Hidden St. Petersburg

Hidden in a lightly populated expanse between Vologda and Veliky Ustyug, along the peaceful Sukhona river, is Totma, an 860-year-old architectural marvel. As William C. Brumfield shows, the small town, once an economic and political powerhouse, is quietly struggling to reclaim its centuries-old treasures. Photographs by the author.

Russian Life: Okay experts, you did so well on Unknown Moscow (August 1997), that we’d like to give you a similar challenge. How about a list of your favorite “hidden” spots in St. Petersburg –     places that don’t commonly get written about or noticed on the usual itineraries or in the mainstream guidebooks?

Bob Greenall: St. Petersburg is so rich in hidden places that you literally just need to step off either side of Nevsky Prospekt towards the Hermitage end, negotiate a few back streets, investigate a few courtyards, and talk your way into a few of the grander buildings. More often than not you’ll discover a palace with a stunningly decorated interior.

If this sounds too easy, the outskirts of the city have plenty of surprises in store too. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Kamenny Ostrov, one of the islands in the river Neva, has been a playground for the city’s elite since the last century. It contains some of the finest wooden buildings in Russia, many of which you couldn’t imagine being anything but stone. Most are nobles’ dachas, like the fairytale castle in art nouveau style now used by the Danish consulate. But the crowning glory is the theater, a classical giant with an eight-column portico, built in just 40 days, and entirely of wood. Kamenny has no shortage of eccentric landmarks either: the remains of an oak planted by Peter the Great, an equine cemetery for steeds of the Mad Tsar Paul I, and a pair of forlorn and chipped sphinxes mimicking the more famous Egyptian ones on Vassilyevsky island.

While there are five well-known, beautifully restored royal palaces in the St. Petersburg area, dozens of others are derelict or forgotten, and waiting to be discovered. One such is the Grand Palace at Strelna, on the way from St. Petersburg to Peterhof. This fine, baroque building was the residence of Alexander II’s younger brother Konstantin Nikolayevich. Oddly, it was restored after destruction in World War II, then allowed to decay again. With its park running down to the sea, it seems like an extremely faded version of Peterhof.

Nearby is the Trinity St. Sergius Monastery (not to be confused with the Lavra), one of the city’s main holy places and known as the Tsar’s Monastery. Its main church’s interior is extraordinarily beautiful, a copy of St. Catherine’s at Sinai, recently restored after serving as a cinema for the police cadets who occupied the complex in Soviet times. Underneath is the most prestigious burial place in Russia for the aristocracy, its occupants including Zinaida Yusupova, mother of Rasputin’s nemesis, who funded the building of the church.

Finally, I would mention Sheremetiev Palace, also known as Fontanny dom, located at nab. Fontanka 53. This gracious palace, built in the 1750s, was for a time home of Anna Akhmatova. She lived in a small apartment on the third floor of the south wing, where a museum to her life and work is now housed. The palace itself is being restored to reclaim its place as a center of Petersburg arts – to become The State Museum of Theater and Music.

Athol Yates: The places I like best in St. Petersburg reflect my interest in Railways. They are:

The Central Railway Museum. The Central Railway Museum was founded in 1813, which may seem strange as the first passenger railway in Russia was built only in 1836. However, rather than being just a repository of historical information, the museum was created to gather worldwide information on a technology that was considered to have strategic importance for Russia. The museum is open 11:00-17:30, closed Friday, Saturday and last Thursday of the month. The museum is located at ul. Sadovaya 50, tel. 168-8005.

October Railway Museum. The October Railway controls the line to Moscow and north to Murmansk. The museum is at Liteyny prospekt 62.

National Railway Bridge Museum. This is my favorite. The national railway bridge museum contains dozens of models of proposed and constructed railway bridges throughout Russia. The museum, at Krasnoye Selo, can only be visited with prior arrangement and the easiest way to do so is through the Central Railway Museum.

