The outskirts of the city behind the Molvinsky Bridge

Greetings, friends, today I want to tell you about a walk in a non-tourist neighborhood. It is an area of typical residential construction in the middle of the 20th century. Neighborhoods built during this period usually look pretty simple. They lack architectural ornamentation - or, as they were considered at the time, architectural excesses. Those houses I will pass by are devoid of even the essentials. These buildings have been prepared for demolition and have already lost their balconies and windows. The land in this area is quite expensive, and investors are hoping to earn good money by building modern, high-rise apartment complexes instead of the old five-story buildings.

This walk was spontaneous. I walked through Yekaterinhof Park - it's a beautiful old park, but it's small in size. I had already walked around the perimeter of the park, but I did not want to end the walk. So I decided to leave the park and walk a little further.

Just beyond the park, behind that bridge that is pictured in the title photo, begins the Molvinsky Garden. This small garden with a round pond was once part of the dacha of the sugar refiner and merchant Molvo. The old dacha building has not survived, but the garden is intact and there are benches on the bank of the pond, a pleasant place to relax.

The residential and industrial quarters begin behind the garden. Usually, when I find myself in these parts, I turn toward the three-story cottages surrounded by gardens and flowerbeds. But this time I changed my habit and decided to walk to the Giant bathhouse. It is a unique structure in its own way. But at the moment it looks more creepy than picturesque. The street I walked along seemed to prepare me for the sad sight of ruin and desolation. The five-story apartment buildings I passed were empty and would soon be demolished.

Occasionally I encountered unusual elements of the urban environment. Most of all I was struck by a balcony decorated with vinyl records.

A little farther away I saw a house whose tenants were clearly in no hurry to move to more comfortable conditions. They had made a private garden for their cat and rightly doubt they can replicate all those transitions and gums in the new building.

"Petersburgers were stunned when they saw this street art!" - the sign informs us.

Finally I reached the bathhouse building. The bathhouses didn't get their name "Giant" by accident, at the time of their construction they were the biggest bathhouses in the city. They were built in 1928-1930 for the nearby projected residential areas. At that time intensive construction of housing estates for workers began, to move them from extremely cramped conditions to separate rooms and apartments. Bathrooms were not built in the new houses in those days, so baths were an urgent necessity.

New times have changed the approach to domestic convenience, and gradually the bathhouses ceased to be in demand. The bathhouse building has been standing abandoned and deteriorating for many years.

I didn't end my walk there - I reached the very cottages I told you about in the beginning, and walked a bit through the quiet streets, but the short winter day was already ending and it was too dark to continue taking pictures. So I end my story here - just one of the cottages ahead is where I'm headed.

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Smartphone	Google Pixel 3a
Location	Saint Petersburg, Russia