Another 30 degree day, so I took off for a walk early.

First to visit a stalwart of the city’s bookshops, Dom Knigi (“House of the Book”), is housed in part of the wonderful, whimsical Singer building, one of the most beautiful buildings on Nevsky Prospect – its a richly decorated Art Nouveau masterpiece.

The site at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and the Griboedov Canal, was the location of the riding school of Duke Ernst von Biron, the powerful favourite of Empress Anna. When this building burnt down, it was replaced by three-storey residential building, where St. Petersburg’s first photographer, Sergey Levitskiy, had his workshops in the 1850s. In 1902, the plot of land was bought for a million rubles by Singer Manufacturing Company, the world-famous maker of sewing machines.

The company wanted a building similar to the skyscraper that was then being constructed for them in New York. However, St. Petersburg’s strict building codes dictated that no building could be higher than 23.5 meters at the cornice. Despite these limitations, the architect Pavel Syuzor managed to create a supremely elegant building. The building was equipped with the latest lifts, heating and air-conditioning and an automatic system for clearing snow from the roof.

To create the illusion of greater height, Syuzor crowned his building with a metal-and-glass tower topped by a glass globe 2.8 meters in diameter. The sculptures on the building were executed in wrought bronze, a material that was new to St. Petersburg (designed by the Estonian sculpture Amandus Adamson,, and their weathered green bronze blends beautifully with the gray and red granite of the facades.

Went in search of the Lion Bridge  – one of the 3 remaining pedestrian chain bridges in St Petersburg, an example of architecture of the first quarter of the 14th century . One of the three remaining pedestrian chain bridges in St. Petersburg.

On the way home, spotted sculptures decorating a building along the Griboedov canal.