The history of the church of Our Lady of Lourdes in St. Petersburg starts in 1891 with a little chapel of the Immaculate Conception being built by the French catholics, who were a part of the multinational community of St. Catherine of Alexandria church. The main sacred thing in the chapel was the statue of Our Lady, brought from Lourdes, France. The... More

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This church is famous for the fact that there used to be a skating rink in the Soviet times. It’s said that the Leningrad skaters Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov complained to Khrushchev about the absence of the skating rink in Leningrad, and about the difficulties connected with the ice for the trainings. Khrushchev gave orders about it. The... More

Let’s remember some history. The church was built on the money left by Matvey Kirin, the skipper of Row Force. It was 76 thousand rubles. It was decided to build up the church in honor of the coronation of Nicolas II, so the Emperor gave 25 thousand rubles more for the building. The works started in 1888, and the church was blessed a year later. But... More

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This is a wonderful water (observing) tower, which stays amazing all year round. It’s a little castle among the industrial decadent style of the time of Kerensky. ))) It used to belong to Obukhovsky factory as an observing tower. The main guns from the opposite bank of the Neva were adjusting their aiming sights with the tower. More

The water tower in Politekhnichesky Park is my favorite one. Resembling the chess piece with its shape, the tower perfectly suits the surroundings, and even adds something from a fairy-tale to it. So, what’s special about it? Firstly, there’s an observation gallery on top (some people found their way to reach it though usually not authorized... More

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Here’s a modern look at the house of Basseynaya street community on 58-60 Nekrasova street. Before talking about the building of the house, its architects let’s remember the stories of the hard after Revolution years, spent here. Odoevtseva wrote, “It used to be freezing cold in these posh interiors!” They were freezing, but lived the full,... More

“The Garin Death Ray” (The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin”), is a famous novel by Alexey Tolstoy. A nd there was a real person who was used as a model for Garin. According to some sources, the scientist, who was made immortal by Tolstoy, lived, worked, and died on 37 Zhukovskogo Street. Hyperboloid was invented more than twenty years before the... More

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This is one of the wonderful places of our city – the Botanical Garden, which began from the “Pharmacy garden” (“Aptekarsky ogorod”) organized by Peter I in 1714. The oldest building is interesting itself with its architecture, not only because of the perfect collection of the plants from all over the world. More

Charity used to be spread in XIX century much wider than now. Perhaps it is so because the rich people used to have a bit different moral looks. In the 90s the Emperor philanthropic society bought from the widow of the merchant of the second guild Emiliya Ivanovna Hinter the house and the land comprising “26 Geslerovsky lane, 9 (now 13) Bolshaya... More

Advertisements today are nothing new. They can be seen even on chapels. Even the Emperor Paul, instead of his profile on the coins of Russia, ordered to inscribe: "Not to us, not us, but to your name" ... Times change ...and now, after a pious act is performed, people rather write their names ... It is all about a chapel, built to the 300th... More