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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Vasilyevsky Strelka: the Rostral Columns at night

      ⏱ 3 h🚶 2.5 km🍽 1📍 7 stops
      🐢 A little — under 3 km

      Across the lit Palace Bridge to the Rostral Columns and the Strelka, dinner in a warehouse by the Exchange and the evening Universitetskaya Embankment to the sphinxes.

      🌙 Evening🏛 History and architecture
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🌅 Palace Bridge
        Raised during the navigation season (April–November) at about 1:10
        Cross the bridge when it gets dark (in October after 18:00): the spans are lit, on the left is the Winter Palace, ahead are the columns and the Exchange.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Palace Bridge
        © Vyacheslav Bukharov · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Palace Bridge
        © Александровы АГ · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Palace Bridge
        © Safa.daneshvar · CC BY 4.0
        • The permanent bridge opened on 23 December 1916 unfinished, with “temporary” wooden railings.
        • The cast-iron railings replaced the wooden ones only in 1939.
        • The design by engineer Andrzej Pshenitsky of the Kolomna Works Society was chosen for construction.
        • Before opening, the bridge was tested by driving 34 loaded trucks onto all its spans at once.
        • From 1918 to 1944 the bridge was called the Republican Bridge.
        • The earlier floating Palace Bridge, moved to Senate Square, burned down in 1916 from a spark from a passing tug.
        • The tram tracks were removed from the bridge in 1997.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🌅 Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island (the Spit)
        The Rostral Columns and a view of the Neva
        Go down the ramp to the water itself: opposite is Peter and Paul Fortress with its lit spire, to the right the whole Palace Embankment. It is windy by the water, bring a scarf.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island (the Spit)
        © A.Savin · FAL 1.3
        Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island (the Spit)
        © Kora27 · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • Until 1885 Petersburg's seaport worked on the Spit, then it was moved to Gutuevsky Island.
        • The 32-metre Rostral Columns were put up by Thomas de Thomon in 1805–1810; until 1885 they served as lighthouses.
        • The columns' name comes from the Latin rostrum, “ship's prow”: they are decorated with metal ship prows and anchors.
        • The version that the figures at the base of the columns are the Volkhov, Neva, Dnieper and Volga is recent and not confirmed by documents.
        • The Exchange building, shaped like an ancient temple, opened in 1816; since 2013 it has been handed over to the Hermitage.
        • From 1937 to 1989 the square on the Spit was called Pushkin Square.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🏛 Rostral Columns
        Биржевая пл.
        🆓 free entry
        Two red columns with ships' prows on the Spit of Vasilievsky Island — the port's former lighthouses.
        The columns are lit every evening, and the fire in the bowls is lit only on holidays — on an ordinary weekday evening there will be no torches.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Rostral Columns
        © Ad Meskens · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Rostral Columns
        © Kora27 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The columns were erected in 1810 to a design by Thomas de Thomon, together with the Exchange building.
        • They were originally the port's lighthouses: oil lamps burned on their tops.
        • The rostra — the prows of ships — recall the Roman custom of decorating columns with the prows of captured vessels.
        • The figures at the base are allegories of rivers; exactly which is which is not known for sure.
        • The gas torches on the columns are lit only on holidays — on an ordinary evening the columns are simply illuminated.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🍽 Casa del Myaso
        Биржевой проезд, 6
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        Dinner in a former warehouse by the Exchange, two minutes from the columns; better to book on Friday and Saturday evenings.
        🍴 A meat restaurant in an old warehouse on the Malaya Neva, a couple of steps from the Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island. What to order: beef tartare, strip loin steak, brisket, pappardelle with crab.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🏛 Twelve Collegia (St Petersburg State University)
        Университетская наб., 7–9
        A long red-and-white Petrine building across Vasilyevsky Island — the university's main building.
        Return to the Neva along Mendeleevskaya Line, along the university facade — in the dark you can clearly see how long it is.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Twelve Collegia (St Petersburg State University)
        © A.Savin · FAL 1.3
        Twelve Collegia (St Petersburg State University)
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • Construction began in 1722: the overall design is by Domenico Trezzini, the upper floors by Theodor Schwertfeger.
        • It is the largest monument of Petrine Baroque: 12 identical three-storey sections, one per collegium, the prototype of a ministry.
        • The first session of the collegia in the new building was held in 1732.
        • In 1830 the whole building was handed over to St Petersburg University.
        • Only the Petrovsky Hall has kept its authentic 1735–1736 finish — with the monograms of Peter I and Anna Ioannovna.
        • Scenes of Georgy Danelia's “Autumn Marathon” (1979) were shot here.
      10. 🚶 on foot
      11. 6
        🖼 Menshikov Palace
        Университетская наб., 15
        🎟 ticket
        One of the city's first stone buildings — Menshikov's yellow palace with Petrine-era tiled rooms.
        The museum is already closed, but the yellow-and-white facade on the embankment is lit — this is the best view of the palace.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Menshikov Palace
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Menshikov Palace
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • Construction of the palace began in May 1710 to a design by Giovanni Maria Fontana, who was replaced by Gottfried Schädel in 1713.
        • Peter called the palace the Embassy House: foreign ambassadors were received here and feasts held.
        • The future Empress Anna Ioannovna celebrated her wedding to the Duke of Courland in the palace.
        • In 1727 Menshikov was exiled to Berezov, and from 1731 the palace was taken over by the Land Gentry (later Cadet) Corps.
        • By 1727 there were 13 rooms here faced with white and blue tiles, of which four survive; some of the tiles came from Delft.
        • The grand staircase has survived from 1716–1720.
        • Since 1981 the palace has been a branch of the Hermitage with the exhibition “Russian Culture of the First Third of the 18th Century”.
      12. 🚶 on foot
      13. 7
        🏛 Sphinxes by the Academy of Arts
        Университетская наб., 17
        A pair of granite Egyptian sphinxes on the steps down to the Neva by the Academy of Arts.
        The finale at the sphinxes: lamps burn on the descent to the water, opposite are the English Embankment and Blagoveshchensky Bridge in lights.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Sphinxes by the Academy of Arts
        © Alex Fedorov (Florstein) · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Sphinxes by the Academy of Arts
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The sphinxes were made under the pharaoh Amenhotep III for his mortuary temple in Thebes; in 1825 they were found by the antiquities hunter Giovanni d'Athanasi.
        • Each sphinx, of pink Aswan granite, weighs 23 tonnes and is 5.24 m long.
        • Buying them was proposed by the traveller Andrey Muravyov, who had seen a sphinx in Alexandria in 1830.
        • The sphinxes had already been sold to France, but the July Revolution wrecked the deal — and Russia bought them for 64,000 rubles.
        • While being loaded onto the ship ‘Buena Esperanza’, one sphinx fell and damaged the headcloth.
        • The sphinxes arrived in May 1832, but for two years stood in the courtyard of the Academy of Arts while Konstantin Thon finished the landing stage.

      ↩️ Getting back: from the sphinxes to Vasileostrovskaya metro ≈15 min on foot along 7th Line, or to Admiralteyskaya across Blagoveshchensky Bridge ≈25 min

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