Kamenny Island
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Kamenny Ostrov, Kamenny Island, or Stony Island (Russian: Каменный остров) is one of the islands in the Neva delta. It is part of Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Peter the Great presented the island to Count Gavriil Golovkin, Chancellor of the Russian Empire. After his family fell into disgrace, the island passed to his successor, Count Aleksei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin. A decade later, Empress Elizabeth granted it to the future Peter III of Russia.
During the 19th century, the island was home to summer retreats ("dachas") of the Russian royalty and nobility. At the eastern-most tip of the island stands the Kamennoostrovsky Palace, built by Georg von Veldten for Paul I and the Neo-Gothic church of Saint John of Jerusalem (1776-81) constructed in honor of the victory at Chesma and frequented by Alexander 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 the Soviet era and to this day, government residences have been located on Kamenny ("Stone") Island.
[edit] Further reading
- Витязева В. А. Каменный остров. Л., 1975.
