Saint-Petersburg

Some of the historic and modern architecture in Saint-Petersburg

John Pocock
 Saint-Petersburg

The Cultural Capital of Russia

© 2019 by John Pocock; All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the author.
 In memory of my wife.
Galina Anatolyevna Nikonova
Forever in my heart; Forever on my mind
.
This presentation shows only some of the fascinating historic places and new
modern places in Saint-Petersburg
 Contents
The City of Saint-Petersburg (Poem)
St Isaacs Cathedral
Kazan Cathedral
St Nicholas Naval Cathedral
Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood)
St Peter and Paul Cathedral
Palace Square
Hermitage Museum
Triumphal Arch
The Alexander Column

Bridges in Saint Petersburg

Opening of the Bridges in Saint-Petersburg
Palace Bridge
Alexander Nevesky bridge
Peterhof Palace

Modern landmarks of Saint-Petersburg;

Krestovsky Stadium
Yakhtenniy Bridge
Lakhta Centre Tower
Lakhta Centre
The City of Saint-Petersburg

The historical city of Saint-Petersburg

The capital of the North

In spring, summer and autumn.

The tourists will come

They will look in awe at the Palace at Peterhof.

Admire the Winter Palace, the Cathedral of St. Isaac.

And the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood

Be fascinated by history in the Hermitage

Museum. Take boat cruises on the Neva River

Walk along Nevsky Prospekt, also through the Palace Square

Wander in the Summer Garden or other famous parks

Enjoy the beauty of the Mikhailovsky and Aleksandrovskiy Gardens

Dine-in, one of the many exciting and diverse restaurants.

Listen to the operas or watch the ballets at the Mikhailovsky

Theatre. How many will know the city's former name of Leningrad?

And the story of the siege,

Foreign writers and historians write of the Great Patriotic War.

The story of the battle for Stalingrad is very often told.

If you should visit Saint-Petersburg this year

While admiring the city's beauty and history

Please remember its last name and another part of the war,

The 900-day siege of Leningrad.

And how the people suffered there

©John Pocock 2018

Saint-Petersburg

Peter the Great began construction of his new capital St Petersburg in 1703 after
successfully capturing Swedish provinces on the eastern coast.

The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May [O.S. 16 May] 1703, on a captured
Swedish fortress. At the end of the Great Northern War against Sweden.

Saint-Petersburg is on the Neva River, at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea.
It is Russia's second-largest city after Moscow. And is the fourth-most populous city in
Europe, as well as being the northernmost metropolis.

. It was the capital of the Russian Empire for over 200 years, 1712-1728 and 1732-1918.
Lenin and the Bolsheviks moved the capital to Moscow following the Russian Revolution in 1917.
From 1914-1924 the city was called Petrograd, and from 1924-1991, Leningrad
The city is on the Neva River at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland 640 km northwest of
Moscow and approximately 7° south of the Arctic Circle.

UNESCO designated the historic core of the Russian city of

Saint-Petersburg, as well as buildings and ensembles located in the immediate vicinity, is a
World Heritage Site.
Saint-Petersburg is recognised for its architectural heritage, fusing Baroque, Neoclassical
and traditional Russian-Byzantine of the 18th and 19th centuries and has been largely
preserved.
The city is home to Russia's best-preserved and carefully crafted structures from the
extravagant Tsarist era.
Saint-Petersburg is an important port and one of the world's major cities.
St. Isaac's Cathedral

Architect; Auguste de Montferrand; Architectural Style Late Neoclassical, Byzantine

