I believe that Vitebsky railway station in St. Petersburg is worthy of attention no less than some of the royal and princely palaces. Vitebsky station was built in 1904. It's a beautiful and unusual building in Art Nouveau style, but apart from architectural beauty it's also a collection of the most modern engineering solutions for that time.
If I decided to tell you about everything that I find interesting and worthy of attention at this station, my story would never end. So I have limited myself, I will build my story around an ordinary visit to the train station. I will not try to go up and down all the stairs to show all the halls and corridors.
A peculiarity of the Vitebsk station is that the platforms are very high - at the level of the second floor. The railway line crosses the Obvodny Canal and a complicated road junction, and the railroad tracks were raised several meters. So after we entered the station building, we have to go up one of the stairs to the second floor.
This time we chose the marble staircase in the front hall. The title photo captures a recurring moment, rarely does one rush to the train so much that one does not stop for a few seconds in front of this staircase with a smartphone in hand. The front hall is more than twenty meters high, but despite such volumes it seems very bright, the daylight passes into the hall through stained glass windows located on all the walls.
If you turn right at the landing, you enter the Picture Room. If I have some time to spare, I always go up this way to admire the beautiful interior, look at the paintings, and sit in silence on the old oak bench. Sometimes traveling exhibitions and concerts are held in this room, but more often it is quiet and peaceful.
This hall connects to an intricately shaped room that once housed a cafeteria. The canteen at the station is still open, but it is in a different wing of the building.
As I was photographing the piano, I noticed I was reflected in the mirror and went closer to take selfies.
If you turn left at the stairs, you'll get to the box office. Here you can buy tickets for long-distance trains. A little further away there are storage rooms, where you can leave your luggage.
Our goal was to take a walk in the suburban park, so we ignored those ticket booths and went to the vending machines to buy tickets for the commuter train.
After that we went out onto the covered platform of the station. It is lit by natural light.This is where the long-distance trains come in. But at this moment there were no trains standing at the platform. The platforms to which the electric trains are fed are located a little further away, already outside the covered part.
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| Smartphone | Xiaomi Redmi 3 |
| Location | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
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