If you like only magnificent buildings you can
leave out this album. I'm going to talk about a very specific area -
Vesely Poselok (the Merry Settlement*) :)
The first interesting building is well
known for St. Petersburg citizens "Ice Palace" (Ice Arena). It is
situated near the metro "prospect Bol'shivikov". It was built in 2000 by
A.V. Bokov, S. Kil'piya. H. Laitila, S. I. Sokolov, Kh. Tinkanen. In the
same year the World Hockey Championship took place in the Ice Arena.
The project doesn't look unique. It has a lot in common with the
Hartwall Areena in Helsinki. Probably, it's just a standard
construction.
Moreover I was told that there had to be a turret above, but it
wasn't built. And indeed the Arena looks like it needed a turret.
Federal mass media have repeated a thousand times that this
project cost lots of money and was used by the governor to win the
elections. I don't really care about the reason of building the Ice
Palace, but what else to expect from a governor when only huge project
can catch people's attention?
If the same money were spent on
maintenance of roads or building, nobody would write about it. And even
if people noticed it they'd forget about it in a month.
The origin of the name, "Vesely Poselok"
is vague. There's a legend that Peter the I banished habitual drunkards
there. :)
Another legend says that it was an ironic name of this area when it was
the workers' outskirt until 1917. (And it can turn into one again with
the way the center develops)
In this picture you can see the Ice Arena
surroundings (The Ice Arena is a hundred meters to the left).
The bridge is the bridge over Okkervil' River.
It took me 30 min through the rather wild
area (I should have taken a bus) to get to the next place - Kinovievskoe
cemetery.
I couldn't pass by this impressive snow-removing car.
Kinovievskoe cemetery looks rather modern
but it's pretty old. It was opened in 1848 and was attached to the
monk's dormitory ("kinovii")
At first peasants, people from Malaya
Ohta, Bolshaya Ohta and merchants were buried there. In 1928 and 1964
the territory of Kinovievskoe cemetery was widened and now it's a 14,2
hectares area.
In 1941-44 the citizens who died during
the Blockade were buried there.
I found 2 monuments from those times.
"TO THE SOVIET ARMY SOLDIERS PERISHED IN THE
BATTLES FOR OUR SOVIET MOTHERLAND IN 1943
lieutenants:
Kazachenko Ivan Vasil'evich
Gnatchenko Mikhail Vasil'evich
private first class (lance-corporals):
Bukharova Nina Fedorovna
Konstantinova Galina Ivanovna
Maiorova Ol'ga Mikhailovna
The church was built in 1864-1868 by
Karpov.
(The table says: "Kinovii complex, the church of the Holy Trinity,
Cheremenetsky monastery"*)
The church faces the Oktyabr'skaya quay -
the longest Neva quay.
In this area it is built up with old buildings.
The one in the picture is of the end of the 19th century. I think that
it's one of the Kinovii buildings.
The Kinovii buildings were built in 1840s by Gemelian and Brandt.
This one is probably a house-commune of
1920s.
These banks of Neva don't look so festive
as in the center. I guess it's because of the lack of the authorities'
time and money. Moreover there aren't any tourists or people walking
along the quay, only ones who work or live here.
It's hard to get on the other side of the
river because the nearest bridge is the Finnish railway bridge. But it
doesn't have a path for people. Or it does?