Height:101.52 m (top cross); Construction;1818 to 1858
The golden dome of St Isaacs Cathedral dominated the skyline and was the landmark for
Saint-Petersburg for more than 160 years until the construction of Lakhta Centre Tower.
More than 100kg of gold leaf was used to cover the 21.8m-high dome, with an inner
diameter of 22 meters and an outer diameter is 25.8 meters.
It was gilded by a technique similar to spray painting; the solution used included toxic mercury,
the vapours of which it is reported caused the deaths of sixty workers
The dome is decorated with twelve gilded statues of angels by Josef Hermann.
Each one is six metres tall and faces each other across the interior of the rotunda.
The statues were constructed using a new type of galvanoplastic technology,
an alternative to the bronze casting of sculptures, making them only millimetres thick and
very lightweight. It's thought they were the first large sculptures produced by this new
method.
One of the most impressive sights of the cathedral's facade are sculptures and
massive granite columns (made of solid pieces of red granite).
The meticulous and painstakingly detailed work on constructing the St. Isaac's Cathedral
took 40 years to complete.
Following the length of time it took to construct St Isaac's. There is an idiom in Russia
"to build like St. Isaac's Church" for lengthy and never-ending megaprojects. St. Isaac's
Cathedral has the most impressive and spectacular interior. Adorned with incredibly
detailed mosaic icons, paintings with columns made of malachite and lapis lazuli, the
cathedral is open as a museum,
Today, church services are held there only on major ecclesiastical occasions.
Many people bypass the museum to climb the 262 steps to the colonnade; from a height of
43 meters, they admire a panoramic view of the city.
Kazan Cathedral; is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Architecture Empire style Architect: Andrey Voronikhin

Height 71.6 m (top cross)Construction; Started 1801 Completed 1811
In 1812 Kazan Cathedral was proclaimed a memorial to Russia's victory over Napoleon.
Statues of the two most prominent military commanders of the war were installed in the
cathedral's square.
The western side features the monument to Barclay de Tolly. The eastern side has the
monument to Mikhail Kutuzov, immortalised as one of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace
characters.
Andrey Voronikhin did not complete the cathedral. Some of the fittings were only
temporary in 1827; a leaking roof and deterioration of statues were causing concern.
Alexander, I appointed Auguste de Montferrand (the chief architect for St. Isaac's) to
fix the roof, place permanent statues, and complete finishes.
Montferrand landscaped the adjacent square and supervised new fresco paintings (The
Four Evangelists).
St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral

Photo by Dusan Smetana on Unsplash

St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, designed by Savva Chevakinsky, is a prominent

example of the so-called Elizabethan or Rastrellieqsque Baroque.
It has the shape of a cross decorated with Corinthian columns, stucco architraves, a
wide entablement and is crowned by five gilded domes.
The church officially became a naval cathedral in July 1762 by order of Catherine II.
St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral consists of two separate churches.
The lower Saint Nicholas Church is located on the first floor, while the upper
Epiphany Church is on the second floor.
In the Upper church, there are numerous memorial plaques for the crews of sunken
Soviet submarines, including K-278 Komsomolets, which sank in the Barents Sea
following an onboard fire on 7 April 1989, killing 42
One plaque was added in 2000, with the names of the sailors who died in the sinking
of the submarine K-141 Kursk.
The altar of the upper church was consecrated in the presence of Catherine the Great.
The main shrine of the cathedral is a Greek icon of St. Nicholas made in the 17th
centur ith a portion of his relics located in the lower church.
In 1908 the Tsushima obelisk was erected in the garden in front of the church in memory of those killed at the
Battle of Tsushima.
In 2000 another chapel was consecrated in the lower tier of the bell tower.
The cathedral houses ten spectacular icons in a gold frame that was a gift from Catherine
the Great. The icons portray saints who are celebrated at Russian Navy celebrations. One
of the most revered places in the cathedral is the image of Nicholas the Miracle Worker,
given to the church by Greek sailors. The image was taken from Russia by the French in
1812 and returned by the Prussians to Nicholas I in 1835

Today, it is one of the best - and last remaining - examples of Baroque architecture.
The walls of the cathedral are decorated with scenes from the history of the Russian Navy.
In 1907, two marble plaques were placed on the upper church's south wall in honour of
sailors who died in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-5.
In the square next to the cathedral is a memorial erected to all the sailors of the battleship
Alexander III who lost their lives in 1905

At about 492 metres from the church is a 689-metre high bell tower, from which you can enjoy a
magnificent view over the city. The land that surrounds the whole building is planted with
trees, surrounded by a beautiful fence and is one of the largest squares in St. Petersburg

© Andrew Zorin, CC BY-SA 3.0

<https://creative commons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia
Commons
No alterations or changes have been made to the photograph
Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is known to the people of Saint-Petersburg as
the Church of the Saviour on the Spilled Blood.

