Lahta is the closest suburb of St. Petersburg. It's only three bus stops from the last metro station to Lahta. But Lahta is a northern suburb, and I live closer to the southern side of the city, so I don't visit the northern suburbs very often. To the south of the city there are beautiful palaces and parks such as Peterhof, Tsarskoe Selo, Oranienbaum and others. To the north of St. Petersburg is very beautiful nature, with pine forests and lakes.
This time I decided to diversify my walks and go to Lahta. First, I took the subway to Begovaya station. This station was opened a few years ago, in 2018. The decoration is very bright, orange color was chosen for the walls, mirrored columns sparkle. I took some photos of this station, but I'm going to show these photos later, in a separate post, to get to the story about the walk faster.
The area near Begovaya metro station is built up with new high-rise buildings. The architectural dominant feature of the neighborhood is the Lahta Center Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe and also the northernmost skyscraper in the world. This tower was the leitmotif of my walk today, and I photographed it many times from different angles.
The decision to build this skyscraper in St. Petersburg was long and difficult. The first idea was to build the Tower on Okhta, opposite the Smolny Cathedral. But our city is located in a flat area, the center is built up with historic buildings of low height and a skyscraper would have disturbed the harmony. Architects and the public were outraged. After much debate and discussion, the construction was moved to the nearest suburb, Lahta (Lakhta).
In recent years, it has become convenient to get to Lahta by bus or car, but previously the main mode of transport was electric trains. The Lahta platform welcomed dacha travelers, skiers and tourists. Lahta railway station was built in 1894. Wooden station has not been preserved up to now. The bus stop is near the Lahta station, and it was this place that was the beginning of my walk.
From the station, I walked deeper into the village along the former Station Street. It is now called Red Partisan Street. I took a picture of a small store on this street. It's a 24-hour grocery store, it's called: " Products 24". On the doors of the store hangs an invitation "Welcome!" and advertising posters in the windows offer to buy bread, milk, groceries, ice cream and various drinks.
Lahta is the dacha outskirts of the city. It was built up with wooden dacha houses, designed for a short summer season. In recent years, the idea of suburban cottages has become popular, and old dacha houses are gradually disappearing. But so far there are still enough of these old cottages to make a whole photo shoot under the motto "contrast of new and old".
During my walk I photographed the old houses and ignored the new cottages. You may get the wrong impression that Lahta is a depressed neighborhood. Not at all, it's a very expensive place and most of the houses there have a very different look. So it's totally up to the photographer's discretion. I purposely tried to take pictures of old houses - most likely they will soon disappear and be replaced by new ones. Most of the cottages in Lahta look more like this:
The central streets of the township were pleasantly clean, but the heavy car traffic interfered with my quiet walk, so I turned down one of the side streets. Gradually I reached the outskirts of the village. It was quiet here; there weren't even any passersby.
After a while I was overtaken by a young man who was jogging. The young man ran off into the distance on the snow-covered road, but suddenly stopped and I saw the figure of a man lying next to him. From afar it was not very clear to me what was going on, and I hurried to get closer. There was a man lying on the road; he had broken his leg. The young man was calling for emergency medical assistance.
The ambulance arrived about 15 minutes later. The injured man was conscious, and while we were waiting for the paramedics to arrive, he told us the details of the accident. He was at home, started climbing the stairs to the attic, fell, broke his leg and smashed his phone. He couldn't call anyone for help, and he couldn't move freely with his broken leg. He struggled to get warm clothes, put on his winter jacket, and made his way out of the house into the street. I hope that was the end of his misfortunes. The paramedics arrived and put the man on a stretcher and took him to the hospital.
At this time the sun peeked out briefly. The bright blue sky and the contrasting shadows on the white snow immediately made the usual dull landscape bright and appealing.
It was time for me to finish my walk. I walked around part of the village and came out to the Lakhta station again. I had an idea to take the train home instead of the bus, like before. But the next train was almost an hour away and the platform was deserted. So I went to the bus stop.
My route took me past the supermarkets and the mall. Remember the store at the beginning of the walk? Apart from that little store, Lahta has plenty of other stores, bigger ones, with a wide variety of choices.
I noticed a red brick tower and came closer. The old water tower is now built into the mall, and there's a furniture store inside. I went up to the second floor of the mall to take a final picture of the two towers, separated by a window cover.
| ○ | ○ |
|---|---|
| Smartphone | Google Pixel 3a |
| Location | Lahta, Saint Petersburg, Russia |
This is my entry for the #WednesdayWalk challenge by 
