This is my entry for the @tattoodjay's Wednesday walk challenge.

Today I continue my photo walks in St. Petersburg.

Last time, I settled on the fact that I arrived at the Palace Square. It was here.

Once on the square, the first thing I went to the fence around the Alexander Column. When I lived in St. Petersburg many years ago, there was no such beautiful fence. I really liked these decorations around its perimeter. This double-headed eagle is the state symbol of Russia and is depicted on its national emblem, and is also used in other Russian symbols.

And behind the eagles you can see the central part of the building of the Winter Palace of Russian Emperors. Today, this building houses one of the buildings of the State Hermitage Museum. This place is one of the main places to visit for tourists.

To my left above the roofs of buildings towered the domes of St. Isaac's Cathedral. Later in my stories I will tell about it.

Then I headed across the square along the Hermitage building. I read that this building at different times had a different color. But it seems to me that the current color fits him perfectly. See how richly decorated the palace building. I can not boast of detailed knowledge about this palace. If you wish, you can learn more about him, for example, [on Wikipedia] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Palace).

This is a very large building. It occupies a whole block along with its courtyard. Entrance to the courtyard is through a large gate. You can see this gate with arches in the photo. Where there is a large group of tourists.

Having approached these gates closer, I could not help taking a close-up picture of them. Once an imperial carriage with its retinue was driving through this gate.

And behind me at that moment was the whole square and the Alexander Column located in its center. This amazing building was also erected in honor of the victory over the army by the French Empire and Emperor Napolen Bonaparte. It is difficult to imagine how in the 19th century people managed such huge and heavy granite objects. The stone from which the column is carved was brought from a quarry located on the territory of modern Finland. The weight of the main part of the column is 613 tons. I can’t imagine how much her billet could weigh. It turns out that in order to bring the column upright, it took almost 2500 people.

At the very top of the column stands the figure of an angel with a cross, also personifying victory.

Leaving the square, I once again photographed this view.

And already moving along the street leading me away from the Palace Square, I once again cast a glance at St. Isaac's Cathedral.

Do you remember what I said, every meter in the center of St. Petersburg can be considered a tourist attraction. So, the building of the New Hermitage turned out to be on my right. And on his porch is another famous attraction. These are Atlantis sculptures that seem to hold the heavy porch roof.

I decided to try to make a more original shot of these sculptures.

So they are easier to see in reflection.

Walking a little further I ended up on a bridge over a canal called the Winter Canal. This canal and its embankment overlook the Neva River, where I went further.

But I will talk about this the next time.

I hope you enjoyed it, because there are still many photo walks ahead.

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Nikon D5000 + Sigma AF 17-50

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I strongly recommend to open the photo in a separate tab to appreciate it.

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