A Peaceful Break in the Heart of a Big City
On the southern side of the St. Petersburg center on Moscow Prospect is the beautiful Victory Park. Loaded with walking trails that cover roughly 128 acres in one of the heavily populated areas of the city, one can spend a pleasant couple of hours touring the area and escaping some of the hustle and bustle of city life.
Victory Park (Park Pobedy) is easy to get to if you're visiting St. Petersburg. It has a Metro station by the same name, but also enjoys several bus routes that stop at locations around the park. There are several places to grab a coffee or lunch adjacent to the park as well.
The park features an Orthodox Cathedral in the center and facilities for outdoor events and performances. Benches line the walkways and are often occupied by locals when the weather is inviting.
A Park is Born From the Ashes
The core acreage of the park was originally a brick factory up to and during WWII, however, during the Siege of Leningrad the brick factory was converted to a crematorium to dispose of the massive amounts of corpses during the siege. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 600,000 bodies were cremated at the site with their ashes taken by mine cars to nearby pits.
Read more about the Siege: https://steemit.com/russia/@energyaddict22/mass-starvation-and-cataclysmic-destruction-remembering-the-siege-of-leningrad-st-petersburg
Following the war, the Soviet leadership converted the site and some additional acreage to a park and bestowed the name. The front lines of the siege laid only a couple miles away from the area and the extensive trench and bunker system that surrounded the crematory were flooded to create small creeks and ponds. Trees were planted, statues were erected, and memorials were placed.
Today, Victory Park operates like most Russian parks - free to the public, fairly well manicured, and popular with locals for short walks or relaxing.
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