European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 23, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By Adam z. Horvath new Day. Leningrad has the True Beauty of a Well designed City with features that Date to its pre revolutionary life As St. Petersburg. Leningrad enjoys the legacy of the time when it shared a common thread of culture with the rest of Europe. It offers visitors a history lesson that puts Moscow and the rest of the East in perspective and its Bright colors and winding canals contrast with the traditional image of a drab soviet City. There is so much to Leningrad that its fans will even Tell you it would take several Days to drink it All in that a Brief Stopover on your Way in or out of Moscow is not worthwhile. But that s not True. The secret of Leningrad is that like other great european cities except Moscow it is arranged around a Center in which the highlights a Golden Spires grand palaces formal gardens a Are always within sight of one another and if your Busy itinerary requires it can be covered in a single Day it helps of course that As far North As Leningrad is the Day can be pretty Long. From Early Spring until late autumn the Sun does t set Over the Gulf of Finland until about 10 . The ambitious Day starts where the City itself did on the Island in the Neva River that is taken up completely by the Peter and Paul fortress. The 250t year old fortress has no Battle scars it has never been called upon to safeguard the City Maxim Gorki and Feodor Dostoevski were held prisoner within its thick Walls. The fortress also encircles the Peter and Paul Cathedral which was the tallest building in the City until the construction of a television Tower. The Cathedral s Gilt spire rises almost 400 feet and can be seen from almost anywhere which is Why it was covered with a Gray Tarpaulin like the City s other Bright beacons were to escape bombing during world War ii the fortress Nevsky Gate brings you out on the Bank of the Neva where you can take in the sweep of All the embankments you Are about to walk. The first is the tip of Vasilevsky Island to the West where Leningrad s massive naval museum is upstaged by a piece of land that somehow manages to look like the prow of a ship. 1 in front of the colonnaded museum originally the Leningrad Stock Exchange 19th-Century architect retooled the embankment into a walled Semi Oval that slopes Down to the water. And if the maritime theme there were not already obvious enough two huge red columns decked out with ships Rostran Mil Neptune like statues make the Point vividly. Ii you Promise to he Quick you can go into the museum and sin Peter the great s own tiny wooden boat. But although the rest of Vasilevsky Island was once intended to lie criss crossed with More canals than Venice it never happened. So skip it. The i ten stage museum Leningrad s answer to Paris ouvre awaits on the other Side of the Neva i he stunning sea Green Hermitage with its crowded line of statues beckoning you inside from the Root is a problem Tor Day trippers. Like the 1 of re. The luxury of its rooms and the exhaustive Ness of its Art toilet lion make it tempting to spend All Day in the building until the matrons Start chasing out the patrons an hour before the of tibial i . T losing time. But be Strong. Use an i English language museum direct Lory they Are not in the main lobby but Back near the i tourist unit e and head for the russian culture ser ii Sii where you can bypass the artwork in favor of the rooms that Trace russian history from Peter the Ureal throne room a it 11 jewelled Wall map to Al apartments private gardens to the above a woman strolls by the statue of Peter the great. At right the Hermitage Leningrad s answer to the louvre in parts. Former ballroom where the revolutionary men sheiks surrendered to the revolutionary bolsheviks in 1917, then hit the main attractions on the other floors the Rembrandt the a Vincis the raphaels the Michelangelo. While you re at it keep an Eye out the windows. The views a across the Neva or across Palace Square with the 15a foot Alexander column and the triumphal Arch of the former military Headquarters a Are As riveting in their own Way As the paintings inside. But after your Brief tour March out of the Hermitage to the West past the Majestic yellow admiralty building with its spire that matches the Peter and Paul Cathedral and along the Small formal Park that adjoins it. Coming into View through the Trees is St. Isaac s Cathedral the third largest domed building in the world. It is imposing towering Over two Large plazas. Between the Church and the Neva is decembrist Square. The Centrepiece is the equestrian statue of Peter the great dubbed Quot the Bronze horseman1 in a push Kin poem and across the River you can see the red and White University building where Lenin took his Law exams. You May be Able to go inside St. Isaac a and even up to its dome for a panoramic View i bet it is great. But be warned As 1 want it is closed to s4s fee s4s file visitors on wednesdays. On the other Side of the Cathedral is another Beauty of a Square dominated on the far Side by the Leningrad City soviet which is More sumptuously decorated than you might think because like almost every major building it was intended As a Palace. Now you re about to fall Down unless you eat which you can do by walking along the Bank of the Moika canal to the main Street of Leningrad Nevsky Prospect where the tourist Friendly literary c he Sils on the Corner. It commemorates Pushkin who lived a Little farther Down the Moika. Its Paris stripes Magazine August 23, 1931