The New HOLLAND
The New Holland is a fabulous cultural-urbanization project located in the center of Saint Petersburg and 10 minutes away from The Mariinsky Theater.
The project of restoration of one of the outstanding examples of early classicism in Russian architecture, started in 2010. The goal was to reorganize, adapt and develop a historical monument of federal significance as a platform for young and creative forces in various fields.
MAIN FACTS
There are four main buildings in the New Holland territory :
The bottle, a three-floor building which was in 1830 a prison and now a place welcoming many restaurants and shops.
Kuznia the previous blacksmith shop under Peter 1 and the house now of a delicious bar restaurant.
The House 12 (designed to store timber brought to the island for the needs of the Admiralty shipyards. Later it was used as a warehouse, and at the end of the 20th century there was a textile factory here. It's a building in full extension, that only recently open after renovation.
The house of the commandant, the family of the commandant of the island actually lived here, and during the Soviet period the offices of the naval departments were located, now a school for the children between 3 and 15 years old.
Moreover, the park includes:
a pavilion
a stage
a kiosk
children's playground
basketball square, pétanque square
garden and plants alley.
Opened daily between 9:00-22:00/23:00, it also offers a lot of weekly events, festivals from music to cinema, classes, art, sport (yoga, running club, fitness).
LITTLE HISTORY
During the creation of St. Petersburg, which started in 1703, Peter I invited shipbuilders, to help with the creation of the Northern Fleet. Among them, Dutch, who worked at the shipyards on the left bank of the Neva.
To facilitate the construction of ships and the delivery of materials and timber to the shipyard, canals were dug on the Admiralty side, resulting in the creation of islands. The island formed by the Moika, Admiralty and Kryukov canals welcoming the Dutch began to be called Holland.
In the middle of the 18th century, it was decided to erect stone structures instead of the wooden barns on the site of wooden sheds.
The new project was finished in 1778, thanks to the cooperation between Architect Savva Chevakinsky's plan, Jean-Baptiste-Michel Vallin-Delamote's facade design and Johann's Gerard's engineering.
The New Holland is a trendy green zone to rest for young people and families, enjoyable all the year, though especially in the summer. If you want to discover not a place of tourism but more a place of typical Saint Petersburg life, take some sun, have a nice lunch and enjoy your time, make a stop !