Architect(s) Alfred Alexandrovich Parland, Archimandrite Ignaty (Ivan Malyshev)

Construction; 1883 to 1907 Height; 81 metres; the second-highest dome, a two-tiered
bell tower is 63-meter high. Alexander II was killed in 1881, at 63 years old.
Alexander III wanted a church to his father's memory on the place where his father was
mortally wounded in an assassination attempt.
However, he wanted the church built in a "traditional Russian" style - in distinction to
what he saw as the contaminating Western influence in Saint- Petersburg.
After Alexander rejected several architects' designs, Archimandrite Ignaty (Ivan Malyshev)
gave the architect job to Alfred Alexandrovich Parland; it is said Ignaty made the design
himself.
Shortly after construction started on the Church of the Savior on Blood in 1863,
Archimandrite Ignaty died, leaving Alfred Alexandrovich Parland to complete the job.
Alfred Parland's chief architect deviated from the predominantly baroque and
neoclassical architecture of the city to traditional Russian medieval architecture.
It is due to Parkland's design and Alexander III's wishes that the cathedral stands out
from Saint-Petersburg other structures.
The city's architecture is predominantly Baroque and Neoclassical, but the Saviour on
Blood goes back to medieval Russian architecture in the spirit of romantic nationalism.
The church has an outstanding and varied collection of mosaic icons.
The walls and ceilings inside the church are covered in intricately detailed mosaics; there is
a total of over 7500 square meters of mosaics.
The main pictures are of biblical persons or scenes.

The interior was designed by some of the most celebrated Russian artists of the day -
including Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Nesterov N. Kharlamov and Mikhail Vrubel
The Church chief architects, Alfred Alexandrovich Parland and Andrey Ryabushkin
completed the framed icon mosaic ornaments.

The original Holy Gates or Royal Gates separating the nave from the sanctuary in the
cathedral was lost during Soviet times.
New Holy Gates was inaugurated and consecrated on 14 March 2012, the 129th
anniversary of Alexander II's assassination by Amvrosy, Orthodox bishop of
Gatchina The Church is now one of the main tourist attractions in Saint Petersburg.
St Peter and Paul Cathedral

The current building, the first stone church in Saint-Petersburg, was designed by Trezzini
and built between 1712 and 1733.
The architectural style is Baroque.
It is the first and oldest landmark in Saint-Petersburg, on Hare Island along the Neva River.
The Cathedral of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul is the oldest church in Saint-Petersburg and the
third tallest building in the city (after the T.V. tower and Lakhta Tower).
The multi-tiered cathedral bell tower is topped with a landmark needle, upholstered with gilded
copper sheets.
Its golden spire reaches a height of 123 metres and has an angel with a cross on the top.
This angel is one of the most important symbols of Saint-Petersburg.
According to legend, Peter I wanted to put on the highest point of the city angel that protected
Saint-Petersburg from all kinds of troubles and misfortunes.
The Flemish carillon is a musical instrument that is housed in the bell tower of a church.
The instrument comprises at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially
to produce a melody.
However, the present carillon in St Peter and Paul's Cathedral made in the Netherlands in
2001 comprises 51 bells with a gross weight of 15,160 kg; the biggest bell weighs about 3
tonnes, the smallest only 10 kg. The carillon has a range of four octaves, so most classical
and modern music can be performed on this instrument. The carillon was presented to St.
Petersburg by Queen Fabiola of Belgium and the Government of Flanders.
The cathedral's interior walls are embellished with paintings of various bible themes,
including many gospel stories by artists of the early and mid-18th century.

It is connected closely with both the history of the city and the Romanov dynasty.
The cathedral houses the tombs of almost all the Russian emperors and empresses, from
Peter the Great to Nicholas II and his family,
Among the emperors and empresses buried here is Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia for 34 years.

Today it has been adapted as the central and most important part of the State Museum of
Saint-Petersburg History.
The fortress walls overlook sandy beaches that have become among the most popular in Saint-Petersburg.
In summer, the beach is often overcrowded, especially when a major sand festival takes place
on the shore.
 Palace Square.
Palace Square is the city's main square and serves as an excellent example of how different
architectural styles can be combined in a most elaborate and aesthetically pleasing way.
On the northern side of the square stands the earliest and most celebrated building on the
square, the Baroque Winter Palace (built in 1754-62)

The Winter Palace built between 1754 and 1762 for Empress Elizabeth, the daughter
of Peter the Great, in the Baroque architectural style
Elizabeth died before the palace's completion.
The Winter Palace was designed in the Elizabethan Baroque style, the primary architect
was Francesco Rastrelli, who is recognised as the last great Baroque architect to work
in St. Petersburg,
The Palace was the main home of the Russian royal family from 1760 until the revolution
in 1917,
Many of the palace's 1,057 elegantly and lavishly decorated halls and rooms are open to
the public
.
Together with four more buildings arranged side by side along the Neva River
embankment, the Winter Palace now houses the extensive collections of the Hermitage
Museum.
Hermitage Museum.

