Hello friends! Today I want to start again with a walk around the Peter and Paul Fortress. But the purpose of my walk is located elsewhere. My main goal is to see how the work on the Kronverk Strait embankment is progressing. But before I went to Alexander's Park, I decided to stop by the Peter and Paul Fortress, to the the part behind the Ioannovsky Bridge.
Last time I entered the fortress by the Kronverk Bridge and walked in the western part of the fortress, which turns towards Vasilievsky Island. This time I walked in the eastern part, in the grounds of Ioannov's Ravelin. Ioannov's Ravelin protects the Gosudarev and Menshikov Bastions. Most tourists enter the fortress from this side - there's a metro station nearby, and there's also a convenient car park for tourist buses.
Between the ramparts of the fortress walls and the bastions, a rather spacious square has formed where tourist groups traditionally gather. There is a large information centre, a ticket office, souvenir shops and cafés. But I walk past all this tourist infrastructure to walk up to the Museum of Cosmonautics and Rocket Technology. In a few days time, on April 12, Cosmonautics Day will be celebrated. I reflect on what it was like to fly so high to be in space for the first time?
No one knew how the first human spaceflight would end. Historians testify that three communiqués were prepared (communiqués are always prepared in advance, not composed at the last second). Only one of them mentioned the successful launch and landing of the astronaut; the other two were prepared for other cases.
There are several interesting objects in front of the museum, including an experimental rocket, a rocket engine pavilion and the descent vehicle of the Comet topographic satellite. The descent vehicle attracts the most attention. It was designed to take high-precision stereo photos, which were used to determine terrain and create topographic images. The apparatus is fitted with several transparent windows so you can look inside. The surface of these windows is very reflective, but I held the camera close to the surface and the shot came out quite sharp.
The further away, the more tourist groups gathered in the courtyard at the entrance to the main part of the fortress. I admired the stone Peter's Gate and turned decisively towards the main objective of my walk. I had to walk across the bridge again and turn off into Alexandrovsky Park.
I walked up to the Orthopaedic Institute building. The building had been restored a few years ago and the icon on the front of the building, made from a sketch by the artist Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, was again glowing with bright clean colours. It is one of the earliest majolica paintings on buildings in St Petersburg. The façade of the building is lined with light glazed brick.
The brick wing of the building was also recently renovated. Apparently, this one-storey annex housed the boiler house.
Step by step I reached the main objective of my walk, the Kronverk Strait. From the Kronverk Strait, there was another beautiful view of the Peter and Paul Fortress. But until recently, this view was only available in winter, during severe frosts. On such days, you could take a walk on the ice of the Kronverk Strait. The shores of the strait remained inaccessible; the area belonged to various agencies. Some time ago, I read that one of the embankments had been cleared of tenants and was being converted into a pedestrian zone. I ascertained that work was indeed underway, but far from complete.
I didn't go down to the ice this time. In April the ice cover only seems solid, but it is very fragile. Instead I turned towards the mini-city. This complex is in the form of a decorative relief map. It's only open for walks in the summer, from May to October, but in other seasons you can also walk up to the edge of the complex to see the models of historic buildings.
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| Smartphone | Google Pixel 3a |
| Location | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
This is my entry for the #BeautifulSunday challenge by 
