Menshikov Palace (Saint Petersburg)

Universitetskaya Embankment (Russian: Университетская набережная) is a 1.2 km long embankment on the right bank of the Bolshaya Neva, on Vasilievsky Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Starting at the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, it spans between Palace Bridge and Blagoveshchensky Bridge. The bank was lined with granite in 1805–1810 (eastern part), 1831–1834 (western part) and the 1850s (near Blagoveshchensky Bridge). It features an ensemble of Petrine Baroque buildings of the early 18th century, including the Kunstkamera, Twelve Collegia, Menshikov Palace, as well as the neoclassical building of the Academy of Arts. The embankment was formerly connected to the left bank through Isaakiyevsky Pontone Bridge, constructed in 1819–1841 in front of Senate Square. One of the campuses of Saint Petersburg State University (hosted in the Twelve Collegia and several other buildings), Saint Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (hosted in the Kunstkamera) and Zoological Museum are all situated along the embankment. The embankment was named after the university in 1887.

The Rumyantsev Obelisk (Russian: Румянцевский обелиск) is a granite obelisk located in Saint Petersburg. It is at the centre of Rumyantsev Square, on Vasilyevsky Island, between the Menshikov Palace and the Saint Petersburg Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The obelisk commemorates the victories of Count Pyotr Rumyantsev during the Russo-Turkish War between 1768 and 1774, and his service in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792. The idea for a monument originated late in the reign of Empress Catherine the Great, and was realised by her son and successor, Emperor Paul I, in 1799. Paul had attempted to persuade Rumyantsev's heirs to accept the offer of a palace built at public expense in place of the monument, but was turned down. The monument was built to the design of Vincenzo Brenna and was initially sited on the Tsaritsyn Meadow, later the Field of Mars. It was moved twice over its existence, to a new site on the Tsaritsyn Meadow after the Suvorov Monument was unveiled there, and then to Vasilyevsky Island after 1818, where it remains. The square it sits on was landscaped with gardens after 1867, and after a period being renamed after Taras Shevchenko during the Soviet era, had its original name, Rumyantsev Square, restored in 2001.

The Twelve Collegia, or Twelve Colleges (Russian: Двeнaдцaть Коллегий), is the largest edifice from the Petrine era remaining in Saint Petersburg. It was designed by Domenico Trezzini and Theodor Schwertfeger and built from 1722 to 1744.

Isaakievsky pontoon bridge (Saint Isaac's Bridge) was the first bridge across Neva river in St.Petersburg, by then the capital of Russian Empire. It was first constructed in 1727. Starting from 1732 it was rebuilt each summer for a period 184 years. The bridge was named after the nearby Saint Isaac's Cathedral. Between 1856 and 1912 construction was shifted to the spot of today's Palace Bridge. The gale of 1733 shattered the bridge, sinking the barques supporting it. After this the bridge was supported by special-design heavy-duty pontoons. In 1916 a passing tugboat sent a spark that caused a fire on the wooden structures and the bridge perished in flames. The former construction spot of the bridge is distinguished today by bank abutments fettled with granite steps leading down to the water.

Saint Petersburg State University (Russian: СПбГУ, Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет), also known as St Petersburg University (SPbU), is a public research university based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the oldest and one of the largest universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the very beginning has had a strong focus on fundamental research in science, engineering and humanities. It is made up of 24 specialized faculties (departments) and institutes, the Academic Gymnasium, the Medical College, the College of Physical Culture and Sports, Economics and Technology. The university has two primary campuses: one on Vasilievsky Island and the other one in Peterhof. During the Soviet period, it was known as Leningrad State University (Russian: Ленинградский государственный университет). It was renamed after Andrei Zhdanov in 1948 and was officially called "Leningrad State University, named after A. A. Zhdanov and Decorated with the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labour". A. A. Zhdanov's was removed in 1989 and Leningrad in the name was officially replaced with Saint Petersburg in 1992, however, the mentions of being decorated with orders stayed for some time after that.

The 1988 fire in the Library of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences) broke out on Sunday, February 14, 1988, in the newspaper section on the third floor of the library; the cause of which is still unknown. According to the library's acting director Valeriy Leonov, the fire alarm sounded at 8:13 pm, when the library was closed for visitors. By the time the fire was extinguished the following afternoon, it had destroyed 298,000 books of the total 12 million housed, two to three million more were damaged by heat and smoke. About 734,465 copies volumes initially became damp due to firefighting foam. Many of the lost volumes were part of the Baer Collection of foreign scientific works: 152,000 were lost. The rest 146,000 were Russian books.The lost fund was partially restored, large batches of books and individual rare editions came from more than 700 domestic libraries to replenish the lost funds.Many of the lost books were foreign scientific works.

The Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russian: Библиотека Российской академии наук (БАН)) is a large state-owned Russian library based in Saint Petersburg on Vasilievsky Island and open to employees of institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences and scholars with higher education. It is a part of the academy and includes, besides the central collection, the library collections housed by specialized academic institutions in Saint Petersburg and other cities. The library was founded in Saint Petersburg by a decree of Peter I in 1714 and subsequently included into the structure of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Since 1747 all academic institutions and since 1783 all publishers in the country have been legally obliged to provide the library with a free copy of each published item. In 1728-1924 its collections were stored in the building of Kunstkamera, with which it had formed a single academic institution until 1803. In the 1920s the library received many items confiscated during nationalization in Soviet Russia. In 1924-1925 the collections were transferred to the new building built for the library in 1914 and occupied by a military hospital during the First World War. During the siege of Leningrad in 1941-1944 the collections stayed in the besieged city and the library was open. On February 15, 1988, the library suffered the most catastrophic fire in its history which destroyed or damaged a considerable part of the collections,it had destroyed 298.000 books of the total 12 million housed,two to three million more were damaged by heat and smoke. 734,465 copies volumes initially became damp due to firefighting foam. Many of the lost volumes were part of the Baer Collection of foreign scientific works: 152.000 were lost. The rest 146.000 were Russian books, many of them early scientific and medical books from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The damp books damaged by fire extinguishment were initially frozen. Then a radio appeal was broadcast for citizens to dry the damp books in their homes. By late March 1988 93% of the damp books had been dried in that way and returned to the library. However, about 10,000 books became moldy. The lost fund was partially restored,large batches of books and individual rare editions came from more than 760 domestic libraries to replenish the lost funds. In a 2018 article on the web site "Siberian scientific news" it says that the fire destroyed 298 061 copy of monographs and periodicals; 146,716 books in Russian; 152,245 copies of foreign publications before 1930, arranged according to the classification system of academician Karl Baer (including the legendary Baer fund - about 62 thousand folios). The lost fund was replenish with 222,336 copies from 764 institutions were accepted for the restoration of funds. The loss of 62% of domestic books and 8% of publications from the Baer collection has been replenished. Also destroyed were 20,640 binders, or one third of the newspaper stock,this fund was also partially restored. Other sources say that 45% of the burned books in Russian and 13% in foreign were recovered.Before the fire, as of October 1, 1986, the collection of the library and libraries subordinate to it consisted of 17,288,365 items.

The Museum of Optical Technologies functions as part of the St. Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (SPbSU ITMO). It was founded to acquaint young people with the achievements in optical technology, including both modern optical engineering and information technology.

The Senate and Synod Building is the former headquarters of the Governing Senate and the Most Holy Synod of the Russian Empire in the Senate Square, Central St. Petersburg, Russia and the current headquarters of the Russian Constitutional Court and Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library.

Quay with Sphinxes (Sphinxes at the Universitetskaya Embankment) is a quay at the Universitetskaya Embankment in Saint Petersburg, in front of the Imperial Academy of Arts. It is remarkable for the two ancient sphinxes that were brought from Egypt to Russia at the height of Egyptomania in 1832. The quay was completed in 1834.

The English Embankment (Russian: Англи́йская на́бережная; Angliyskaya Naberezhnaya) or English Quay is a street along the left bank of the Bolshaya Neva River in Central Saint Petersburg. It has been historically one of the most fashionable streets in Saint Petersburg, and in the 19th century was called by the French term, Promenade des Anglais. It was from the English Embankment that at 2 AM on October 25, 1917, the gunshot from the Aurora sent the signal to storm the Winter Palace during Russian Revolution.The English Embankment runs perpendicular to the south end of the Annunciation Bridge and spans between the Novo-Admiralteysky Canal and the Decembrists Square, where it becomes the Admiralty Embankment.

The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy of the Three Noblest Arts. Elizabeth of Russia renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned a new building, completed 25 years later in 1789 by the Neva River. The academy promoted the neoclassical style and technique, and sent its promising students to European capitals for further study. Training at the academy was virtually required for artists to make successful careers. Formally abolished in 1918 after the Russian Revolution, the academy was renamed several times. It established free tuition; students from across the country competed fiercely for its few places annually. In 1947 the national institution was moved to Moscow, and much of its art collection was moved to the Hermitage. The building in Leningrad was devoted to the Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, named in honor of one of Russia's foremost realist artists. Since 1991 it has been called the St. Petersburg Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.