Photo by Artem Bryzglov at unsplash.com

The Hermitage Museum is the largest art gallery in Russia and the second-largest art
museum in the world
is among the most respected art museums in the world.
Old Hermitage, New Hermitage, and Hermitage Theatre are open to the public.
The museum was founded in 1764 when Catherine the Great purchased a collection of 255
paintings from the German city of Berlin.
Today, the Hermitage boasts over 2.7 million exhibits and displays a diverse range of art
and artefacts from all over the world and throughout history (from Ancient Egypt to early
20th century Europe).
The Hermitage's collections include works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael
and Titian. a unique collection of Rembrandts and Rubens, many French Impressionist
works by Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Monet and Pissarro, numerous canvasses by Van Gogh,
Matisse, Gaugin and several sculptures by Rodin.
There is no way of seeing all the rooms nor even the highlights within in one visit; the best
approach is to research first and seek out specific rooms, artists or artworks.
I would recommend looking at site plans on the internet or satisfying yourself with whatever
you find via an aimless wander around.
The experts say that if you were to spend a minute looking at each exhibit on display in the
Hermitage, you would need 11 years before you had seen them all.
On the Southern side of the square combines a central arch, designed as a
Triumphal Arch after the ancient architecture of the Classical World,
Architect Carlo Rossi Architectural Style Empire Construction; 1819 - 1829

Alexander I of Russia (reigned 1801-1825) envisaged the square as a vast monument to the
Russian victories over Napoleon in the 1812 - 1814 war.
Alexander commissioned Carlo Rossi, considered to be the undisputed master of
Russian Empire architecture to design the bow-shaped Empire-style Building of the General
Staff, which centres on a double triumphal arch crowned with a Roman quadriga

Curving 580 meters around the southern side of Palace Square, the General Staff and
Ministries Building matches the Winter Palace opposite for scale and grandeur.

The General Staff Building is an edifice with a 580 m long bow-shaped facade, situated on
Palace Square, in front of the Winter Palace.

The two wings are connected by the building's magnificent triumphal arch, which leads
from Palace Square onto Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa. to Nevsky Prospekt.

The monumental neoclassical building was designed and built to commemorate the
victory over Napoleon in 1812; the archway walls are decorated with figures of the
Goddess of Glory flying on cannonballs.

The archway crown has impressive magnificent sculptured figures of glory in her Chariot
of Victory, pulled by six horses, the outer two of the team held by warriors that Stepan
Pimenov and Vasily Demuth Malinovsky designed.

The base of the chariot and two warriors are cast in iron; the rest of the figures are
made from hammered copper on a steel frame.

The triumphal arch was ready in time for victory celebrations after the Russo-Turkish War
of 1828 - 1829. It also played a central role in festivals on 8 July 1945, when Soviet troops
returned victorious from the Great Patriotic War and marched through it onto Palace
Square.

The Alexander Column Aleksandrovskaia Kolonna creates an important focal point

for this tremendous architectural ensemble in the middle of the square.
 The Alexander Column (Aleksandrovskaia Kolonna) is located in the centre of the
square Designed by the French-born architect Auguste de Montferrand with architect
Antonio Adamini
It honours Russia's victory over France in the Napoleonic Wars,
Built between 1830 and 1834 and unveiled on 30 August 1834.
The monument is the highest of its kind in the world in height; 47.5 m in diameter; 3.5 m,
and is topped with a statue of an angel holding a cross.
The body of the column is made of a single monolith of red granite.
The pedestal of the Alexander Column is decorated with symbols of military glory.
The fact that this statue weighing 600 tons was erected in 2 hours on 30 August 1832
by 3,000 men under the guidance of William Handyside without the aid of
modern cranes or lifting machines made the raising of the column a great feat of engineering
It so neatly set that no attachment to the base is needed and it is fixed in position by its
weight.
Bridges in Saint-Petersburg

