Nevsky Prospekt
Encyclopedia
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Planned by Peter the Great as beginning of the road to Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod is one of Russia's most historic cities and the administrative center of Novgorod Oblast. It is situated on the M10 federal highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. The city lies along the Volkhov River just below its outflow from Lake Ilmen...
and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, the avenue runs from the Admiralty to the Moscow Railway Station and, after making a turn at Vosstaniya Square
Vosstaniya Square
Vosstaniya Square is a major square in the Central Business District of Saint Petersburg, Russia. The square lies at the crossing of Nevsky Prospekt, Ligovsky Prospekt, Vosstaniya Street and Goncharnaya Street, in front of the Moskovsky Rail Terminal, which is the northern terminus of the line...
, to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra
Alexander Nevsky Lavra
Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra or Saint Alexander Nevsky Monastery was founded by Peter I of Russia in 1710 at the eastern end of the Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg supposing that that was the site of the Neva Battle in 1240 when Alexander Nevsky, a prince, defeated the Swedes; however, the battle...
. The chief sights include the Rastrelliesque Stroganov Palace
Stroganov Palace
The Stroganov Palace is a Late Baroque palace at the intersection of the Moika River and Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The palace was built to Bartolomeo Rastrelli's designs for Baron Sergei Grigoriyevich Stroganov in 1753-1754...
, the huge neoclassical
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
Kazan Cathedral, the Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
Bookhouse (Dom Knigi)
Singer House
Singer House , also widely known as House of Books is a historical landmark building located at intersection of Nevsky Prospekt with Griboyedov Canal, just opposite to the Kazan Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Russia...
, Elisseeff Emporium, half a dozen 18th-century churches, a monument to Catherine the Great, an enormous 18th-century shopping mall
Gostiny Dvor
Great Gostiny Dvor is a vast department store on Nevsky Avenue in St Petersburg.This Gostiny Dvor is not only the city's oldest shopping centre, but also one of the first shopping arcades in the world...
, a mid-19th-century department store
The Passage
For the novel by Justin Cronin see The Passage The Passage , from the French word Passage, is an elite department store on Nevsky Avenue in Saint Petersburg, Russia, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1998...
, the Russian National Library
Russian National Library
The National Library of Russia in St Petersburg, known as the State Public Saltykov-Shchedrin Library from 1932 to 1992 , is the oldest public library in Russia...
, and the Anichkov Bridge
Anichkov Bridge
The Anichkov Bridge is the first and most famous bridge across the Fontanka River in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The current bridge, built in 1841-42 and reconstructed in 1906-08, combines a simple form with some spectacular decorations...
with its horse statues. The feverish life of the avenue was described by Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
in his story "Nevsky Prospekt
Nevsky Prospekt (story)
Nevsky Prospect is a short story by Nikolai Gogol, written between 1831 and 1834, and published in 1835.- Summary :Influenced strongly by the Sentimental movement, the protagonist of "Nevsky Prospekt" is a pathetic and insignificant romantic, the narrator is chatty and unreliable, and realism...
". Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov....
often employed the Nevksy Prospekt as a setting within his works, such as Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. This is the second of Dostoyevsky's full-length novels following his...
and The Double: A Petersburg Poem
The Double: A Petersburg Poem
The Double: A Petersburg Poem is a novella written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The novella was first published on January 30, 1846 in Fatherland Notes....
.
During the early Soviet years (1918–44) it was known as the Avenue of the 25th of October, alluding to the day of the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
.
The Nevsky today functions as the main thoroughfare in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. The majority of the city's shopping and nightlife, as well as the most expensive apartments, are located on or right off of the Nevsky Prospekt.
The street is served by the stations Nevsky Prospekt
Nevsky Prospekt (Saint Petersburg Metro)
Nevsky Prospekt is a station on the Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro.The station was built on July 1, 1963. While the station inself was designed by Mayofis and Maximov, the interior was designed Getskin, Shuvalova and Andreyev...
, Gostiny Dvor
Gostiny Dvor (Saint Petersburg Metro)
Gostiny Dvor is a station on the Nevsko-Vasileostrovskaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro. It was designed by architect C.G. Mayofis, E.S. Belyat, A.K. Andreyev, Ya.E. Moskalenko and C.P Schyukin and opened on November 3, 1967. It has two exits - one at the intersection between Griboyedov...
, Mayakovskaya
Mayakovskaya (Saint Petersburg Metro)
Mayakovskaya is a station on the Nevsko-Vasileostrovskaya Line of Saint Petersburg Metro, opened on November 3, 1967, and named after Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. The main surface vestibule is situated on Nevsky Prospekt. Mayakovskaya is connected to the station Ploshchad Vosstaniya of the...
, Ploshchad Vosstaniya
Ploshchad Vosstaniya
Ploshchad Vosstaniya is a station on the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line of Saint Petersburg Metro. It is one of the system's original stations, opening on November 15, 1955. It is a deep underground pylon station at 58 m depth. The main surface vestibule is situated on Vosstaniya Square, which gives...
and Ploshchad Aleksandra Nevskogo of Saint Petersburg Metro
Saint Petersburg Metro
The Saint Petersburg Metro is the underground railway system in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It has been open since November 15, 1955.Formerly known as the V.I...
.