Album 129
(Translated by Svetlana Guzeeva)

Restoration of Vasilievsky island spit has been finally finished this summer. The essential and a very famous part of it is the water approaches..

Originally this place didn't exist at all - there was Neva. When the embankment was being built, they filled up about 100 meters with soil.

Embankment with the water approaches, the Exchange building, the Rostral columns - all of those were under construction during 1804-1810s according to architect Toma de Tomon project.

Zimny (Winter) palace is on the other bank of Neva.

There's Birzhevoy bridge in the background.

The Lion masks on the embankment wall

I should mention that neither lion masks nor balls so embellishing the approaches have not been provided in the first variants of the project. They appeared by the end - nearer to the construction time.  There's one of the two Rostral columns in the background.