Harbour

Categories / City Topography/Historical Geography/Historical Districts, Localities, Tracts, Municipal Establishments
HARBOUR is an area in the western part of Vasilievsky Island. Soon after the foundation of St. Petersburg, earthworks and the artillery battery were put up here to protect the entrance to the Bolshaya Neva River. A glade to the battery (today, the route of Bolshoy Avenue of Vasilievsky Island) was cut through the forest. In 1721, the Galley Harbour (hence, the name) with workshops and warehouses was founded here. Soon the Galley Village emerged here, populated by workers and sailors of the rowing fleet. In 1740s, the Galley Shipyard and the Rowing (Galley) Port were constructed nearby. Holy Trinity Church (not preserved) was built on the corner of Sredny Avenue of Vasilievsky Island and Nalichnaya Street in 1792. In 1808, the Harbour was officially included in the city's boundaries however it actually remained on the outskirts, separated from the developed eastern part of the Island with vast vacant lots. The territory was mostly built up with small one-storey wooden houses. During the Crimean War of 1853-56, an earth redoubt and artillery batteries were put up in the end of Bolshoy Avenue of Vasilievsky Island (today, there is a public garden located at the place of this earthwork). In the 18th-19th centuries, the Harbour was continually hit by floods. In the early 1860s, Governor-General Prince Alexander Suvorov initiated the soil bedding of the Harbour which received the name of "Suvorov's Quarter" (the name did not stand). At the turn of the 19th century, three and five-storey buildings were constructed at the Harbour. In 1904-06, the Association for Struggle with Living Space Shortages funded the construction of the so-called "Harbour Workers Town" (architects Nikolay Dmitriev and Vladimir Fedorov) which included five living houses, a club and a school (47 Gavanskaya Street/69 Maly Avenue of Vasilievsky Island). The Independent Sailor School training fleet officers was constructed at Bolshoy Avenue, 100 in 1910s. In 1906, started the filling of the Shkipersky Canal (a street with the same name runs along its route). During the siege of 1941-44, all wooden constructions of the Harbour were demolished for firewood. The living premises’ construction started at the Harbour in the late 1940s (architect Mikhail Klimentov). From 1970s, the construction related to the forming of the city's sea facade was started in the territory of the Harbour previously named Port Field (including Marine Passenger Terminal, the Pribaltiyskaya Hotel, Lenexpo Exhibition Centre, et al. Ensembles of Morskoy Slavy Square and Morskaya Embankment are still under construction.) The building of the former guardhouse has been preserved (1820s, 21 Shkipersky Canal Street). The name is preserved in Gavanskaya (Harbour) Street, Sredne-Gavansky (Middle Harbour) Avenue and the Gavan (Harbour) Hotel.

G. Y. Nikitenko. Гавань
Карышев О. Гавань // Нева, 1976 Siege of 1941-44
Sea Passenger Terminal
Oktyabrskaya Hotel
Lenexpo
1721
1968
1973
1983