Leningrad [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Leningrad is not a city of skyscrapers. The visitor approaching the city by the Moscow Road sees no towering buildings on the horizon. First the golden dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral gleams through the faint misty haze, then from the top of Pulkovo Heights (near the famous observatory) one can see the whole panorama of the city spread out over the delta of the river Neva. Even here there are few landmarks. The 472-foot mast of the television centre and the 400-foot Admiralty Spire are hard to discern in the distance. In the central districts of the city four- or five-storey buildings predominate. In 1844, Nicholas I, wishing to stress the difference in station between the tsar and his subjects, decreed that all new buildings in St. Petersburg should be at least a sazhen (about seven feet) lower than the Winter Palace. Only the