SAINT PETERSBURG

Animals - usual and mythical

Zagorodny Prospect, 52
This owl is situated above the clock on the tower of Vitebsky railroad terminal. There are four of them decorating each side of the tower.

Mohovaya Ulitsa, 34 (left)
Pestelya Ulitsa, 12 (right)
These two pictures demonstrate similar decorations with gryphons. There are four sculptures of each gryphon (the second one is plainly visible in the left picture) above the entrances. The left composition of the animals adorns the Academy of Theatre Arts (the modeling over it needs restoration a bit, you see).

Kamennoostrovsky Prospect, 24
This is the most realistic building sculpture of a lion in Saint Petersburg we know. The lion is the most typical element of decoration in the city, there are millions of them here. And to say the truth most of them aren't interesting at all.

Nevsky Prospect, 72
This house looks like a book on ornithology. We publish only three pictures, but the number of birds on the front is much larger. The upper left image presents the head of a raven, the bird itself is depicted in the right photo. Also you can see an owl in the third picture. What strange we saw in that house there is a demon among all these birds.

11 Liniya V.O., 12
This poor creature cannot be called animal in a sense. We don't know what this skull means (and don't care of it to say the truth) but consider it to be more interesting than some living beings.

Izmaylovsky Prospect, 16
A heraldic image of a gryphon on the building with demons. The animal is modelled in a typical heraldic representation, the coat of arms is topped with a crown.

Ulitsa Lenina, 33
A running wolf meets from above everybody who comes into the entrance of this building.

Naberezhnaya Reki Fontanki, 64
Hmm... Maybe it's a wolf too. In any case this beast has a wolf's mouth. On the other hand it has human eyes, so maybe it's a werewolf? At last it may be a usual dog standing guard over the human house...

Petrovskaya Naberezhnaya
These are two sculptures of Shie-Tza which were brought from the Manchurian town Gyrin (it seems to be renamed). They are nothing else but lions which were made in the eastern mythological manner.

Maly Prospect P.S., 47
A beautiful example of a Roman eagle on a kind of a fronton. It is still majestic though it begins collapsing...

Gorohovaya Ulitsa, 4
A salamander (in company of two rams). Its tail is damaged a little, but we are sure soon it will grow again. After all it is a lizard.

Ulitsa Vosstaniya, 2
Please tell us, tell us how they managed to lift a score of elephants to the fourth floor. We shall not be surprised when the building collapses.

Ulitsa Lenina, 32
Cats and bears look at you from the front of this building, as well as several "standard" lions which are not published here. A whole zoo...

Naberezhnaya Kanala Griboedova, 80
That's a strange gryphon. It has the lion's head (and it looks rather aggressive) and wings, but it also has the woman breast. Perhaps, some combination a gryphon and sphinx?

Sadovaya Ulitsa, 55-57
Two another gryphons above the large window in that demonic building. There are a lot of such pairs of these "dogs of Zeus" in Saint Petersburg, but most of them stand "face to face", while these stand "back to back".

9 Liniya V.O., 30
Among a great number of owls in the city this rare specimen was modelled in the pose of attacking.

Liteyny Prospect, 21
There are several animals of mythical origin can be seen on the front of this building. The upper left image is that of a phoenix, it is the highest sculpture of the house. The right photo represents two more gryphons, this time the composition of them is made in a heraldic style: two animals hold an armorial escutcheon with a caduceus on it. Then you can see a dragon in the lower left picture, its sculpture is also made in a heraldic style. Another view of this creature is also available. In addition to all these animals there are hexagrams on the building.

Svechnoy Pereulok, 27
This building doesn't seem old, but fox are not frequent visitors of cities, so we decided to publish the picture. There are three fox on the wall.

11 Liniya V.O., 8
The building of the Main Directorate of Navigation and Oceanography is adorned with several sculptures and high reliefs, among them we have singled out a double-headed eagle (there are four of them) and sea snakes in the shell. The right picture shows only the fragment of the composition with these snakes and the head which may be that of Neptune.

Ulitsa Rimskogo-Korsakova, 41
A rather unusual composition: as a rule gryphons are used for this type of decorating, but here we can see dragons.

Ulitsa Kuibysheva, 19 (left)
Zagorodny Prospect, 45 (right)
Two more excellent owls. The place of the left one under the ridge is very felicitous we think. In contrast to the wood-goblin the bird is single on the front of the building. So is the owl in the right picture.

Bolshoy Prospect P.S., 104
Again owl. But now it was made of wood under the doorway.

Kamennoostrovsky Prospect, 67
Both images represent the bas-relief of the pair of birds. They are made in the typical Russian folk tradition of embroidery and wood engraving, so you shouldn't be surprised at a swastika on this house.

Bolshaya Podyacheskaya Ulitsa, 36
Unfortunately this Roman eagle is hard damaged, we can only imagine what head it had. And we are surprised that it wasn't destroyed by the Soviet authority completely because of its similarity to the Nazi eagle. But pay attention to the snake close to the bird. An eagle and a snake are an ancient symbol expressing the unity of opposites which means the god.

9 Liniya V.O., 46
We believe it is a fox rather than a dog (but it's for sure that it isn't a wolf). A row of these animals decorates the front of the building.

Ulitsa Kuibysheva, 36
Another eagle. This time we see the pair of these birds of prey guarding the entrance.

The Bankovsky bridge
The famous gryphons from the famous suspension foot-bridge across the Griboedov canal.