New Holland Island in
Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
was created in 1720, when the newly-built Kryukov Canal and Admiralty Canal connected the
Moika RiverThe Moyka River is a small river which encircles the central portion of Saint Petersburg, effectively making it an island...
with the Neva. The triangular island took its name after a number of canals and shipbuilding facilities that rendered its appearance similar to
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
.
During the following centuries, the island belonged to the
Russian AdmiraltyAdmiralty Board was a supreme body for the administration of the Imperial Russian Navy in the Russian Empire, established by Peter the Great on December 12, 1718....
, which would adapt the plot for its various needs.
New Holland Island in
Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
was created in 1720, when the newly-built Kryukov Canal and Admiralty Canal connected the
Moika RiverThe Moyka River is a small river which encircles the central portion of Saint Petersburg, effectively making it an island...
with the Neva. The triangular island took its name after a number of canals and shipbuilding facilities that rendered its appearance similar to
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
.
During the following centuries, the island belonged to the
Russian AdmiraltyAdmiralty Board was a supreme body for the administration of the Imperial Russian Navy in the Russian Empire, established by Peter the Great on December 12, 1718....
, which would adapt the plot for its various needs. Originally, there was a minor
shipyardShipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
for rowing boats. In 1732, the Admiralty engaged architect Ivan Korobov to construct a network of basins and wooden warehouses along the island's perimeter in order to store lumber for shipbuilding.
In 1765, Savva Chevakinsky was ordered to rebuild the warehouses in brick but without customary
stuccoStucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a coating for walls and ceilings and for decoration...
decoration. By 1788, when the project was halted,
Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothethumb|St. Petersburg's [[Imperial Academy of Arts]]Jean-Baptiste Michel Vallin de la Mothe was a French architect whose major career was spent in St...
had designed and supervised the construction of a highly pitched
NeoclassicalNeoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, both as a reaction against the Rococo style of anti-tectonic naturalistic ornament, and an outgrowth of some classicizing features of Late Baroque...
archAn arch is a structure that spans a space while supporting weight . Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-History:Arches...
over the canal. This magnificent red-brick gateway to the island, known as the New Holland Arch, is flanked by massive Tuscan columns of red granite.
New Holland did not achieve its present appearance until the building of a naval
prisonA prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Other terms are penitentiary, correctional facility, and jail , although in the United States "jail" and "prison" refer to different subtypes of correctional facility...
in 1828-29 and a
basin- Natural forms :* Depression - landform lower than the surrounding area, such as the Kalahari Basin* Drainage basin - in geography and hydrology, a hydrological basin or catchment basin, a region of land where water drains downhill into a specified body of water* Endorheic basin - in geography...
for naval architects in 1893. Aleksei Krylov used this basin for testing new models of ships between 1900 and 1908. The most powerful
radio stationRadio broadcasting is an audio broadcasting service, broadcast through the air as radio waves from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast common programming, either in syndication or simulcast or both...
in Imperial Russia was launched there by the General Staff of the Navy in 1915.
After the
Russian RevolutionThe Russian Revolution is the collective term for the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. In the first revolution of February 1917 the Czar was deposed and replaced by a Provisional government...
, the 18th-century buildings of New Holland Island fell into neglect, serving time as military barracks, warehouses and (most recently) offices for various commercial enterprises. In 2004, the Ministry of Defense evacuated the buildings, which are currently being refurbished for hotels and clubs to a design by
Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames BankNorman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, OM, FRIBA, FCSD, RDI, is a English architect whose company maintains an international design practice. He is Britain's most prolific builder of landmark office buildings.-Biography:...
. The new Palace of Festivals is scheduled to be constructed on the island by 2008.
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