White Nights - Nevsky Prospekt
I took this photo at 11.24pm in a very busy Nevsky Prospekt.The White Nights (Beliye Nochi) are a curious phenomenon caused by St. Petersburg's very northerly geographical location . St. Petersburg is the world's most northern city with a population over 1 million, and its stands at such a high latitude that the sun does not descend below the horizon enough for the sky to grow dark. In fact night becomes curiously indistinguishable from day, so much so that the authorities never need to turn the city's streetlights on! It’s quite amazing to find that the streets of St. Petersburg are bustling with people throughout the night as well as the day! And incidentally, that goes for the road traffic too!
Nevsky Prospekt is St. Petersburg’s main avenue and one of the best-known streets in Russia.
It was originally called the Great Perspective Road until 1738, and was cut through almost 4.5 km of forest land (c1718) and it varies between 25 and 60 meters in width. For many years it was roamed by wolves. During the early Soviet years (1918 - 44) it was officially known as the Avenue of the 25th of October, alluding to the day of the October Revolution, but this name was never accepted by the local inhabitants. It is renowned for its splendid architecture and famous former patrons, like Pushkin, Gogol, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Nijinsky and Dostoevsky. In fact, just about every Russian you can name has visited this street. Alexander Nevsky was a 13th century Russian national hero who was given credit for defeating the separate Swedish and German invading armies.
Prospekt means a straight street or avenue.
White Nights - Nevsky Prospekt
I took this photo at 11.24pm in a very busy Nevsky Prospekt.The White Nights (Beliye Nochi) are a curious phenomenon caused by St. Petersburg's very northerly geographical location . St. Petersburg is the world's most northern city with a population over 1 million, and its stands at such a high latitude that the sun does not descend below the horizon enough for the sky to grow dark. In fact night becomes curiously indistinguishable from day, so much so that the authorities never need to turn the city's streetlights on! It’s quite amazing to find that the streets of St. Petersburg are bustling with people throughout the night as well as the day! And incidentally, that goes for the road traffic too!
Nevsky Prospekt is St. Petersburg’s main avenue and one of the best-known streets in Russia.
It was originally called the Great Perspective Road until 1738, and was cut through almost 4.5 km of forest land (c1718) and it varies between 25 and 60 meters in width. For many years it was roamed by wolves. During the early Soviet years (1918 - 44) it was officially known as the Avenue of the 25th of October, alluding to the day of the October Revolution, but this name was never accepted by the local inhabitants. It is renowned for its splendid architecture and famous former patrons, like Pushkin, Gogol, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Nijinsky and Dostoevsky. In fact, just about every Russian you can name has visited this street. Alexander Nevsky was a 13th century Russian national hero who was given credit for defeating the separate Swedish and German invading armies.
Prospekt means a straight street or avenue.