The Spit of Vasilievsky Island is a cape at the eastern tip of Vasilievsky Island in Saint Petersburg, washed by the Bolshaya Neva and Malaya Neva rivers; it is one of the city's most famous architectural ensembles and an example of harmony between the city's architecture and the Neva riverbanks' landscape. The Spit belongs to the historical part of Saint Petersburg and, together with the complex of monuments located here, is included in the list of World Heritage sites. The ensemble of the Spit, formed in the 19th century, occupies a key place in the panorama of Saint Petersburg. Numerous architectural monuments and museums are located here: the Stock Exchange building, the Kunstkamera, the Zoological Museum, the Twelve Collegia building, the Academy of Sciences building, and the Rostral Columns. The five-span Palace and Exchange bridges, built in the 20th century, emphasize the clear symmetry of the Spit of Vasilievsky Island and its connection with other parts of the city. Since the time of Peter the Great, a commercial seaport was located here, where hundreds of overseas ships arrived with goods.

The Spit received its completed appearance as a result of the creation between 1804 and 1811 of a grand ensemble in the neoclassical style designed by architect Thomas de Thomon: with the new Stock Exchange, rostral columns, and a semicircular embankment. All stonecutting work during the construction of the architectural complex was carried out by Samson Sukhanov's team. A large amount of Finnish coarse-grained rapakivi granite in pink and rare gray colors was skillfully used here.

The main part of the ensemble is the colossal Stock Exchange building, constructed in the form of a temple surrounded on all sides by a colonnade. The rectangular building rests on a high, powerful stylobate with a wide ceremonial staircase. Gentle ramps are located on its sides. The walls of the stylobate, crafted by Sukhanov's stonecutters, are clad with large rectangular blocks of "Finnish sea granite" in four rows: the two upper rows are gray granite, the lower rows are pink. The wide steps of the staircase are carved from the same two-colored stone (pink at the bottom, gray at the top). For the columns, Sukhanov carved huge bases about two meters in diameter from monoliths of gray "Finnish sea granite." All the "sea Finnish granite" was quarried near Vyborg. Sukhanov is credited with executing, based on models by J. Camberlen, the sculptural groups ("Neptune with two rivers" and "Navigation and Mercury with two rivers") on the attic of the Stock Exchange building.

Simultaneously, according to the project of architect Thomas de Thomon and engineer Gerard, a square with a semicircular embankment was constructed in front of the Stock Exchange, intended for the arrangement of a ceremonial pier for the seaport. To level the shoreline contours and create a pier with a deep fairway, thousands of piles were driven into the riverbed, and a huge mass of soil was dumped, resulting in the shoreline advancing 123.5 meters into the Neva riverbed.

The construction and decoration of the two-tier horseshoe-shaped embankment, 561 meters long, encompassing the banks of the Bolshaya and Malaya Neva, was undertaken by Sukhanov's team.

In 1807–1808, granite stonecutters built a semicircular retaining wall with a parapet from blocks of pink "Finnish sea granite." It is decorated with a symbolic grotto in the form of an arch and adorned with 12 granite-carved lion masks with bronze mooring rings. On the outside, the wall is flanked by ramps—slopes made of granite slabs laid at an incline, smoothly leading down to the pier platform. On either side of the pier, huge granite spheres crafted by master Samson Sukhanov are placed on massive cubic stone pedestals.

The granite embankment created, "of astonishing purity, strength, and beauty in finish," harmoniously fit into the architectural ensemble of the Spit.

In 1810, Sukhanov's workers completed the erection of the Rostral Columns on the sides of the semicircular square by the ramps to the Neva. The bases of the columns were carved from slightly pinkish, and the pedestals from gray "Finnish sea granite," while the shafts of the Roman-Doric order columns were made of brick. The Rostral Columns, symbolizing naval victories and serving as lighthouses, were decorated with metal rostra—the bows of ships—and topped with tripod lamps. The columns reach a height of 32 meters. At the foot of the columns are huge figures, conceived by Thomas de Thomon as "deities of the sea and commerce," now traditionally considered allegories of the Russian rivers Volga, Dnieper, Volkhov, and Neva. They were executed in 1810–1811 by Samson Sukhanov based on models by sculptors J. Thibault and J. Camberlen from Pudost stone. Possibly, the final "refinement" was done by the sculptors themselves.

There is a legend that these spheres, without which the Spit is now unimaginable, were carved "by eye" by the stone master Samson Sukhanov without using any measuring instruments.

In the creation of the ensemble of the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, the architect especially noted among the contractors the Saint Petersburg merchants Samson Sukhanov, who headed the team of stonecutters, and Ivan Zherikhov with his team of carpenters, who "brought significant benefit to the treasury compared to other contractors during the execution of the works." For "creating the figures for the lighthouses," Samson Sukhanov was awarded a caftan with golden braids (braid – a woven cord, tassel, or fringe used to decorate clothing).

Later, the Southern and Northern warehouses, built in 1826–1832 according to the project of architect Lukini, defined the strict symmetry of the ensemble. The Southern warehouse complex included, besides storage buildings, the Customs Officers' House and the Exhibition Hall, intended for holding Russian manufacturing exhibitions (the first was held in 1829). Architect Lukini built a new Customs building on the Malaya Neva embankment, whose silhouette with a domed top corresponded with the Kunstkamera tower. Major changes continued on the Spit of Vasilievsky Island after 1885, when the seaport was moved to Gutuevsky Island. The old Gostiny Dvor was dismantled at the beginning of the 20th century, and several public-administrative buildings were erected in its place. Collegiate Square was practically destroyed by the construction of the Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology Institute on its territory in 1899–1904, designed by architect Benois. In the 1890s, a square was laid out on the Spit’s cape; it was destroyed by the 1924 flood and recreated in 1926 according to a project by Ilyin.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Стрелка_Васильевского_острова

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