The sights of St. Petersburg. The houses of the Narva outpost.

"Behind the factory outpost, where the sunsets are in smoke..."

E. Dolmatovsky

Very close from here is the Stachek Avenue, strict, with solemn and gloomy stalinki along. Tourists rush along it to see the grand St. Petersburg: the palaces of Peterhof, its fountains, its luxury. Visitors come out at the Narvskaya metro station, take pictures of the Narva Gate. And they drive on. Local people sometimes come to take a walk in the very Ekaterinhof Park, which Oblomov's friends so persistently but unsuccessfully called for a walk. But then, turn off the avenue into the courtyards… Almost no one goes there. Except for the residents. And there's another Petersburg. Which you haven't seen yet. In which they often make movies. Especially the St. Petersburg series. Why here? Because in this unique low-rise neighborhood, hidden as behind a shield, behind the rows of houses on Stachek Avenue, there is an incredible charm in the thick of the tree.

This is the Serafimovsky town and the residential area of Traktornaya Street, located within the borders of the Narva outpost – a monument to the Leningrad avant-garde.

We come here sometimes by car for a walk.

If you leave the subway with a crowd, then you do not need to follow it, but, having separated, dive somewhere into the courtyards. You need to get between medieval and industrial buildings, half–abandoned and frightening, and here it is - another world.

The history of the Nara outpost began a long time ago. The name itself comes from a checkpoint that was located here in the 18th century. Under Peter, the Ekaterinhof residence was laid here and a park was laid out. Along the road to Peterhof, the nobility built dachas. Later, industrialists began to buy land here for the construction of factories. And houses for workers were built next to the factories. So by the 20th century, this place became a working suburb. It was here that the "Bloody Sunday" took place – the shooting of a peaceful demonstration of workers.

These places acquired a modern look when houses for workers and management of the Turbine Plant were built here in 1925-1928, according to the project of architects A.I. Gegello, A. S. Nikolsky and G. A. Simonov.

This was one of the first experiments of quarterly development designed to improve the lives of workers. So this place in the heart of industrial St. Petersburg has become the most beautiful working-class suburb in Russia.

Two-storey and three-storey houses, delicate green, pale pink or beige. Houses are often with a shared balcony on the second floor so that all residents of the house can spend time. There are less than a dozen apartments in each house. The more spectacular ones were intended for the residence of the factory bosses. More modest ones are for ordinary workers.

By the way, the peculiarity of the houses is that bathrooms were not provided here. The workers had to wash in the Ushakov baths, a complex located in the very center of the Narva outpost and now destroyed.

Here you can walk for hours without meeting almost anyone. A rarity for a tourist city.

We walk through the courtyards of Belousov, Turbinnaya, Serafimovskaya streets, passing once again through the large wrought-iron gates. Some of the houses have already been boarded up and resettled. The rest live their own special lives with their doors wide open. You can also look inside.

Wooden stairs leading up creak here. They will fasten boards on the floors. There are clothes on ropes and cats in the yards. In summer, everything here is drowned in greenery and flowers.

The ideal city, according to the architects, should have looked exactly like this. It has remained so for the residents and those few who love these places.