* With the emergence of St. Petersburg, a new chapter in the history of our country has begun, which has become a kind of cornerstone on which two very different Russias rely. Peter the Great, wishing to create a New Amsterdam on the banks of the Neva River, did not see the main thing in European civilization, namely progressive development, rights and freedoms, and, of course, the absence of the servile position of the country's subjects. Therefore, the construction of the new European capital was carried out using quite Asian methods. Vasilyevsky Island (hereinafter referred to as V.O.) is a city within a city, ideal and verified. The original plan, created by the chief architect of St. Petersburg, Jean Baptiste Leblon, was supposed to dig a network of canals connected to each other across the entire width and length of the island, along the shores of which a new center of St. Petersburg was to arise. But unfortunately, or fortunately, the capricious Baltic climate and Russian non-compliance made their own adjustments, and a grandiose plan that would have required a lot of human resources was not implemented. When the new emperor's life span came to an end, his ideas came to naught with him, and Peter's energy-intensive construction projects became of little interest to anyone. The dug channels on the island turned out to be too narrow and shallow and eventually turned into gutters and were filled in, but the markings peculiar to the channels were preserved and reflected in the toponymy of the island. The guests of the city are particularly interested in Strelka V.O., the cape of the island, where the port was located in the 18th and 19th centuries. At the beginning of the 19th century, one of the main postcard squares of the city was designed by Jean-Francois Thomas de Thomon - Birzhevaya Square on the spit of Vasilyevsky Island, which offers a panoramic view of St. Petersburg, as if from the stern of a ship. The tour route: • Line 6-7 of Vasilyevsky Island • St. Andrew's Cathedral • Pelya's Pharmacy • The Sphinxes • Academy of Arts • Menshikov Palace • Kunstkamera • The arrow of Vasilyevsky Island • The building of the Twelve Colleges • St. Peter's Cathedral Catherine