Rumyantsevsky garden

The picturesque and elegant Rumiantsevsky garden also called the Solovyov Garden or Rumyantsevsky Square is located on the Vasilievsky Island. In Peter's times, the Menshikov Market was located here, later a paved square, in the center of which was the Rumyantsev Obelisk, dedicated to the victories of Field Marshal Rumyantsev during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774. In the 1860s at the expense of the merchant S.F. Solovyov around the obelisk, a garden appeared designed by architect NN. Kovrigin.

On the alleys there were spectacular marble vases, in the center of the square there were two cast-iron fountains. In the summertime, a musical pavilion was working in the garden, a street stage, which was an unusual structure with figured cast-iron pillars and a wrought-iron lattice. For many years the Rumyantsevsky Garden was a favorite meeting place for the St.Petersburg intelligentsia. Literary evenings were held here, in which, in particular, A. Blok acted.

In the Soviet years, the layout of the garden was greatly simplified. In 1939 the garden was renamed, it began to be called Shevchenko Square. The music pavilion was closed, the fountains also stopped working.

In 1999, busts of artists Ilya Repin and Vasily Surikov, graduates of the Academy of Arts, were installed here. By the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg in Rumyantsevsky garden, a complete restoration was carried out, the fountains were restored in 2011.