Krestovsky Island is one of the three northern St. Petersburg’s islands that Peter the Great granted to his close associate Alexander Menshikov after founding the city of St. Petersburg. This island has been one of the main recreational and sports centers of St. Petersburg from long before. Though this island alongside Yelagin Island and Kamenny Island were given to Menshikov, after few years it given to Peter the Great’s sister, Natalia in 1717. The island was marked on the maps from then as the Natalia island.
Krestovsky Island locates at the north of the St. Petersburg above Vasiliyevsky and Petrogradsky islands. This island is the largest among the three islands in the north and also the most popular park among the people too.
The history of the island’s name isn’t entirely clear. Some say that the name came from a cross shape lake that can be found on the island, and some say it named Krestovsky because of a giant cross that found on the shore of the island, and others claim that the name comes from a chapel with the same name that existed in the island long before.
The island marked on the documents centuries before Romanovs, especially on Swedish and Finnish’s maps, though it was after the establishment of the St. Petersburg city, and particularly after the Belosselsky-Belozersky family acquired the island that it got flourished and valuable.
Before Belosselsky-Belozersky family bought the island from Empress Elizabeth’s favorite, Alexi Razumovsky, there were several former owners of the island including the closest friend to Peter the Great, Alexander Menshikov, the sister of the emperor, Natalia, and Count Christoph von Munich. The Belosselsky-Belozersky family was one of the noble families of St. Petersburg. They owned the Pink Palace On the Nevsky Prospekt near the Anchikov bridge at the time and acquired the island only as their summer house. The palace on the Krestovsky Island renewed twice before the 1917 revolution, once when the Belosselsky-Belozersky family bought the island and the second time when the Belosselsky-Belozersky family sold their Pink Palace on Nevsky Prospekt and moved to the island permanently. The first renovation was done by Stackenschneider, and the second one was done by the hands of Antonio Rastrelli.
The Krestovsky island was the Belosselsky-Belozersky’s main residence until the October 1917 Revolution. There were several sports competition held at the island during the ownership of the Belosselsky-Belozersky family and was favored by the nobles and common people at that time. The Krestovsky Island was the first time for many things such as the first tennis club in Russia, the first polo club, the first yacht club and the first sailing competition in St. Petersburg.
Following the October Revolution, most of the noble families including the Belosselsky-Belozersky family fled to Europe and left the island for good. However, the island didn’t change its character after the revolution and even introduced a bunch of Olympics’ medalist from its several sports clubs to the world. Besides the sports center of the city, the island was also housed the peoples’ house committee center of Soviet Russia.
Krestovsky Island doesn’t have any historical sights, but it’s still quite popular among the people of St. Petersburg. The island has great spots for sports, and spending time with family and loved ones; for that reason, it gets quite crowded during the holidays and weekends. Some of the reasons for the island popularity would be the sports clubs, the recreational centers, the parks, and its nature.
One of the favorite parts of the island is the victory park. There were several separated farms in the 16th century and the Belosselsky-Belozersky palace in the 19th century which was entirely destroyed during the Second World War. The park was a memorial for those who fought in the war and lost their lives. The entire park was laid by the hands of volunteers.
The Krestovsky stadium locates at the west portion of the island which is the home of Zenit St. Petersburg football club. When there’s no match scheduled to be played, locals often went to the stadium to visit the small club museum and use the sports facilities in the stadium complex.
As we mention, the Krestovsky island wouldn’t catch many foreign tourists’ attention because of the shortage of historical sights, but with loads of recreational and sports occasion, anyone would enjoy a visit to this place even foreign tourists.
The Divo Ostrov is the first amusement park built in Russia. The park is any child’s dream with modern and updated devices. This park was built to compete with Disneyland, and it’s defiantly on the top ten list of the best and up to dated amusement parks in the world.
Besides the Krestovsky Stadium and the parks which are the place for leisure, sports, romance, and entertainments there are still more things to do while you’re on the island. For example, you can sail on the Finland Gulf, walking on the island shore, enjoying a lovely meal beside the water, having a cold drink from one of the oldest pubs of Russia, or swim with the dolphins and enjoying their shows in the island’s dolphinarium.
Krestovsky Island is for sure one the best places for anyone since it has almost any kind of family time entertainment for any ages, and that’s the reason why it’s always crowded with people during the weekends.
Krestovsky Island doesn’t have a solid spot on the St. Petersburg tour list of targets, because there are loads of historical and recreational attractions inside the city, that visiting all of them in one short trip is not possible. Though if you would like to include this island in your tour to St. Petersburg, you must fix this with your Russia tour manager beforehand to avoid any problem in your travel to Russia.
