I really like to walk in alleys and courtyards. Walking in courtyards and walking on the main streets are completely different walks, for different moods, for different states of mind, and sometimes for different people. When I walk along the avenues and embankments, I admire the beautiful architecture, and admire the city views and get a lot of pleasure from such a pastime. Walking around courtyards is often aesthetically pleasing too. Although it is not necessary, sometimes you can wander into such places that you don't think about beautiful things anymore. What makes these walks particularly interesting is that you can find artefacts from bygone centuries, hidden passageways and lyrical messages on the walls of houses.
Today I want to tell you about one of these walks. I started the walk on Marata Street. This street is located in the historical part of the city. It is a wide and beautiful street, the facades of the houses look nice and majestic. But this street was built up at a time when homeowners tried to maximize the income from the purchased land. Therefore, the facades of the houses are richly decorated, the first courtyard usually also looks quite splendid, but the second and third farmyards are located further away, they look modest.
The iron staircase to the second floor has long been in need of repair. How did it get there? It wasn't built that way, all staircases were internal. Was the wide arched window on the first floor designed that way? Or is it arranged on the place of the old gate? The tower stands out against the sky. The balcony around the tower is destroyed, no one goes up to see the panorama of the city.
Often yards are interconnected, and a maze of yards can be used to pass through to neighboring streets. Sometimes these passages are not obvious. I like to find hidden passages between courtyards, it's like solving a riddle. I duck into a low passage and find myself in a square courtyard that looks like a deep well. The sky is blue, but they say you can see the stars from the well... Well, I'd have to come here at night to see them.
This is not the end of the road, I go on and find myself in the next courtyard.On this side, the passage between the courtyards can be blocked. Now the door is open and the exit is available, but at other times of the day it might not be possible to pass through.
The blank wall of the house looks bright and ornate, the reflected light of the rectangles of the windows of the house opposite makes it unusually picturesque.
I am approaching Nevsky Prospekt, and the courtyards are getting wider and brighter. I turn into the next courtyard and enter the cat kingdom. The first cat I meet proudly turns away and walks away, the gate is closed and I can't chase him. But the fluffy red cat poses with pleasure. Although, perhaps, he just doesn't care about me - he is too busy.
At the end of the walk I take a picture of a monument in the yard on Mayakovsky Street. This piece of graphite with a round through hole at eye level was installed in 1996 and bears the official name "Nature and Man". What it is unofficially called you have already guessed, I suspect.
| ā | ā |
|---|---|
| Smartphone | Google Pixel 3a |
| Location | Saint Petersburg, Russia |