During my travel in Russia, I actually did get to see a few lighthouses, other than, as John has aptly described them, the "lighthouses of religion!" I got to spend 2 days in St Petersberg, one of them on the 299th anniversary of the founding of the city. They're tooling up for a major celebration next year on the 300th anniversary... it would be a spectacular time to visit St Petersberg if anyone has the chance to do so.

St Petersberg is sometimes called the Venice of the North. It is a city built on a number of islands connected by bridges and intersprersed with canals. The main river flowing through the city is the Neva, which is split by Vasilevsky Island. The Rostral Towers are at the spit of Vasilevsky Island and are there for navigational purposes to direct ships two either of the channels flanking the island. The tops of the towers are now lit by gas fired burners on ceremonial occasions and holidays so in that sense, although they served as lighthouses in the 1800's, they're no longer used in that capacity. They were lit late one afternoon while I was in St Petersberg for the 299th anniversary celebration, but as bad luck would have it, my camera was back at the hotel.










[This message has been edited by lighthouse_photo (edited 06-02-2002).]

Gary, I was wondering about the picture at the bottom left, it appears the two columns are close together in the picture yet in the other picture with a wider greater picture of the island it appears they are maybe a couple thousand feet apart. Was the picture bottom left, taken at a great distance kinda of removing the true depth/distance then croped?
Beautiful pictures though, thanks for sharing them.

Mark

You didn't have your camera when they were lit Gary???? Now that's a bummer! I thought folks who take such great pictures as you do always have their cameras with them! Very nice even without the fires. Looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks for your comments, Mark and Sue. You're right, the towers are a considerable distance apart, several hundred yards at least. They were shot from the opposite side of the Neva River with a 300 mm lens for the "close-up" where they appear to be fairly close together. The effect is due to distance compression of the 300 mm focal length. As for not having a camera when the flames were lit on the towers, shame on me, Sue! We were headed out to dinner otherwise I would have had the camera in hand. That was about the only time all day that I didn't have it in hand of all the luck!

Gary

Very interesting lighthouses, Gary; quite different from around here.

------------------
Terry (Only my mother, brothers & sisters call me Teresa) Forrest