Kamenny Island

Coordinates: 59°59′N 30°17′E / 59.98°N 30.29°E / 59.98; 30.29

Kamenny Ostrov, Kamenny Island, or Stony Island (Russian: Каменный остров) is one of the islands in the Neva delta. It is part of Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Peter the Great presented the island to Count Gavriil Golovkin, Chancellor of the Russian Empire. After his family fell into disgrace, the island passed to his successor, Count Aleksei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin. A decade later, Empress Elizabeth granted it to the future Peter III of Russia.

During the 19th century, the island was home to summer retreats ("dachas") of the Russian royalty and nobility. At the eastern-most tip of the island stands the Kamennoostrovsky Palace, built by Georg von Veldten for Paul I and the Neo-Gothic church of Saint John of Jerusalem (1776–81) constructed in honor of the victory at Chesma and frequented by Alexander Pushkin during his stay at a dacha on Kamenny Ostrov. A cluster of Pushkin's last poems, including his version of Exegi monumentum, date from that period.

To the west lies a park with numerous mansions from the beginning of the 20th century, and some of the finest Moderne constructions in the city: the Shene Mansion (3 Skvoznoi Proyezd), the Follenweider Mansion (13 Bolshaya Alleya) and the Meltser Mansion (8 Polevaya Alleya). The Polovtsov Dacha (1911–13), with its opulent interiors, is a gem of the 20th-century Neoclassicism. In the Soviet era and to this day, government residences have been located on Kamenny ("Stone") Island.

Read more about Kamenny Island:  Further Reading

Famous quotes containing the word island:

    For four hundred years the blacks of Haiti had yearned for peace. for three hundred years the island was spoken of as a paradise of riches and pleasures, but that was in reference to the whites to whom the spirit of the land gave welcome. Haiti has meant split blood and tears for blacks.
    Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)