Shushary Museum of Railway Technology. This open air museum has a sizable collection of preserved steam, electric and diesel locomotives, plus some rolling stock including armored wagons. About three of the steam locomotives are operational. The museum is open from 10:00-17:00, closed Monday and Tuesday. To organize a guided tour, you need to book by telephone: 272-4477. To get to the museum, take a suburban train from either Warsaw or Vitebsk Stations to Paravozny Muzei, also known as Post 16km. The museum is 100m along the track away from St. Petersburg.

Lebyazhe Railway Museum Depot. Lebyazhe is an enclosed compound storing the overflow from Shushary Museum of Railway Technology. It contains some of Russia’s 50 rarest locomotives and carriages. Of these, 26 are steam engines and about four of these function. Of special interest are the rare Od and Ok steam locomotives, the SS electric locomotive and Sm-3 electric suburban train set. The complex is surrounded by a wooden fence which hides everything but the engines’ funnels. Even though there is a live-in guard, he will not let you in unless your visit is prearranged. The best way to organize a tour is through the Central Railway Museum.

To get to Lebyazhe, take the suburban train from Baltic Station to Lebyazhe. The 80 minute trip takes you past Petrodvorets, Lomonosov and several well-guarded military storage areas along the coast. From the station you walk 200m along the track away from St. Petersburg. There is a dirt road to the left of a cemetery. Follow this road around the cemetery for 500m until you see a left branch. Go along straight along this track for 200m and you will reach the museum’s gates.

Neil McGowan: The Buddhist Monastery (Primorsky Prospekt #91) is my favorite hidden sight in the city - hidden by a big fence, in this case. Badmayev, Nicholas II’s Buddhist physician, took-up a public collection to pay for the construction, which proceeded between 1909-1915. Although Buddhist in dedication, its bizarre Style Moderne design looks more like a fantasy film-set. Badmayev’s spiritual teacher Dordzhiev manipulated the project from Mongolia, and successfully argued that Buddhism was a “religion of atheism” and therefore in tune with the new Communist rule in both the USSR and Mongolia – successful until 1937, that is, when the monks here were shot, and Mongolia’s monasteries decimated. It was rededicated in 1990 by monks from the Ivolginsky Datsan at Ulan-Ude, Buryatia. In cosmopolitan St. Petersburg, it’s a reminder that the majority of Russia lies in Asia, and the combination of “fantastic” architecture, mystic religion, and close links with both the Romanovs and the Bolsheviks, make it a unique symbol of life in the first decades of the Soviet period. Here you can slip into a different, tranquil, feeling of another Russia entirely. The monastery is located at Metro Chornaya Rechka, then a long trudge to the junction with Alleya Lipova. There is no charge for admission, but please respect it as a place of worship – no photos inside.

Vitebsky Railway Station (Metro Pushkinskaya) is a faded gem in the Style Moderne style, which few people would think to visit for its own sake. If you can find time, the Royal Waiting Room on the first floor is a riot of turn-of-the-century extravagance.

Dima, the baby mammoth, was frozen whole in the Siberian tundra 45,000 years ago, and carefully brought to St. Petersburg by scientists from the Zoological Museum. He’s now the unofficial city mascot, and deserves nicer surroundings than he currently enjoys. You can visit him on the web too, at: http: //www.museum.state.il.us/zooinst/images/

Other favorites of mine include the Chesme Church in ul. Gastello (an extraordinary neo-Gothic church), Kschesinskaya’s House (ul. Kuybysheva #4) which is now the Russian Political History Museum, and Prince Menshikov’s Palace (Universitetskaya nab. #15). Finally, those with scientific leanings might want to see Mendeleev’s Periodic Table of Elements, which decorates the exterior wall of the Technological Institute, directly opposite the metro station, Tekhnologichesky Institut.

Robert Greenall is former managing editor of Russian Life and has written two guidebooks to travel in Russia. Athol Yates lives in Australia and is an expert on Russian railroads. He is author, most recently, of Russia by Rail. Neil McGowan lives in England and has been organizing travel to Russia and Eastern Europe for over 16 years. He owns and operates The Russia Experience, Ltd. All three can be contacted via Russian Life’s editorial offices.