- Kamenny Island
Kamenny Ostrov, Kamenny Island, or Stony Island ( _ru. Каменный остров) is one of the islands in the
Neva delta. It is part ofSaint Petersburg ,Russia .Peter the Great presented the island to CountGavriil Golovkin , Chancellor of the Russian Empire. After his family fell into disgrace, the island passed to his successor, CountAleksei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin . A decade later,Empress Elizabeth granted it to the futurePeter III of Russia .During the 19th century, the island was home to summer retreats ("
dacha s") of the Russian royalty and nobility. At the eastern-most tip of the island stands the Kamennoostrovsky Palace, built byGeorg von Veldten for Paul I and theNeo-Gothic church of Saint John of Jerusalem (1776-81) constructed in honor of the victory at Chesma and frequented byAlexander Pushkin during his stay at a dacha on Kamenny Ostrov. A cluster of Pushkin's last poems, including his version of "Exegi monumentum ", date from that period.To the west lies a park with numerous mansions from the beginning of the 20th century, and some of the finest Moderne constructions in the city: the Shene Mansion (3 Skvoznoi Proyezd), the Follenweider Mansion (13 Bolshaya Alleya) and the Meltser Mansion (8 Polevaya Alleya). The Polovtsov Dacha (1911-13), with its opulent interiors, is a gem of the 20th-century
Neoclassicism . In theSoviet era and to this day, government residences have been located on Kamenny ("Stone") Island.Further reading
*Витязева В. А. Каменный остров. Л., 1975.
External links
* [http://enlight.ru/camera/294/index_e.html Views of Kamenny Island]
* [http://enlight.ru/camera/250/index_e.html View of Kamennoostrovsky Palace]
* [http://enlight.ru/camera/31/index_e.html Dachas of Kamenny Island]
* [http://www.arteria.ru/20_01_2003_2.htm History of architecture]
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