When: February 3, 2006, 15:00

Where: Neva River, St. Petersburg, Russia

What: From the banks of the Neva.
St. Petersburg is the northernmost major city of the world but its climate is much milder than its northern latitude (~60° North) would suggest, except for the day this pano was shot, when the temperature was a bone chilling –19°C (-2°F).

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The Neva River is the city's main waterway; it is 74 km long, flowing 32 km within the city boundaries. On average the river is 1300 to 2000 feet wide, but near the Peter and Paul fortress and the Hermitage it exceeds 2600 feet. The river is covered with ice between mid-December and the first quarter of April and during this period there's no navigation on the river.

Photographer Jacek Gancarson points out the structures in his panorama, moving from left to right, starting with the building across the river, you can see: St. Petersburg University; the building with the large tower and small cupola is the famous Kunstkamera (Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology), the oldest state museum in Russia, it draws tourists to its infamous collection of physical abnormalities, which Peter the Great acquired on his European tour from Holland’s Doctor Ruysch in 1697; further right, on the horizon, the golden spike of Petropavlovska Fortress, originally the first big building of St. Petersburg; behind the trees on this side of the river the Hermitage Museum,; the Admiral Palace; then the golden cupola of Issaakevskij Church; and finally, the yellow rounded building is the former Russian Senate.

Why: “The winter has massive media coverage here in Russia,” reports Gancarson. “All the records for energy demand are already broken. In St. Petersburg we had one week with - 25 Celsius.”
Email Jacek Gancarson: jacek[at]eu3d.com