The Summer Garden, the oldest garden in St Petersburg, lies over the road from the Field of Mars, between the Palace Embankment of the River Neva and the Mihailovsky Castle.

Palace Embankment, St Petersburg:-

Garden:-

Walkway:-

There are several fountains in the Summer Garden. This one is surrounded by statuary:-

Square Fountain:-

This is the most ornate fountain:-

The Mikhailovsky Castle, (known in English as St Michael’s Castle,) St Petersburg. The Tsar Paul I, Catherine the Great’s son, apparently didn’t like the Winter Palace so had this one built instead. It was built surrounded by water, for defensive purposes, to be entered only by drawbridges. Not that that did Paul much good. He was assassinated in the Palace 40 nights after moving in.

Note eagle finials on the gate posts of the Summer Gardens:-

Moyka River. St Michael’s Castle in background. Field of Mars to left. This looked more like a canal to me:-

Crossing the river you head to the Griboyedov Embankment and towards the Church on Spilled Blood. We noticed how ornate the lampposts were:-

The stunning and very Russian in style Church on the Spilled Blood and Griboyedov Canal:-

From the canal:-

From Griboyedov Embankment:-

Upper portion. It’s a pity the top was swathed in scaffolding:-

From across the canal:-

When I first saw this (from a distance) in the Field of Mars, St Petersburg, I thought it would be a Great Patriotic War Memorial.

It isn’t. Not exclusively. The original memorial is a Monument to the Fighters of the Revolution. The flame in the centre, however, commemorates the victims of various wars and revolutions.

From east:-

Trees in one corner:-

Eternal Flame:-

Commemoration block:-

Video of eternal flame:-

Some of the dedications. Translations of the dedications are here:-

A touch of the new (and temporary) and the old.

Fifa 2018 World Cup fan park:-

Reverse of fan park + canal and bridge:-

Main road aspect:-

Contrast that with this typically Russian building right beside the fan park:-

But just over the road from that:-

The stunning Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood:-

The church’s peculiar name arises because it was built as a memorial over the spot where Tsar Alexander II had been assassinated. Unfortunately it was swathed in scaffolding last May.

Church on the Spilled Blood, St Petersburg, from Field of Mars:-