Beautiful Sunday: from New Holland to Red Bridge

Greetings, friends! This time I decided to take a walk along the Moika river embankment. I started my walk from the New Holland Island. Not so long ago I started my other walk in the same place. But that time I turned left, walked along the Admiralty Canal and crossed the bridge to get to New Holland Island. This time I turned right, along the Moika Embankment, and walked along the edge of the island.

This is a quiet and cozy area of the city. Once upon a time there was a lot of work on the island, here they prepared timber, ropes and other materials for building ships, but all this is in the distant past. Only the high arch over the canal reminds of it. The canal connects the Moika River with the inner basin of the New Holland Island. This pool was dug for testing ship models.

The Moika embankment offers one of the most beautiful views of St. Isaac's Cathedral. In this place there are two bridges over the Moika next to each other. The first bridge, with beautiful lanterns stylized as old kerosene lanterns, is a pedestrian bridge. The second bridge with granite steles is an automobile bridge. The golden dome of the cathedral will be visible above the roofs of the buildings for a long time, and I will photograph it several more times.

I cross a noisy street with heavy automobile traffic and continue my walk along the embankment. The sidewalks and sidewalks are covered with fresh snow, the predominant color in this landscape is white. I pass by the Yusupov Palace. This palace is now a museum and you can buy a ticket to see the interiors. One of the most interesting halls of the palace is a miniature home theater. If you are not a fan of sightseeing but want to visit the palace, you can buy a ticket for a play or classical music concert.

But in fact, I went for a walk along this route not to admire the palaces this time. My main goal was a tall constructivist building. This building for a long time belonged to the post office, it houses the palace of culture of communication workers. But this building ceased to be used as a house of culture many years ago. There is a guard on duty at the entrance, but it is unclear what is going on inside.

I read in the news recently that the building was taken out of the jurisdiction of the postal department and transferred to the ownership of the city. A few years ago the city demanded through the court to start restoration work in this building, but despite the court decision, the restoration has not started. The only noticeable change is the appearance of green nets on the facade of the building. The nets covered the architectural details that are in a state of disrepair. At least the owners are concerned about the safety of pedestrians.

The change is gratifying and frightening at the same time. The building has been in need of repair for a long time, moreover, the resumption of cultural life in this place would make the locals very happy. But serious renovation is always associated with some risk. The building was substantially reconstructed in the XX century, and the expertise can make suggestions about making adjustments to the usual appearance. So I walked around the building to capture its modern appearance.

At the end of the walk I reached the Red Bridge - this part of the walk did not imply any additional goals, I just enjoyed the beautiful views.