Photo; Tetiana shyshkin on unsplash

Saint-Petersburg is built over 42 islands and connected by more than 342 bridges
in the city limits of Saint-Petersburg,
13 of the bridges are active bascule drawbridges; they all span over the Neva
River that opens only at night to allow a cavalcade of boats to pass down the river
of Saint-Petersburg,
The Blue Bridge is a 97.3-metre-wide (319 ft) bridge that spans the Moika River in
Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Blue Bridge is the widest in Saint-Petersburg and is
sometimes claimed to be the widest bridge in the world.
The bridge's name dates from a 19th-century tradition of colour-coding the bridges
crossing the Moika River. Like other coloured bridges, the Blue Bridge got its name
from the colour of its sides facing the river.
Today, only three coloured bridges survive, the other being the Red Bridge, the
Green Bridge, and the Yellow Bridge was re-named as Pevchesky Bridge.
 The 342 bridges over canals and rivers are of various sizes, styles and
constructions, built at different periods.
Some of them are small pedestrian bridges, such as the Bank and Lion Bridges,
others are transport arteries such as the almost one-kilometre-long Alexander
Nevsky Bridge.
Suppose you total up the number of bridges in Saint-Petersburg, including the
small bridges across hundreds of smaller ponds and lakes in public parks and
gardens. The bridges in various ports, marinas, yacht clubs and private
industries.
The total number of bridges in Saint-Petersburg is over a thousand.
Opening of the Bridges in Saint-Petersburg

There are 12 bridges in Saint-Petersburg which can be raised. Nine of them are raised
regularly, with the three remaining lifted only upon a special request.

The opening and closing of the bridges in Saint-Petersburg are spectacular; many tourists
think it is part of the annual White Night Festival period.
The White Nights Festival is an annual summer festival in Saint-Petersburg celebrating its
near-midnight sun phenomena.

St. Petersburg is so far north near the Arctic Circle; each year, between around the end of
April and mid-August, the skies only reach twilight and never complete darkness.

From the end of May to mid-July, the sun never fully sets; the sky stays bright
throughout the night with a light similar to the light of sunset (midnight sun).

Though it is of great interest to tourists and thousands gather on the embankments or take
trips on the river to witness the opening of the bridges thinking the event is for them, it is
not.

The opening and closing of the bridges is a purely commercial and technological
procedure to let through cargo river ships going along the Neva River to the Gulf of
Finland and in the opposite direction.
A calculated schedule with a precise time of consecutive opening and closing for each
bridge is maintained to guarantee passage of cargo ships and tankers at a precisely
controlled speed, to have at least one bridge at a time staying connected to ensure passage
for fire-fighters, police, ambulances and other ground transportation.

The bridges are only open at night from 01:00- 03 or 04:00 from April/May to October.

If during the period April to October, there should be days when there are no ships to go
along the river, no bridges are opening.

The bridges do not open for the remainder of the year due to the rivers freezing over.
Photos from Yakhtenniy Bridge December 2019;
Ice on the River Neva at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland
The Palace Bridge

The Palace Bridge is one of the most famous bridges in St. Petersburg:
The silhouette of the drawn Palace Bridge with the belfry of the Peter and Paul Fortress in the middle
is one of the remarkable features of the cityscape.
The Palace Bridge connects Palace Square with the Spit of Vasilievsky Island
Architects: Andrey Pshensitsky, Lev Aleksandrovich Noskov, Roman Meltzer
Length 260.1 metres, width 27.8 metres. The bridge opened on 23 December
1916.
It has a fascinating history: 54 proposed designs for the bridge were rejected between 1901 and 1911.
The design for the bridge was subject to strict controls to prevent the bridge from obstructing the view
from the Palace Embankment towards Kunstkammer, the Imperial Academy of Arts, and other
structures on Vasilievsky Island.
A year after its inauguration, the bridge was renamed Republican Bridge.
However, its original name was restored in 1952

.
Alexander Nevsky Bridge

Alexander Nevsky Bridge during the White Night

Architects: Aleksandr Zhuk, S. Mayofis, Y. Sinitsa
The bridge is a bascule bridge of reinforced concrete

Total length: 906 ms Opened: November 5, 1965,

The bridge is the longest in Saint-Petersburg, measuring 906 meters, including
approaches. The bridge carries six lanes of traffic and has two wings raised vertically to
accommodate passing ships.

