Kamenny Islands

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Kamenny Islands are three flat islands in the Neva River delta near Saint Petersburg, Russia. They are connected by channels and bridges, so people can travel between the islands and to the mainland. The group covers about 5.4 square kilometers.

- Kamenny Island: the easternmost island, about 1.06 square kilometers. It was called Workers’ Island in Soviet times. Today, government residences are there.

- Yelagin Island: located toward the center-north, where Yelagin Palace sits.

- Krestovsky Island: the westernmost and largest island, home to the Kamenny Island Palace.

History and notable spots: Peter the Great gave Kamenny Island to Count Gavriil Golovkin. It later passed to Count Aleksei Bestuzhev-Ryumin, and Empress Elizabeth granted it to the future Peter III. In the 19th century, the island was a summer retreat for Russian royalty and nobility.

At the eastern tip is the Kamennoostrovsky Palace, built for Paul I, and the Neo-Gothic Church of Saint John of Jerusalem (1776–81), tied to the victory at Chesma and visited by the poet Alexander Pushkin during a stay at a dacha there. Some of Pushkin’s late poems from that period, including his Exegi monumentum, come from this time.

To the west is a park with mansions from the early 20th century and several fine modernist houses, such as the Shene Mansion, the Follenweider Mansion, and the Meltser Mansion. The Polovtsov Dacha (1911–13) is a notable example of 20th-century Neoclassicism.