The Summer Garden
The garden was arranged in 1704–30 by the order of Peter I on the opposite bank of the Neva. The more than 200 marble Italian sculptures which decorated it shocked the guards by their nudity. The fountains were established here thanks to a special engine bought in France and the subsequent digging of the Ligovsky canal, which was more than 20 km long. The flood of 1777 destroyed all this. Court festivities and magnificent receptions were organized here. Since the nineteenth century the enigmatic and splendid Summer garden has been a popular walking place for  nobles: He softly groaned at child’s jests – The Summer Garden was their place.



The Senate and Synod Buildings

These two government establishments were placed in the two buildings connected by the arch (1829–34, by Rossi). This Empire arch with a rich sculpture decoration skillfully hides Galernaya Street, which starts under it and goes in parallel with the Neva. The Russian State Historical Archive which conserves documents of the main state establishments of Old Russia is settled here nowadays. Under the arch to Galernaya Street our shadows are forever, wrote Akhmatova.



 

St. Isaac’s Cathedral
The Isaac-giant was constructed for forty years (1818–58, by Montferrand), longer than the whole life of Pushkin. The odious monument of orthodoxy, autocracy and national roots in the forms of Late Classicism counts 112 columns and can seat several tens of thousands. This was the fourth temple dedicated to St. Isaac. This is because  Peter the Great was born on the day of St. Isaac the Dalmatian. In 1712 in the first wooden church the wedding ceremony of Peter and Catherine I was celebrated. Before the 1917 Revolution it was the main orthodox temple of the city. Foucault's pendulum of 93 m. long was demonstrated here in Soviet times. The sculpture of the pediments designed by Vitali and Lemaire illustrate the Adoration of the Kings, the Resurrection and two subjects from the hagiography of St. Isaac. The figures of Apostles and Evangelists are placed at the corners and tops of pediments. Anew St. Isaac is in vestments of the cast silver.



The Ethnographic Museum
This museum was inaugurated in 1901 as the Ethnographical branch of the adjoined Imperial Museum of Russian Art of Alexander III. Since 1934 the museum has functioned independently. Neo-classical building of the museum (1901–11, by Svinyin) was specially designed for ethnographical collections. Marble Hall in the center of it was made with Russian marble, which rivaled the Italian one, and was decorated with a relief representing all of the nations of the Russian Empire.



 

The Palace of Stroganov
This most laconic work of the architect Rastrelli has two façades, one facing towards Nevsky Prospect and the other towards the Moika river. It was erected in 1752–4 in the baroque style of the empress Elizabeth. The Stroganov family had possession of one of the best art collections in Russia. These collections were placed in the palace and entered the State Hermitage Museum after 1917. In 1988 the palace became one of the branches of the Russian Museum. In 2003 its green walls changed their colour to pink.



The Narva Triumphal Arch
This arch was erected by the architect Stasov on the place of the wooden arch under which the victorious Russian troops entered St Petersburg, conmemorating the victory in the 1812 Patriotic War. Its foundation was timed for the 15th anniversary of the Borodino battle, and the inauguration of the 21th of that of Kulm. In 1827–34 when this 30 m high construction was built, the city picket was placed at its pillars. It controlled the road to Narva and Tallinn. The chariot of Glory (by sculptors Klodt and Pimenov) crowns this monument of the Late Empire. The pillars bear names of battles of the 1812 War and those of heroic Guard regiments. Over the aperture of the arch is settled a small museum where the authentic flags of the heroic Life-Guards Preobrazhensky, Semionovsky and other regiments are conserved.



 

The Museum of Artillery
Kronwerk was constructed in 1705–8 by Russian military engineers to protect the Peter and Paul Fortress from the North. It looked like an earthwork in the form of crown (that is where its name came from). It did not take part in war operations though. In 1826 the rite of civil punishment of the Decembrists passed at the parade-ground of Kronwerk, while five of them were hung at night on the eastern wall. The horseshoe-shaped brick building which stands nowadays is the Arsenal, erected in 1849–60 by Tamansky. Since 1868 it houses the museum, whose name is short and clear like always in the army: Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Sappers and Signal Troops. The collection of arms, equipments and symbolism of the Russian army placed here is arranged from 1756 and counts ca. 500 000 exhibits.



