Summer Residences (entry)

Categories / Architecture/Architectural Monuments/Manors and Summer Houses
Categories / City Topography/Historical Geography/Vacation Houses, Spas and Resorts
SUMMER RESIDENCES, places for recreation during the summer for St. Petersburg residents. Before the construction of railways, well off St. Petersburg residents spent their holidays in owned or rented summerhouses close to the city. Until the mid-19th century, the most popular sites for building summer residences were Peterhof Road, Kamenny Island and Krestovsky Island, areas around Staraya Derevnya and Novaya Derevnya, Udelnaya and Lesnaya. Among the remainders of that period, Orlov's summer residence in Strelna, Vyazemskys' manor in Pargolovo are worth mentioning. After the building of the railway line St. Petersbug-Vyborg, completed in 1870, the development of the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland began. In 1894, Primorskaya railway line along the Gulf coast was built especially for holiday-makers. On the St. Petersburg-Vyborg railway line, the main areas of summer residences were located by Ozerki, Shuvalovo, Pargolovo, Beloostrov, Terijoki (Zelenogorsk) stations; on Primorskaya line, the most popular summer residences' destinations were Olgino, Lisy Nos, Sestroretsk. As for Tsarskoselskaya Railway Line, St. Petersburg residents used to rent summer residences in Pavlovsk and Tsarskoe Selo, or in Tyarlevo, where rents were lower. On the Warsaw railway line (opened in 1853) the most developed area was Alexandrovskaya station; on Baltiyskaya Railway Line (opened in 1857) there were Knyazhevo (Dachnoe), Ligovo, Sosnovaya Polyana, Strelna, Peterhof and Martyshkino. In 1859, a junction railroad line linking Ligovo and Krasnoe Selo was opened; along this line, the summer villages Staropanovo, Gorelovo and Skachki, popular among middle-class, soon appeared. After October 1917, country life abated, and former summer villages turned into ordinary residential areas. In the 1950s-60s, horticultural and suburban development cooperatives were brought into being; the lands for them were first allocated in the nearest suburbs (Kupchino, today, within the city limits), later - in Leningrad region, within 100 or more kilometres from St. Petersburg. By 2002, the largest horticultural sites and summer houses agglomerations within the limits of St. Petersburg can be found in Gorelovo, Skachki, Konnaya Lakhta, Torfyanoe, between Pesochnoe and Levashovo, in Solnechnoe and Komarovo. Within the city limits, the horticultural establishments along the rivers Lubya and Okhta have remained, as well as horticultural establishments in the end of Bolshevikov Avenue by the Neva railway station, in Dachnoe (past the hospital of Kirovsky Plant medical unit), in Aviagorodok etc.

References: Симанский В. К. Куда ехать на дачу?: Петерб. дачные местности в отношении их здоровости: В 2 вып. 2-е изд. СПб., 1889-1892.

Е. А. Bondarchuk. Симанский В. К. Куда ехать на дачу?: Петерб. дачные местности в отношении их здоровости: В 2 вып. 2-е изд. СПб., 1889-1892