Need
help with HotMedia?
Other views
 |
|
View of the Winter Palace from the Neva
Joseph Charlemagne
Larger view
|
| |
|
|
Winter Races on the Neva
Agafon Avnatamov
Larger view
|
| |
|
|
The Winter Palace by Night
Vasily Sadovnikov
Larger view
|
| |
|
 previous
|
next
|
|
|
The northern facade of the Winter Palace overlooks the
Neva and beyond it the Peter and Paul Fortress that was founded on
16 (27 New Style) May 1703. That day is considered the date of the
foundation of St Petersburg. The huge second-storey windows mark the
location of the halls in the Neva suite of state rooms, the venue
for magnificent balls, festivities and concerts in the imperial residence.
The mighty pediment is adorned by statues of Neptune and Mars. The
restrained majesty in the appearance of the facade matches the calm
of the broad Neva, the city's main vista, enlivened by the movement
of ships, great and small. The part of the Neva in front of the imperial
residence always served as a stage, the setting for festive events:
in summer the opening of the navigation season; in winter the Christmas
merrymaking and the Blessing of the Waters at the Epiphany. In winter
merry-go-rounds and ice-slides were constructed on the ice by the
Spit of Vasilyevsky Island. Here too the road ran across the ice,
linking the two banks of the Neva. |