The House of Derzhavin
This house (by Lvov) with a central wing and two laterals is typical in its composition for the end of the 18th c. The house was owned by the famous Russian poet Gavrila Derzhavin. In 1791 he became secretary of the empress Catherine II and moved to this house on the Fontanka embankment. Some of his poems like “House” and “Petition for the construction of the house” are related to this event. The author of Felitza and the ode God, this aged grandee and master entered the XIXth century by listening approvingly to young Pushkin’s exam in the Lyceum, as it were passing on to Pushkin the baton of Russian versification one year before his own death. By leaving troubles in the city, Derzhavin often “run away” from this hospitable house to Zvanka, his estate near Novgorod where he worked on his verses and died, desiring to be buried in Khutynsky monastery.



 

The Anichkov Palace
The Palace (1741–51, by Zemtsov and Rastrelli) whose name comes Anichkov, a lieutenant colonel who established a sloboda on this place at the times of Peter I, was built by empress Elizabeth for her favourite Razumovsky,who never actually lived there. The façade opens to the Fontanka river, and from this river’s opposite bank it was possible to admire the palace in the 18th century. At that time one could sail up to the steps of the main entrance. Fontanka was the city limit on the other side of which grew a forest with real bandits. Catherine II two times presented this palace (reconstructed by Starov) to her favourite Potyomkin, while this one sold it twice. Since the beginning of the XIXth c. the main façade is covered by another building, which hides it from all idle eyes. Maybe for this reason Nicolas I liked this palace more than all others and frequently lived there. There he waited through the restoration of the Winter Palace after the fire of 1837. A big garden joined the palace at that time and only the small part of it still exists. In 1936–37 two Constructivist architects, Gegello and Krichevsky accomodated the building for the Palace of Pioneers.



The Stock Exchange
The huge Greek peripteros is situated at the most spectacular point of the city. Neptune at the top and two rostral columns at each corner affirm the power of the maritime Empire. It was built at the very beginning of the XIXth c. after the project signed by Thomon on the spot of the deconstructed building by Quarenghi. One after another, in the building were accomodated The Stock exchange, The Sailors’ Club, The Chamber of Commerce, The Labour Exchange, The Aeromuseum and The Central Naval Museum.



 

The Lutheran Church of St Peter
Peterkirche (1833–8, by Bryullov) opens to the Nevsky prospect. The motives of the Romanesque architecture and of the Russian Classicism quaintly combine in its façades. In the Soviet times the swimming-pool was arranged in the church. It was abrogated after.



The Islands
Krestovsky, Kamenny and Yelagin island since olden times were places for walk.
From the point of  Yelagin Island le beau monde admired the sunset at the sea. The glory of the architect Rossi arised here. It was here that in 1818–22 he built his first architectural ensemble of the Yelaginoostrovsky Palace around the Maslyany Meadow, which name reminds of popular holidays.



 

The Horse Guards Manège
One of the marvels of Quarenghi’s architectural ingenuity. Likewise all other city manèges, this one (1804–7) was built for training, riding and vaulting in the autumn and winter time. This function is reminded by the equestrian marble groups of Dioscuri, executed by Triscorni in Italy and brought to Russia to be installed there in 1817 (from 1840 to 1954 they were displayed in another place, though). In Soviet times the Manège was turned into an exhibition hall.



The Alexander Column
This monument to the Emperor Alexander I was erected by his brother Nicolas I. It escaped the common lot of  monuments of this kind (like la colonne de Vendôme) by being re-interpreted as The Monument to the Victory of Russian people in the 1812 Patriotic War. The column was designed in 1830–34 by Montferrand as a granite monolith of ca. 600 tons, hewed out near Vyborg. This granite stately and severe, the fragment of prehistoric rocks  column rests on a pedestal thanks only to its own weight. The column is the highest (47.5 m) structure of its kind in the world. The bronze figure of an angel at the summit (by Orlovsky), which tramples down the serpent by his cross, recalls the spire of St. Peter and St. Paul cathedral and recalls the motive of the writhing snake in The Bronze Horseman. The face of the angel it is said to have the portrait likeness of Alexander I.