Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
café—drop in to browse the selection of cheese and chocolates (daily 10:00-22:00). You'll
be required to take a shopping basket at the door (whether you're browsing or not), and
photography is strictly prohibited.
A few steps beyond Yeliseevsky's, find the passage (at #60, just past the Teremok fast-
food joint) leading to the historic
Aurora (
Аврора
) Cinema
. Step inside to appreciate the
elegant lobby of what was one of the first movie houses in St. Petersburg. Peruse the movie
posters to see how American blockbusters are marketed in Russia (and spelled in Cyrillic).
A few are shown in their original language (“originale kopie”).
• Continue along Nevsky Prospekt for another block and a half, until you hit the Fontanka
River.
Fontanka River to Uprising Square
Of St. Petersburg's many beautiful and interesting bridges, the
Anichkov Bridge
is one
of the finest. On pillars anchoring each end are statues of a man with a horse. The en-
semble, sculpted in 1841 and known collectively as
The Horse Tamers,
expresses human-
ity's ongoing desire to corral nature. Watch the relationship between horse and man evolve
from a struggle, with the man overwhelmed by the wild beast's power, to a cooperative ar-
rangement, with the man leading the bridled and saddled horse. Looking over the Fontanka
River, it's easy to think of this as a metaphor for St. Petersburg's relationship to the water.