Alexander Nevsky Bridge is named after the legendary Russian military commander and
politician Alexander Nevsky.

The bridge connects Alexander Nevsky Square and Zanevsky Prospect, linking the
city's southern and northern parts. It crosses the Neva River from beside the Alexander
Nevsky Monastery to Zanevsky Prospekt in the Okhta Region.
The bridge is one of the main bascule bridges crossing the Neva River.
Peterhof Palace
The Peterhof Palace is a series of palaces and gardens, commissioned by Peter the Great
It is known by two nicknames, "The Russian Versailles", as a result of Peter the Great's
visit to the French Royal court in 1717 or as the City of Fountains because it contains 173
fountains and four cascades
. Designed by the Swiss architect Domenico Trezzini whom Peter the Great engaged
to design the newly founded Russian capital of Saint Petersburg, Peter favoured the
Petrine Baroque style of architecture.
Trezzini's other famous designs in Saint-Petersburg today are The Peter and Paul.
Fortress with the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Twelve Colleges, which today houses
the university's administrative offices and the Faculties of Geology and Earth Sciences. two
museums - the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg University and the Dmitry
Mendeleev Apartment Museum
Others engaged by Peter the Great were Andre le Notre, who designed the gardens of
Versailles; and Jean-Baptiste le Blond, Saint-Peterburg's first principal architect and city
planner.
Between 1747 and 1756, the Palace was expanded by Empress Elizabeth, who
commissioned the architect Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli to enlarge the Palace and
preserve some of her father's work.
Rastrelli widened the wings, added floor and reconstructed the interior of the Palace.

The Great Palace is the former summer residence of the Russian monarchs located on top of
the ridge separating the upper and lower parks.
The Palace represents a symmetrical Baroque composition.
The Great Imperial Palace with the Grand Cascade is the most ambitious fountain
structure globally: it brings together 64 fountains, 255 sculptures and decorative details.
and is the centrepiece of the Peterhof Palace

The Lower Park has 150 fountains and four cascades.

The central cascade is the Great Cascade, situated in front of the Great Imperial Palace.
The cascade consists of several fountains; at the heart of the Grand, Cascade is a pool.
In the centre of the pool stands Rastrelli's most famous spectacular statue of Peterhof,
a 3m statue of Samson tearing a lion's jaws.
Symbolically, the whole composition of the cascade complex is devoted to the victory over
Sweden in the Great Northern War.
Samson symbolises the Russian's victory over Sweden in the war
The biblical character Sampson personifies Russia- the Winner and the lion
embody Sweden; from the lion, jaw shoots a 20-metre high vertical jet of water.
Eight fountains spray water from gilt dolphins at the feet of Samson
The Great Cascade is decorated with gilded statues of ancient Greek and Roman gods and heroes.

East of the Grand Palace is the "Chessboard Hill" cascade.

A 21m broad chute cascade on a natural slope whose wide steps surface is tiled in a black and white
squared chessboard pattern.
There are marble figures of ten ancient gods on both sides of the cascade, installed on
high stone pedestals.
Golden Mountain Cascade

Golden Mountain Cascade lies west of the Grand Palace; it has twenty-two steps, marble-
tiled steps fronted with h gilded copper sheets. Six marble Greek Gods statues on pedestals
are standing on both sides. On the upper wall in the centre is the statue of Neptune with a
trident in his hands; on the left is Triton trumpeting into the conch; on the right - Bacchus,
the god of wine and merriment.

The fourth cascade is the Lion Cascade. Its appearance is of an open Greek temple. It is
the only cascade not on a slope. The stone foundation is surrounded from three sides by 14
grey 8m granite columns. Among the columns, there are marble vases and fountains.
Standing in the middle of the indoor pool, on the hill of granite stones, is the bronze figure
of the nymph Aganipph.
From the two sides, the cascade is guarded by bronze lions.
The author and his wife outside the Great Imperial Palace
Modern landmarks of Saint-Petersburg;

Krestovsky Stadium

The stadium was designed by Japanese architecture firm Kisho Kurokawa and resembles the form
of a spaceship with a roof held up by four masts. It has some similarities with
that of the Japanese Toyota Stadium, which was designed by the same firm.

