Beautiful Sunday: Saint Michael's Castle and surroundings

The weather was great and I decided to combine a visit to St. Michael's Castle and a short walk. To be more exact, even two walks: on the way to the castle and on the way back. From Nevsky Prospekt to Mikhailovsky Castle is not far at all, and you can build a route in such a way that you can walk along quiet streets where there are few cars. I crossed Manezhnaya Square and walked along Maple Alley. At the very end of Maple Alley is the entrance to Mikhailovsky Castle.

Maple Alley now seems to be an independent street, but earlier that part of the alley, which is located closer to the castle, was its internal territory, it was separated from the rest of the city by a canal, on the bridge over the canal stood sentries. Emperor Paul feared a palace coup and surrounded his castle with water barriers. Two three-storied buildings with columns stand symmetrically to the left and right of the alley. These are the former cordieries of the Saint Michael's Castle. Now both of these pavilions, as well as the Saint Michael's Castle itself, belong to the Russian Museum.

The main purpose of my tour today is to visit an exhibition of watercolors by Vasily Sadovnikov. This is one of the outstanding Russian watercolorists of the early XIX century. This exhibition is interesting to me first of all because Vasily Sadovnikov paid much attention to the city landscape. His works preserve the old cityscapes of St. Petersburg. Painting and graphics remain the only sources of visual information from that era, when photography had not yet been invented.

My plan has one weak link: in order to get to the exhibition, I have to go through the main halls of the museum first, and there is no way to go back. I would prefer to see the exhibition first and then walk through the permanent exhibition. Visiting museums sometimes requires good physical fitness, and I am afraid of getting too tired at the beginning of my tour. So I get through the first halls pretty quickly - but still stop many times near the excellent paintings and sculptures.

I took a few photos in the front halls of the museum, but did not take any photos in the exhibition. The lighting in the exhibition rooms with watercolors is a bit dimmed: fragile watercolor works need protection from bright light, among other things. I did, however, take a couple of pictures of the views from the castle windows on the way.

After visiting the museum, I walked around the surrounding streets some more. I went to the Old Manege Garden, to the monument to the great Russian writer Ivan Turgenev. This garden is separated from the square by an openwork fence, and many people pass by the garden thinking it is a closed territory and not noticing the hospitable ajar gate. I have no trouble finding an empty bench in this garden for a little rest.

At the very end of my walk I notice another monument - it is a genre sculpture “Petersburg Photographer”. Thanks to St. Petersburg photographers with similar cameras, we have a photo chronicle of life in St. Petersburg in the mid and late 19th century. This sculpture is not a portrait, but it is most often associated with Carl Bulla, an outstanding photographer and master of documentary photography. Carl Bulla owned a photographic studio, which was located in a neighboring house.