Prospekts of St. Petersburg
No other city in Russia can match St. Petersburg for the number and variety of its avenues - "prospekts" in Russian. Peter the Great conceived of St. Petersburg as a city similar to Venice or Amsterdam, and so it should have been covered by a network of straight canals. This never came to pass, but the general plan for the structure of the city nonetheless produced a system of broad, straight streets that gives St. Petersburg its grand, classical style. The tradition of calling major streets and thoroughfares avenues continues, and there are now 150 in St. Petersburg, some of them famous throughout the world.
Nevsky Prospekt is the most famous street in St. Petersburg - and probably in all of Russia, where every building is an architectural masterpiece and every step is rich in the history of the city.
Once the first stage of the imperial road to Moscow, this southern avenue was extensively developed after the Second World War, and is now a masterpiece of Stalinist neoclassicism.
St. Petersburg's first avenue, it once linked the centre of the town to the foundry ("liteyny") yards on the banks of the Neva. Later, it came to be lined with rich and elegant stone buildings.
One of St. Petersburg's longest avenues, which starts in the very centre of the city and runs south far into an industrial zone, passing a number of historic sites of various eras and architectural styles.
Running north-south across the Petrograd Side, this busy avenue is lined with numerous stunning examples of art nouveau and Russian neoclassical architecture, as well as some notable parks.
The main thoroughfare on Vasilevsky Island, this broad and leafy avenue was modeled on the famous boulevards of Paris.
Vasilevsky Island's bustling second street was rapidly and eclectically developed in the second half of the 19th century.
As elsewhere on the Petrograd Side, Bolshoy Prospekt is notable for its fine art nouveau architecture, and in more recent years as home to some of St. Petersburg's most exclusive boutiques.
Another central avenue, the varied architectural attractions of which include Vitebsk Station, the Museum of Military Medicine, and the Theatre of Young Audiences.
St. Petersburg's shortest avenue was once part of Liteyny Prospekt, but was later renamed in honour of its most famous building, the Vladimir Cathedral.
One of three radial axes that formed the basis of 18th century plans to develop St. Petersburg, Voznesensky cuts through the historic centre from the Admiralty to the Fontanka River.
This avenue is home to numerous landmarks of industrial and civil architecture from the 19th century, as well as the older Sampsonievsky Cathedral, the work of Pietro Trezzini.
In the south of St. Petersburg, this avenue has a wealth of constructions and symbols from the Soviet period. For fans of constructivist and Stalinist architecture, it's not to be missed.
