Today our pages are about the close but at the same time rarely visited by tourists and dwellers of Petersburg suburb - town of Kronshtadt.
A short comment:
Kronshtadt is situated at the Kotlin island in the gulf of Finland (about 30 kilometers from SPb). Was founded in 1704. Not so long ago it was closed, but now anyone can get there quite easily.
Despite the fact that there're no so many sights in the town, it's rather interesting and unusual. There're no many people in the streets, you often meet naval sailors. There's no advertisement boarding, the streets remained under the old soviet names. As far as I could notice, many natives speak with some distinctive accent and pronounce words faster than it's found in Petersburg.
Makarovsky bridge over Petrovsky ravine. The dome of the Naval cathedral is behind the trees.
Naval cathedral is the main sight of the town. Built in the pseudo-byzantine style - the same as the church at the lieutenant Shmidt embankment in Petersburg, for instance.
Monument to admiral Makarov at the Yakornaya (Anchor) square (the one where cathedral is situated).
The cathedral walls.
Great number of small interesting details, which unfortunately can't be shot without special lens.
That's what the door into the cathedral looks like. On the whole, the abundance of anchors around Kronshtadt in very different forms and types is absolutely amazing. They are in monuments, details of the fences, decorations on the gates..
Naval cathedral inside. This shot has seemingly taken in everything that remained from the old inner decoration of the cathedral. Today cathedral is occupied by the museum (on history of Kronshtadt, quite interesting one) and the officer society.
It's fun - one of the museum exhibits is the protecting net (against submarines), part of which is carefully adapted to stop up admission into the service rooms:-)
Cathedral to the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God. The domes sheeting is taken down - whether for restoration or maybe it was wanted for something else. The same could be said about the window aprons on the sides of the building.
Monument to Peter the First, near the gulf
Navy ships in the Petrovskaya harbor.
The Letny(Summer) garden fence. Anchors again.
Monument to the sailors perished on the clipper "Oprichnik".
The flag isn't real though looks like it. It's painted wood or stucco.
A small section of the old metal roadway has remained here, at the Petrovskaya street and Obvodny channel crossing (if I'm right in remembering the names of the streets). Rather original, to my mind.
The flower-bed. In reality passers-by see it through the railing of the fence, but shouldn't the pictures have the advantage over the reality in something at least!
A small but attractive house not mentioned in the guides..
Obvodny channel and the fence along its banks
Probably it's the part of the fortress wall.
Only a few of such fragments remained, all of them are along the northern bank. Part of them are adapted for garages.
Kronshtadt view from the dam, from the bus window. The dome of the Naval cathedral is rising in the center of the island.
A tumbledown fort, one of the many along the dam connecting Kronshtadt with the northern gulf shore.
One more fort.
The viaduct, which is evidently not constructed any more. I can assume that they planned to run the ships through the dam under it.
On the whole, this part of the dam is one of the widest by appearance. In the other parts it's sufficient barely for a single-lane road and an earthen bank protecting from the waves on the sea side..
That's all. To those who'll make a decision to visit this interesting place I'll say that you can get there either by Meteor(hydrofoil) from Tuchkov bridge or along the dam by the route taxi or bus (from the metro Chernaya Rechka). All listed ways are tested personally :-)
