St. Petersburg has two sides. We see one from the avenues and busy streets. It is bright, majestic and luring tourists. And the other side is sometimes gloomy, mysterious, but no less intriguing.
There are a lot of interesting things hidden behind the facades of historical buildings. And if you want to know more about the city and its attractions, read the news on the official website of the Express Sadovaya Hotel. We often publish special offers for booking rooms.
Communal apartments
Do you want to see another Petersburg and feel the atmosphere of the famous Dostoevsky's work? Go on an excursion to one of the communal apartments of the city. It is they who often hide in rich houses.
Communal apartments have appeared in the northern capital since its foundation. Wealthy residents of St. Petersburg turned their spacious mansions into apartment buildings, renting out every corner to guests.
After the revolution, luxurious stucco and rich decoration were covered with cheap materials and handed over to workers. From the outside, the apartment buildings looked rich, but inside all this splendor was hidden behind everyday life.
Nowadays, communal apartments are actively trying to settle, but indigenous residents and visitors are in no hurry to move to new neighborhoods. Communal apartments are cheap and located in historical areas.
Courtyards-wells
The peculiarity of the courtyards of the city is an enclosed space in the form of a well. The land in the center was expensive, so people built houses too close to each other, trying to fill all the free space. Additional rooms, floors and outbuildings were added to the mansions.
In the dark rooms without windows there was the cheapest housing, where the prototypes of Dostoevsky's heroes rented rooms. Probably, it was the courtyards-wells that gave rise to the gloomy atmosphere and inhospitality of St. Petersburg in the works of the writer.
Front doors
There are no entrances in St. Petersburg. Instead, in historical buildings, ceremonial halls are equipped, which can easily be mistaken for museum halls. Luxurious decoration, stucco molding and unusual stairs distinguish the front from the usual entrances.
St. Petersburg is not only mansions, monuments and palaces. Behind the beautiful facades, you can find unusual streets, courtyards and entrances. To make it easier to get to any interesting location, book a room in the city center. Express Sadovaya Hotel is located in the Admiralteysky district of St. Petersburg, within walking distance from Nevsky Prospekt.