ADMIRALTY

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                                                            ADMIRALTY

The Admiralty was one of the first structures to be built in St Petersburg. It was designed to be a dockyard, where some of the first ships of Russia's Baltic fleet were built, and also fortified to be an extra defense for the newly obtained Neva delta. Today's Admiralty was built in 1806-23 by Adrian Zakharov. He maintained the original plan of the building, but turned it into a marvelous example of the Russian Empire style, with rows of white columns, plentiful reliefs and statues. The gilded spire of the Admiralty (and particularly its weather-vane korablik - "little ship") is a famous St. Petersburg landmark.