The ensemble of the Spit of Vasilievsky Island is one of the symbols of Saint Petersburg that doesn t have any analogues in Europe. Peter I intended to make Vasilievsky Island, which is the largest in Saint Petersburg, the administrative and cultural center of the city. He transferred the sea trading port to the Spit - the east side of the island washed by the Bolshaya and Malaya Neva.
The process of the Spit formation wasn t easy. In time of Peter I it was intended to found the main city square on the site, according to the project of the first Saint Petersburg architect Tresini. That s when the buildings of the Chamber of Curiosities and the Merchant s Yard were constructed (the Merchant Yard was deconstructed at the beginning of the 20th century). But still the ensemble of the Spit was badly organized and didn t fit the center of Saint Petersburg. It also suffered from floods. In 1871, the architect and artist Quarenghi started to construct the Fund Exchange according to the tsar s order. Unfortunately, some serious mistakes were discovered in Quarenghi s work, so his building was destroyed. Architect Thomas de Thomon was entrusted to plan and put up the ensemble of the Spit of Vasilievsky Island. The construction works of the new Exchange House, the famous rostral columns and the embankment accomplishment lasted from 1805 till 1810.
The compositional center of the ensemble of the Spit of Vasilievsky Island is the Exchange House in the classicism style. It looks like an antique temple, surrounded with colonnade and based on the grand basement. The facade is decorated with sculptural compositions Neptune and Two Rivers, and Navigation with Mercury and Two Rivers. The statues in the main hall of the Exchange symbolize the meaning of the trading building. Today the Exchange houses the exposition of the Central Naval Museum.
The rostral columns symbolize the naval glory of Russia and Saint Petersburg. The triumphal brick columns-lighthouses are 32 meters high. They are decorated with the bows of the enemy ships, calling rostras, hence the name of the columns. The sculptures installed under the columns symbolize four main rivers of Russia, which are the Volga, the Dnepr, the Volkhov and the Neva. On holidays on the top of the columns two gas torches are lighted.
The ensemble of the Spit is supplemented with south and north warehouses of the Exchange oriented on the Bolshaya and Malaya Neva. The warehouses, intended for storing goods, and the Custom-house were constructed in 1826-1832 after the architect Lukini s design. The embankment of the Spit, decorated with elegant slopes down to the river and round balls of the pedestals was created in 1806-1809, when the shores of the Malaya Neva were faced in granite. It is believed that the stone-cutter Samson Suhanov cut the geometrically perfect shaped balls without using any special devices, just by eye.
Today the south warehouse houses the Zoological Museum and the northern warehouse houses the institutions of the Academy of Sciences. The former Custom-house is occupied by Pushkin House, the Institute of Russian literature and the exposition of the Literature Museum.
According to Saint Petersburg s tradition, the just-married couples come to the Spit of the Vasilievsky Island to drink champagne and take pictures on the background of one of the most beautiful ensembles of Saint Petersburg. They break the glasses on the dock to symbolize the beginning of long and happy joint sailing.
From the Spit of the Vasilievsky Island one can enjoy the splendid view on the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Admiralty, St. Isaac s Cathedral and the buildings of the Hermitage on the Palace embankment, connected with the Spit by the Palace Bridge.