Now the building houses an air terminal. To the left goes Malaya Morskay Street where in building 13 Tchaikovsky died on October 25^th 1893. He is buried in the Tichvinskoe cemetery on the territory of Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

This section of Nevsky is, historically, its oldest part, but in the early 20^th century it was rebuilt and became the financial and commercial centre of St Petersburg, with banks, tenants’ houses and big stores located here. In fact, the stretch of Nevsky Prospekt from the Admiralty to Anichkov Bridge alone had 28 banking establishments.

Nevsky begins from the Admiralty, the imposing yellow-and-white building with a spire. It is the city’s compositional centre. Three big streets radiate from the Admiralty building.

The original Admiralty was built as a shipyard in 1704 by order of Peter I and the first Russian warship was launched there in 1712. The present-day classical building was constructed in 1823 (architect Zakharov) in the shape of a broad letter “U” opening towards the Neva – this was done in imitation of the old shipyard which formerly occupied the site. The height of the Admiralty’s tower with the spire is 72 metres. The spire is topped by a sailing boat which serves as a weather-vane. The spire of the Admiralty with the sailing boat on top is a symbol of St Petersburg. At present, the Admiralty houses a Naval Academy.