Legend about an Englishman

One rich Englishman, informed about the beauty of St.-Petersburg, became old and announced, that it's necessary for him to visit Russia and see the trellis of the Summer Garden and the Spit of Vassilievsky Island. In the time of the white nights his yacht entered the Neva river and stopped in front of the Summer Garden. The Englishman was impressed greatly by the fairy-tale beauty of the Northern Venice and refused to go to the shore. He said, that there is no sense, because he could see nothing to be more excellent.   After that the yacht set a course to England.

There could be two variants. Either this legend was born on the Themse banks, was brought to the city by British merchants and found its second motherland, or it was born in one of the city saloons and became the romantic implication of the citizens love for their city.

The Neva river granite frame ( its famous embankments ) construction dates from 1763-1785 and is connected with the name of Youry Matveyevich Felten.  He was not only the author of the idea itself, but the executor of the number of works: granite parapets with the descents, bridges, piers, moorings and railings construction. In the number of the links of this unified and excellent city planning chain the construction of the Summer Garden railing was started in 1773. The contemporaries look at the railing like at the miracle. And it's really a miracle ! The classical rhythm of the alternating laconic of the cast iron spears with the elegant, like in the sonnet, completion causes the vague, like in a dream feeling of a miracle, that is worth to come to St.-Petersburg.

Unfortunately, the history did not left any written evidence, who was the author of the railings. Sometimes its creation was attributed to the famous architects Rinaldi, Bazhenov and Vallin de la Mothe. But today the researchers unanimously consider, that the authors of the railing phenomenon are Youri Felten and Pyotr Yegorov. But their joint work defined not only the appearance of the left bank of the Neva river, but influenced the perception character of the whole giant complex of the embankments at the both sides of the Neva river.

The fairy-tale beauty of the Spit of Vassilievsky Island has the equal right to have its legend.The graphical laconic of its solution became the brilliant result of the lengthily search of the number of St.-Petersburg architects - from Domenico Trezini and Giacomo Quarengi to Thomas de Thomon and Andreyan Zakharov.

The appearance of the new capital really impressed the foreign guests. Thus, A.Duma visited St.-Petersburg and said about the Spit of Vassilievsky Island: " I don't know, if there is any other view in the whole world, that could be compared with the panorama opened in front of my eyes". Madam de Stahl agrees with him: " It's impossible not to think over the miracle of the construction of such a beautiful city in the short period of time". And this is the statement of the foreigner dated from 1803: " St.-Petersburg, thanks to its elegant esplanades ranks among its old sisters like a beautiful child among the old people". All these facts were the source of the multiple legends.