16/7 Tass 6
ST. PETERSBURG, July 16 (Itar-Tass) —— St. Petersburg’s island called the New Holland, which features a complex of XVIII century’s architecture monuments welcomes first visitors, for the first time in its three centuries’ history.
From Saturday and throughout summer, there will be a public park, which hosts exhibitions of modern arts, sports grounds, a caf· and the first ever in St. Petersburg public vegetable garden.
Authors of the project say that the opening of the summer season is the first stage in the island’s future history and a sort of an experiment to attract a community of those interested in this special place.
Circumscribed by canals, New Holland’s triangular site is approximately 74,000 square meters. Old brick warehouses, long used for shipping, define the east and west edges in a construction language already familiar to the city centre. A brick circular structure, formerly a prison, occupies the northwest corner. From the very beginning, the island belonged to the military and was closed for the public. Now it hosts 20 buildings, where five of them are protected by the UNESCO.