On the Petrograd side of the northern capital is one of the oldest parks in the city. Architects were instructed to start creating it during the reign of Emperor Alexander the First. But real work on the arrangement of the park began already with Nikolay who replaced it. In this period of the history of the Russian state, the famous Peter and Paul Fortress, with which St. Petersburg once began, managed to completely lose its military significance. And Alexander Park was located on its glacis - the obligatory open space in front of fortifications, which should be well shot from walls and towers, was called in the professional language of military engineers.
Alexander Park: layout and architecture
The opposite part of the Peter and Paul Fortress from the Neva is called Kronverk. It was the geometry of this fortification that determined what the Alexander Park looks like today. Its radial alleys converge to Kronverk Peter and Paul Fortress. Such a layout was very characteristic of the capital of the Russian Empire, where there are very few accidents, and everything is subject to strict geometry. It remains only to regret that in the subsequent plan the architects were violated, and the Alexander Park in St. Petersburg has survived to this day in a strongly transformed form.
Usually, such a disregard for historically established layouts is characteristic of the Soviet era, but in this case it began as early as the turn of the twentieth century. It was painfully attractive to have an open place almost in the very center of the capital. And the Alexander Park lost its former integrity of its layout, having undergone unsystematic development, the characteristic elements of which were buildings such as the Orthopedic Institute and the People’s House. And later, already in the thirties of the twentieth century, the Lenin Komsomol Theater, now known as the Baltic House, was added to them. With this building, Alexander Park was largely cut off from the embankment of the Kronverksky Canal. But despite all the transformations that happened to him over the two centuries of his existence, he has survived as the oldest green massif in the center of St. Petersburg.
Over the years, he continues to be one of the favorite places for walks of both native Petersburgers and numerous guests of the northern capital. In the early 2000s, a significant amount of work was done to improve the park and develop its engineering infrastructure. The territory was cleared of extraneous rubbish, a large number of trees and ornamental shrubs were planted.
Alexander Park. How to get there
Over a long period of time, the favorite place of the townspeople was sufficiently cut off from the city. But since 1963, the question of how to get to the Alexander Park has ceased to be relevant. The metro station Gorkovskaya of the Moscow-Petrograd line appeared right on its territory.