Krestovsky Stadium, the home of F.C. Zenit Saint-Petersburg, is located in the western
portion of Krestovsky Island.
It has a retractable roof stadium with a retractable pitch.

Planning for the new stadium began in late 2005, and the first construction works started
at the end of 2008
The stadium opened in 2017 for the FIFA Confederations Cup
The stadium was initially planned to be completed in 2009, but the project was
hampered by a series of delays, including a redesign to comply with FIFA requirements
Saint Petersburg Stadium was one of the playing venues of the 2018 World Cup in Russia,
during which it hosted four first-round group matches, a quarter-final, a semi-final, and
the game for third place.
It also hosted four matches during the 2017 Confederations Cup, including the final.
July 2018 The stadium at night behind the ring-road/
The photo was taken from 300 Anniversary Park during the White Nights period
Yakhtenniy Bridge is a pedestrian bridge constructed in 2017
The bridge cross’s the River Nevka connecting the southern shore of Primorsky district with the
northern shore of the Krestovsky Island.
It is the longest and highest pedestrian bridge in St. Petersburg. The length of the bridge is 491.98m Height;16m.
Lakhta Centre Tower;
Lakhta Tower has been proclaimed as the new landmark of Saint-Petersburg.

Lakhta Tower is located on the coast of the Gulf of Finland– it is

the northernmost skyscraper in the world and the second-tallest twisted
building in the world. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
(CTBUH) defines a twisting building as twisting’ if it progressively rotates
its floor plates or its façade as it gains height. It is usual that each plate will
be similarly shaped in plan and turned on a shared axis a consistent number
of degrees from the preceding floor as it gains height structural.
Lakhta Tower has 5 wings that rotate by floor;
The five wings of the tower rotate by floor by 0.82 degrees
relative to their centers, or about 90 degrees from the base to the
pinnacle.
.
The Tower
Height 462m; a total of 90 floors – 87 elevated and three Underground

Developed by RMJM in 2011

From 2011 to 2017, development was continued by GORPROJECT

based on the RMJM concept
Construction; 30 October 2012; 29 January 2018

It has a unique facade, 16,500 pieces of curved glass units and

72,500 square metres of glass were used for the facade
Curved glass window units weigh about 740 kg
So many unique facade glasses have not previously been used in
a glass skyscraper.
At an altitude of 357 meters, a free public viewing platform will
be open, from which people will see (weather permitting)

*Although Lakhta Tower is often referred to as the tallest building in Russia and Europe, it is the
second-tallest structure
The tallest structure in Russia and Europe is the free-standing radio mast, the 501-metre tall
Ostankino Tower in Moscow.
The Ostankino Tower has remained the tallest free-standing structure in Europe for over 50 years.

The difference Between a Building and a Structure is that a structure

is any type of man-made construction for example, bridge; dam; mast;
A building is specifically a closed structure with a roof and walls
Lakhta Tower Winter 2019; Photos from Yakhtenniy Bridge

Lakhta Tower obscured by cloud

Photo Lakhta Tower from 300 Anniversary Park shore
Lakhta Centre Tower at night
 Lakhta Park
Lakhta Centre
Lakhta Centre is typical of today's new Neo Futurism modern buildings, architectural style.
having minimal decoration, asymmetric composition, emphasizing on volume.
Glass façade, aluminum construction, steel supports and concrete
The centre does not have the architectural merit for which Saint-Petersburg is famous.
.

Never again in Russia will there be designed such classic architectural styles as the medieval Russian style of
architecture as the Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ or the Baroque style of
The Cathedral of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and The Winter Palace
 My thanks to; Tetiana Shyshkinon and Artem Bryzgalov for the use of their photographs through unsplash.com

The City of Saint-Petersburg Transport Department for information on the bridges;

The unnamed official tourist guides in 2019 who gave me so much of their time
and information about their respective sites.

Reference;

Lakhta Centre

Wikimedia.com;

Unsplash.com
About the author; John Pocock is a former Land Surveyor and Civil Engineering
Technician who was engaged in many roads, bridges, rail and metro projects in
continental Europe and Great Britain

John Pocock

Saint-Petersburg, Russia
ya.jwp@yandex.com