Application for reservation |
|
|
|
|
THE STRELKA OF VASILIEVSKY ISLAND
Granite of the embankments, hanging over the Neva River bridges, luxurious colonnades of the Winter Palace, the golden cap of the St. Isaak’s Cathedral, the Peter and Paul’s Fortress, and the Admiralty - such wonderful sights are seen from the Strelka (Spit) of Vasilievsky Island. In holiday evenings the Strelka presents a marvelous sight: huge gas torches brightly blazing on the Rostral Columns illuminate faces of holiday-makers, and the light reflects on the buildings situated on the coast of the Neva. And in the XVIIIth - the beginning of the XIXth century there was the St. Petersburg port in the place, and the Strelka itself was a place of brisk trade.
The central building of the architecture ensemble of the Strelka of Vasilievsky Island is the building of Stock Exchange surrounded by a solemn colonnade. There are symmetrically situated less gorgeous buildings on the sides of this building. They are the buildings of former warehouses - the Northern and the Southern ones where brought goods were kept (there is the State Zoological Museum in the Southern warehouse now). And there are two Rostral Columns in front of it, nearer to the coast; they served as lighthouses at that time. The building of the Stock Exchange was the center of merchants’ high finance. The façade of the Stock Exchange from the side of the Neva and the Mendeleevskaya Liniya (Line) is decorated with two sculpture groups. There is the God of seas Neptune with a crown on his head and the trident in his left hand in the center of the exposition facing the Neva. He sits in a chariot, and four sea horses are harnessed to it. Ranges of the Rostral Columns are decorated with rostrums - figured protuberances resembling images of ancient ships’ prows or rostrums (that is why the columns are named Rostral). There are statues of an old man and a woman at the foot of each column, on the stepped socles. These figures are supposed to symbolize the rivers of Russia: the Volga, the Dnepr, the Volkhov, and the Neva.
|
|
