Nevsky Prospekt 

Stary (old) Nevsky or Staro-Nevsky

Officially still Nevsky Prospekt, this section between Ploshchad Vosstaniya and the Lavra is known as Old Nevsky.

Number 85 Nevsky Prospekt is the Moscow Railway station and it fills one side of Ploshchad Vosstaniya (Uprising Square). Trains have been running between here and an identical building in Moscow since 1851. Built by Konstantin Ton, the façade is shown in the midday sunlight undergoing restoration and transformation from green to a peachy beige color which allegedly is the original color. (Ton also built Moscow's Great Kremlin Palace and the largest church in Russia, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on the left bank of the Moscow river)

Number 87, acting as a plinth for an obtrusive video screen larger than many people's homes.

Number 89a, looking distinctly out of place even in this less affluent half of the street. This exceptionally low building is an annex to the building on the right and currently being used as a warehouse. Maybe it has an interesting history!

The future of this building does not appear healthy during summer 2002, because it is rumored that a 200 room hotel is going to be built on this site.

Number 91, built 1846-50 as a police house by T. F. Krasnopevkovy and now hosting the newly opened 'Nevsky 91' mini-hotel. Fully operational from May 2003. (Currently awaiting more information from the management). The block also houses Transportnaya Knigi (transport books) and Caesar Cosmetics.

Number 93, showing several apartments for sale, with the 'Greenwich' watch store and the Blinniy Club 'Teremok' on the first floor.

Number 95, is an angular structure known as the house of G. G. Gessel; it was built in 1912 by architect L . M. Kharlamov. The Bistro Garcon is currently located here and offers a menu of French cuisine with numerous Bordeaux wines. Open from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Number 97, has Zolotoy Zamok (Golden Castle) leather goods and the Rossijski Kapital Bank on the first floor.

Number 99 - 101: is the Central Office of the Leningrad Oblast Sberbank (Savings Bank) of Russia.

Sberbank was the only bank which operated during Soviet time in Russia. It is still state property and people consider it is reliable. Moreover there are offices of this bank everywhere in Russia. Be preapared for bad service and lines.
Internet: http://www.sberbank.ru/

Number 103, built in 1900, has the French Bakery 'Boulangerie Francaise' on the left of the first floor. The top floor (no elevator) has a 'Rinaldi' mini-Hotel furnished in IKEA-style at mid ranged prices to suit affluent tourists.

Number 105: Similarly to the building on the right, the first floorof this historic building also has one of the growing number of Rinaldi mini hotels.

Number 107:

Number 109:

Number 111: having a drug store on the corner, a boutique in the middle of the Nevsky facade and a Dom Laverna DIY store on the right of it. The first floor along the Poltavskaya ul. side street has a large DIY window retailer.

Number 113 occupies a whole block.

Number 115: 'Diana' boutique has taken over the retail area on the first floor which for many years was the domain of the Saxoniya Restaurant.

Number 117: according to the 'Master' signs above the business seen on the left of the first floor, this building has roof, windows and doors! On the right is a Swiss watch service center.

Numbers 119-121 on the same lot.

Number 120, is the first building on the south side of 'old' Nevsky. This façade of the building faces the square opposite the Ploshchad Vosstaniya Metro station. Numerous commercial enterprises are located here, including the Warsteiner Forum Restaurant (International cuisine & club), and the "Al-shark" bistro.

Number 122: Several retail businesses here, including Na Staronevskom Antiques, old books, icons, paintings, porcelain. Also furniture, jewelry, bronze, clocks, old artistic postcards.

Number 123: Where on the ground floor the La Perla Boutique has moved to upper Nevsky and been replaced with a tasteless 'Charme' boutique.

Number 124:

Number 125:

Number 127:

Number 128: Two of the businesses here in this unremarkable building on the corner of Suvorovsky Prospekt are Tekhsoyuz (Technical Photography and supplies) and the "Store" bizarrely selling clothing which could be picked up from a bazaar for a few Rubles. It appears that this house would benefit from some cosmetic restoration.

