The west of Vasilyevsky Island is the part of the city that has changed most in twenty years. Hundreds of hectares were reclaimed from the sea, the Marine Facade passenger port was built, and Lenexpo — the exhibition grounds where Petersburgers remember fairs and concerts — was closed and is being taken down. Cruise liners the size of a city block dock here, and watching them from the shore is an outing in itself.
A liner at a Marine Facade berth. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The Marine Facade port
The passenger port opened in 2008–2011 on reclaimed land: seven berths, four terminals, depths for the largest Baltic liners. According to the port, cruise ships and ferries call from May to October; the rest of the year the berths are mostly empty. The terminals are a restricted zone for ticketed passengers only. The ships are best seen not from the port but from the water and other shores: from the Yacht Bridge on Krestovsky you see a liner broadside; from the reclaimed-land embankment you are closer but at an angle.
The terminals are a restricted passenger zone. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
What is left of Lenexpo
The Lenexpo exhibition complex operated from 1968 on Bolshoy Prospekt of Vasilyevsky Island — pavilions, a square, an opening to the gulf. In the 2010s the exhibitions moved to Expoforum near Pulkovo, and the Lenexpo site was zoned for development. Some pavilions have been demolished, some still stand along Bolshoy Prospekt behind the old fence. It is a disappearing landscape; if you want to see it, do not wait.
One of the surviving Lenexpo pavilions. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The reclaimed land and the embankment
Between the port and the old island lie the new quarters: tall housing, wide streets, an embankment along the gulf. It is windy and empty, but the view over the water at sunset is one of the most open in the city — the Lakhta Center, the Yacht Bridge and the port all in one sweep.
The embankment of the reclaimed quarters facing the gulf. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The Lakhta Center across the water. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
A two-to-three-hour route
Primorskaya metro → along Korablestroiteley Street to the embankment (20 minutes) → along the gulf towards the port (30 minutes, liners if you are lucky) → back to Bolshoy Prospekt past the old Lenexpo (30 minutes) → the park on Makarova embankment or back to the metro. Best in the evening in season, with liners in and the sun going down.
