Putin-led campaign revitalising St. Petersburg's New Holland

Behind high walls and surrounded by a dark moat of water, the mysterious "town within a city" of New Holland has fascinated residents and visitors since it was built in the centre of St. Petersburg 300 years ago.


Peter the Great founded New Holland in the 1720s and named it after his sojourn in the Netherlands learning the art of shipbuilding. It is an island formed by the Moika, Kryukov, and Admiralteisky Canals. It was used to store and dry lumber for the state-of-the-art navy Peter was building for the Russian Empire. Later it was used as a testing-centre for the Navy. The huge site soon became a small town of oddly-shaped buildings and strange pools and tanks of water.

New Holland occupies the central area of the city most closely associated with Peter: near to the Bronze Horseman, and close to the magnificent Admiralty building with its golden spire. Throughout the Czarist Empire and Soviet Union, New Holland remained a closed, secretive place known only to the navy.

By the 1970s it was no longer used for testing, only for naval offices. Now, with the re-emergence of St. Petersburg as a vibrant, innovative arts-oriented city, the fabulous structure of New Holland will open its doors to the public for only the second time in its history.