Number 130, which is currently home to "Charovnitza" a women's underwear and bathing suites store, an Inkas Bank and an "Ideal Cup" (Idealnaya Chashka) inexpensive coffee shop which is open from 7 in the morning until 11 at night. .

Number 139, built in 1879 and where two outstanding contributors to the arts spent their childhood years: local composer Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi (of Moscow Nights fame) and actor Alexander Borisov. Both of them were friends of Yevgeni Nikolayev, son of General Alexander Nikolayev, a hero of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05, who lived on the first floor of this building. After the revolution General Nikolayev became a Red Army commander. During the civil war he was taken prisoner, refused to renounce his convictions, and was publicly hanged by the White Guards.

Number 140, an otherwise unremarkable late 19th century building has a corner tower which catches the eye. The ornate corner piece and dome did not appear until after WWII.

Numbers 141 to 145: This block is one of the few examples of Constructivism in St. Petersburg's architecture. It was designed by A. Lishnevsky and built in 1936.

Number 147, was built 1905-1906 to the designs of architect Pavel Batuyev. It was reconstructed in 2004 to modernize the entrance and provide 16 double rooms for the new mini Hotel Stary Nevsky (The Old Nevsky Hotel). Yet another mini jumping on the hotel bandwagon is the Royal Antares Hotel also located in this building.

Number 150, has its fair share of modern apartments above the first floor where the Gondola café and a computer shop are sited. Also 'Nevsky 150' mini hotel opened in this building in January 2004.

The building was erected in 1934 as a cooperative for the families of Leningrad's Soviet Engineers.

Number 153: The Babochka Gallery seen on the right of the first (ground) floor - is allegedly largest multi brand fashion store on Nevsky. The gallery represents a large variety of woman's collections from famous fashion labels. The second floor offers men's clothes: varied collections from Brioni, Zilli, Bilancioni, Borsalino, Church's, Tod's, Fay and others named labels

Number 158, mainly residential having at least four separate stores on the first floor. Not much else is known about this stately mansion on the corner of ul. Aleksandra Nevskogo.

Number 160, is mainly residential with a porcelain store on the first floor. On the right of this there is the cafe-bar ‘Ketaiski Gorodovoy’ (Chinese Policeman), where Chinese style food can be eaten along with a decent selection of wine.

Number 162: currently houses one of several 'Phototechnica' outlets in the city.
Basically a rental housing unit. Reconstructed during 1898-1899 (architect P. M. Mul'khanov).

Number 163: has the 'Rasputin' bar and restaurant on the first floor. The building also has 'Stoma' offices and dental surgeries located on the first floor.

Number 164: is yet another mainly residential house with on the left of the first floor, an outlet for Roberto Bottecelli. They claim to be an international chain of quality designer shops for young men's shoes. Maybe when they get a web-site, they will begin to attract some business and acclaim in Russia.

Number 166: has "elena miro" showing on the left of the first floor. This is a fashion house which caters for the 'large woman'. On the right can be seen the café-bar called "Lesnoy" (meaning 'forest') which is a popular venue on warm summer evenings. The building also houses the "Palitra National Center". Individual and group exhibitions of works by contemporary artists are held here every month at this gallery which is one of the best-known exhibition centers in St. Petersburg for painting, graphic art and sculpture. Open TUE-FRI 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., SAT noon to 6 p.m.

Number 168: an ornate and impressive building designed with a more Eastern flavor than most in St. Peterburg. "Incanto" which is a rapidly expanding chain of women's underwear shops, have an outlet here. This is only one of several in the city and Incanto have stores in eight other Russian cities selling stylish garments to the 'New Russians' who have money to burn.

Number 170 is one of two similar buildings that have copper domes as a showpiece on Old Nevsky.
Currently there is a provisions store on the first floor called "Products"

This photo was taken mid morning in the middle of Spring 2002 with a Nikon F55 AF, using Kodak Ultra Zoom.

