Wednesday Walk. Galley Harbor

It was a dusky, rainy day - but I managed to take a short walk, taking advantage of the pause between the two rains. It was difficult to choose the right place to walk. It is impossible to take long walks in parks in such weather - the rain, which had stopped, could start pouring again at any moment, and one could get very wet on the way out of the park. Walking on the city streets is very sad - the clouds hang so low that even in the middle of the day there is dusk in the urban jungle. I opted for a compromise, a walk toward the coast of the Gulf of Finland.

I was going to see as many old buildings, monuments and artifacts as I could before the next rain, and if I was lucky with the weather, I was going to walk to the shore of the bay. If we talk about monuments, the main monument of the era of Peter the Great is the Galley (Galernaya) Harbor itself. It was established in the early XVIII century, when it needed a safe place for parking and repairing of rowing galleys. When galleys were replaced by gunboats and sailing ships, the small harbor lost its importance. The boathouses were no longer in use and shipwrights began to settle elsewhere, but some of the old structures have survived to this day.

I started my walk on a street called Skipper's Channel. The small river that used to flow through here has long been filled in, only the name of the street reminds of it now. On one side of the street stretches fences, on the other side are two low yellow buildings with white columns. The building a little further is the former guardhouse. In the 18th - 19th centuries, it was home to the officers and soldiers who guarded the territory of the harbor. There used to be the same blank fence between the buildings on the right-hand side of the street as the one opposite, but this time I suddenly saw the gate open, and the beginning of construction on a huge vacant lot.

I passed the guardhouse and came out to the harbor. Times are intricately intertwined in this place, each period has left something of itself to remember. It is not always easy to discern which structure when appeared, a monument of what era it is. The pavilion, covered with a construction grid, in its architecture resembles the buildings of the XVIII century, but it was built 200 years later, it is a former bus station. Bright yellow arbor is part of the fence of the Nevsky Yacht Club, the yacht club was founded in 1898, the arbor, presumably, appeared in the 1910s.

The collapsible bridge also appeared in the second half of the 20th century. The residential building on the bank of the canal is modern, it was built a few years ago. But the small towers, the Kronspitzes, guarding the entrance to the harbor from the side of the bay, were built in 1722 by the architect Domenico Trezzini. Originally the pinnacles were wooden, but in 1754 they were rebuilt in stone.

I turned left from Shkipersky Bridge and went along Shkipersky Canal towards Kronspitzes. No sooner had I walked half the distance than the rain reminded me of itself. So far it had rained lightly, but the cold splashes flying in my face were not very pleasant. But it would have been very frustrating to turn back without passing the last 200 meters, so I decided to continue despite the bad weather.

The architecture of both Kronspitzes is almost identical, but the appearance is significantly different. The East Kronstspitz is located on the territory of the Ministry of Emergency Situations base and was recently renovated. The West Kronstpitz is located on the grounds of a factory that recently went bankrupt and has not been renovated in a long time.

I reached the shore of the Gulf of Finland. It's a great place to stand on the shore, watch the lazy waves, and admire the sea - but not in this weather. Instead of all of the above, I quickly took a few pictures and turned back.

By the time I got back to the Skipper Bridge the rain had stopped again, and I decided to continue my walk. On the west bank of Galernaya Harbor is the old water tower of the Pyroxylin Plant, and that's where I headed. On my left hand there were again fences, blank walls, buildings in a construction grid... Sometimes behind the barbed wire you could see unusual architectural details.

At the far end of Galley Harbor was a particularly protected basin, separated by a causeway from the main water area. A narrow spit divides this part of the harbor into two pools. The spit ends with a wooden platform, a great place to cast a parting glance before finishing the walk.

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Smartphone	Google Pixel 3a
Location	Saint Petersburg, Russia

This is my entry for the #WednesdayWalk challenge by @tattoodjay.