Malaya Sadovaya is St. Petersburg’s shortest street, the length of which is only 170 meters. However, since the 1780s when it was built, the street has gone through several major makeovers to blend in with the new buildings that sprang up here and there as well as the people who lived in them.

Just like Malaya Sadovaya’s look, the street’s name has also changed several times: first the street was known as Shuvalovsky Lane, named after count Shuvalov whose palace used to stand on the corner with the crossing Italian street. In the 1840s, Malaya Sadovaya received its present name, but was again renamed in 1887 to Ekateriniskaya Steet after the newly-erected statue of Catherine the Great across the road. In Soviet times, the street bore the name of the educational organization “Proletarian Culture” located in one of its houses.

Photos of St. Petersburg in RT Galleries

In the late 19th century, Malaya Sadovaya could have faced a history defining moment. On March 1, 1881, a terrorist group called “People’s Will” planned to assassinate tsar Aleksandr II. The revolutionaries rented flat number 8 on the Ekateriniskaya, dug a tunnel through the basement and lay dynamite underneath the road. Luckily for the tsar, he never arrived.

Among the most famous residents of Malaya Sadovaya was Karl Bulla – a legendary 19th century photographer and a renowned father of Russian photojournalism. A statue to Bulla was placed near the house that used to be his studio, portraying a man with a camera and a funny bulldog with a long tongue.

Two more bronze residents of the street are beautiful cats Elisey and Vasilisa watching passers-by from a house roof. The legend has it that all your wishes will come true if you manage to throw them some money their way.

On the other side of Nevsky Prospect is another peculiar street and quite probably the most symmetrical and well-proportioned one in all St. Petersburg. It is 22 meters wide lined by buildings 220 meters long and 22 meters high. All of the houses are works of the Italian architect Rossi, after whom the street is named.

Carlo Rossi is the man St. Petersburg has to thank for much of its beautiful neoclassical architecture. He was the artistic brain behind Mikhailovsky Palace and the Military Gallery at the Winter Palace.

Further, Rossi designed Aleksandrovsky Theatre at the northern end of his street – one of Russia’s most important theatres. It was there where Anton Chekhov’s play “The Seagull” was first performed in 1896. The play was so poorly received that the playwright fled the theatre to blend in with the crowds and escape the angry audience.

Read more about Chekhov on Russiapedia

Behind the theatre, there is St. Petersburg’s state museum of theatre and music, well worth a visit. A theatre flavor continues a little further on as the Academy of Choreography is situated nearby. It is the Mariinsky ballet training school where the likes of Pavlova and Nizhinsky learned to dance.

Visit RT Mariinsky Theatre site