Strelka (The Point)
One of the major sites of Vasilyevsky Island is the Strelka,
or the point, or spit of the island. It was here that Peter the Great
intended to be the center of his capital, with a broad square
(Pushkin Square), magnificent government buildings, and the beautiful,
sculpted Rostral Columns.
The Rostral Columns once served as light houses at the entrance
to the port. 
In those
days, hemp oil was burned on the top of these towers to steer ships in
safely to this port. Fires are still lit here today, but less for practicality
than for show--gas-fueled fires are still lit during festivals. The term
rostral is derived from the Latin
rostrum, which means the bows
of a vessel. Attached to these sculpted stone columns are exactly that:
rostrums which are made out of metal. These columns are flanked by
beautiful statues, 
which are the allegories of the four great rivers of Russia--the Volga,
the Dnieper, the Volkhov, and the Neva.
Moving in towards the Island past the columns, one would see a stately
building resembling a Greek temple, preceded by great stone columns.
This is the Naval Museum, or the former Stock Exchange building. It
was at this place, where merchants came to do business on their arrival
at the port of St. Petersburg before the building was made into a museum.
The Naval Museum includes a collection of over 1,700 model ships, from
a model of the ship Peter I built himself, to the most modern, along with
designs and maquettes. This museum deals mainly with the history of
the Russian Navy, heroic exploits of the Soviet Navy in the Second World
War, and its development in the post-war years.
And last but not least, there are the old port warehouses, which flank the
Exchange on both sides. Two of the most noteworthy of these warehouses
on the Strelka are the north and south warehouses, which were converted
into museums. The north warehouse is now the Dokuchayev Museum of
Soil Science, which opened in 1904. This museum is devoted to the study
and protection of Russia's soils and increasing their productivity. The south
warehouse is now the Zoological Museum, founded in 1896, which houses
over 40,000 different animal species, with about 15,000,000 specimens in
reserve. One of the major attractions in this museum is a stuffed woolly
mammoth which lived over 44,000 years ago.
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In those
days, hemp oil was burned on the top of these towers to steer ships in
safely to this port. Fires are still lit here today, but less for practicality
than for show--gas-fueled fires are still lit during festivals. The term
rostral is derived from the Latin
rostrum, which means the bows
of a vessel. Attached to these sculpted stone columns are exactly that:
rostrums which are made out of metal. These columns are flanked by
beautiful statues, 
which are the allegories of the four great rivers of Russia--the Volga,
the Dnieper, the Volkhov, and the Neva.