Kamenny Island or as the literal mean, the Stony Island, is one of the islands in the trio complex: Yelagin, Krestovsky, and Kamenny. Just like the other two, Kamenny Island isn’t the principal target for foreign tourists as well, and the reason behind it is that the island doesn’t have lots of tourists’ attraction. However, in terms of history and architecture, Kamenny Island is quite more attractive than the others but still doesn’t get the attention it deserves from tourists and Russia tour agencies.
There are several reasons that the island isn’t quite popular among the tour agencies, one of these reasons is the fact that most of the residences on the island are private and doesn't belong to the government, the other reason is the distance between the island and the city center. Though, the fact that there are loads of tourists’ attraction inside the city of St. Petersburg that nobody can check all of them out in one short travel to St. Petersburg is the most obvious one.
The trio locates at the northwest part of St. Petersburg above Petrogradsky. Kamenny Island has a lot more building, and better architecture compares to Yelagin and Krestovsky.
The sad part about this place is that though Kamenny Island is by far one of the most beautiful parts of the entire St. Petersburg city, it rarely happens that tourists end up there. Even though we already discussed the reasons, but with 300 years of history and possessing loads of buildings by the most elite architects who worked there, it feels like a grand architectural tourism opportunity is left to waste.
At first Kamenny Island was given to Gavriil Golovkin, grand chancellor and childhood friend of Peter the Great. Regarding the problems at the national court, Golovkin and his family exiled, and their properties seized by the government. Following the events, the Kamenny Island was given to Alexei Bestuzhev-Ryumin, also grand chancellor. Bestuzhev-Ryumin was also banished after a decade, but this time, the island was given to future Peter III, Empress Elizabeth’s son as a gift.
At the end of the 18th century, the island was packed with nobles and imperial families’ dachas and palace. Since the island became the center of leisure for nobles, loads of theatrical performances took place in the island including the premieres of several famous plays. It was in the middle of the 19th century that Shustov built a neoclassical wooden building in forty days to become the Kamenny Island’s theater home. Though the Kamennoostrovskiy Theater was determined to survive about seven years, you can still find this amazing construction completely fine on the island.
One of the most famous buildings on the island is the Kamennoostrovskiy Palace that built in 1776 for Paul I by the command of Catherine the Great who commissioned Yuriy Felten for the job. Felten first completed the palace’s chapel which is known as the Birth of St. John the Baptist, but his work disrupted by the extreme flooding in 1777. Once the construction restarted, Giacomo Quarenghi, the Italian architect replaced Yuriy Felten on the job to complete the neoclassical style palace.
Unlike the neoclassical palace, the church that Felten built before the palace was designed following the Gothic architecture style. The strange architectural building of the Birth of St. John the Baptist was at first meant to be a part of the palace as a chapel, but after the palace’s construction completed, the chapel converted to an individual church which many noble residents and guests of the island went there to pray. Such as the famous Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin who described his emotions about the church and his time on the island in some of his works.
Besides the Kamennoostrovskiy Palace and the Kamennoostrovskiy Theater, there are several more neoclassical building on the island that can be exciting for people who like this architecture style or Russian architecture in general. For example, we can point out to the Dolgorukov Mansion built by Shustov in1832. The Dolgorukov house was the oldest surviving noble family in Russia. We can also mention the Polovtsov Mansion which built by Ivan Fomin almost a century later after the time that Dolgorukov Mansion completed.
The other survived buildings after these mansions went over neoclassical architecture and designed in Art Nouveau architecture style including the Kleinmichel Mansion, the Vollenweider Mansion, and the Hausvald Mansion.
Following the October Revolution in the 20th century, unlike many other examples, Kamenny Island didn’t become one of the people’s places. The luxurious dachas and palaces were given to the high-rank government officials and military rankings. The island was an ideal place for them with its privacy and luxurious taste. Among all the dachas and palaces, only the Kamennoostrovskiy Palace with its unusual church chose to be as the public service places.
The Kamennoostrovskiy Palace was occupied by the Russian Air Force until recent years and used to be their sanatorium, but right now it’s renewed completely and turned to be the St. Petersburg’s governor home.
The St. John church which was private and only accessible for the nobles before the revolution, opened its door for the public for a while but soon closed completely and turned to the sculpture studio. The studio was also closed after a few years, and the church converted to a gym for the near military sanatorium. Unfortunately for the church, because of the changes throughout the time after the revolution, the interior of the church was completely destroyed. The church only restored and given back to the Orthodox Church in 1990.
The Kamennoostrovskiy Theater is another important building on the island which is now under the protection of the UNESCO and considered as a world heritage sites. The building went under restoration several times after the Revolution, but the exterior remained intact. The Kamennoostrovskiy Theater owned by the St. Petersburg State Television until in 2005, but the Russian president gave the building to the Bolshoi Theater Company to be used as their second stage.
If you want to observe the architectural beauty of the constructions on the island, you need to observe them from up close since most of the dachas and palaces are completely disappeared behind the trees because of the overgrown plants and the nature of the island. As we mentioned before, the trio islands complex doesn’t get the attention it deserves from the foreign tourists and St. Petersburg tour agencies. Within the complex, Kamenny Island is one of the architectural treasures of the St. Petersburg city and Russia overall. The trio islands are quite charming and popular places for the St. Petersburg locals, but if a tourist want to visit these places in their St. Petersburg tour program, they should fix a visit with their Russia tour agency or visit these islands on their own, since these islands are not included in St. Petersburg tour programs regularly. Though if you have plans to stay at the St. Petersburg city for a while, and also got enough time and energy, we suggest that you visit these islands, especially the Kamenny Island in your journey.