Number 172: corner cafe ‘U Sergeya’ (At Sergei’s), house. Their menu is cosmopolitan, service is friendly and the average bill is less than 200 rubles per head as we enter 2006.

Number 173, has yet another bank (Petro Bank), Xerox Center, and the Liberty Russia International Tourism Group, to name but a few businesses here..

Number 176, the California Grill & Kolhida (Georgian) Restaurant

Number 177, The last building on this south side of the street, before Ploschad Alexandra Nevskogo.

Number 178, the Sankt Peterburg Bank. Built in 1845 according to the design of K. i. Brandt buy reconstructed since.

Number 180, another mainly residential building, neat but unremarkable.

Number 182, where there is the chain restaurant ‘Il Patio’, often with summer tables outside. In the basement, there is the cafe ‘Chesnochok’. Over its entrance there is a sign reassuring you with the honesty of the place. However the staff easily lose their manners which does not help this establishment become a popular venue.

Number 184, The last of the tall buildings on the north side of the street before Ploschad Aleksandra Nevskogo. (The adjacent smaller building on the right is No.190 - Russian logic!)

Number 190, is the ancient two story building now being dwarfed by the enormous roomy but gloomy Hotel Moscow which was built by the Soviets in the 1970's. The onlookers seen in this view are admiring the new monument to Alexander Nevsky which had just been unveiled off picture to the right . (Which can be seen on a separate page by clicking here.)

Sometimes called Dom Ugly, the huge Hotel Moscow was opened in 1976. It has 7 floors with 777 recently refurbished rooms and another floor of rooms is planned.

The festive New Year plinth seen here in January 1995 had been temporally abandoned on the spot where the new equestrian Alexander Nevsky monument has been sited since May 2002.

Nevsky's Lavra. The northwestern tower (Riznica) of the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra (Lavra = highest rank Monastery).
Architect: Pietro Trezzini, 1717-25
At the same time as the path for Nevsky Prospekt was being dug from the Admiralty end, monks from this monastery and their hired hands began constructing a route northwards and the two parts eventually met near to Znamenskaya Square (now Ploshchad Vosstaniya).

Nevsky's Lavra 2. A closer view of the Petrine Baroque styled Church of the Annunciation at the Lavra.
This photograph was taken with a Mavica FD88 digital camera in January 2002 and the larger image is 800x600

Nevsky's Lavra 3. A sign for the tourists outside the entrance to the Tikhvin cemetery, which is on the right of the main path entering the monastery. This is quite an impressive role of current residents and note that Pushkin's wife is listed under the name of her second husband Lanskaya.
On the left of this sign is the smaller Lazarus cemetery which is the oldest in the city and contains the grave of Peter the Great's sister Natalya who was buried in 1716.

Nevsky's Lavra 4. The Neoclassical Trinity Cathedral (c1776-90, architect Ivan Starov) contrasts awkwardly with the elaborate Baroque treatment applied to the façades of the monastery's other buildings. The inside of this working church is well worth viewing and has murals painted by N. Akimov and other illustrious artists. Behind the cathedral is another cemetery containing the graves of twenty monks of the monastery who were martyred right there by the communists, shot in front of a wall, which still bears the many bullet holes.

The Alexander Nevsky Bridge (Most), was built between 1960 and 1965 to solve a major transport problem. Effectively, the bridge links the Alexander Nevsky square with Zanevsky Prospekt in the outlying Malaya Okhta district where these days, most of the city's residents live in bedroom communities. The bridge is the longest of 342 bridges inside the city limits with a length of 905.7 meters and it is 35 meters wide. The Bridge also boasts several innovations, including iron-and-concrete support shells, improved beam span support, and eight-sided columns for stronger bank abutment. The bridge's railings, lamps and other features are otherwise in a strictly functional, modern style. It is one of 22 drawbridges in the city and has seven bridge spans with the central span capable of being fully drawn in two minutes.

Panoramas of Spb