This street is one of the most charming corners of Saint Petersburg. It stretches from the beautiful and quiet Rumyantsev Garden to the Middle Avenue of Vasilievsky Island. The first mentions of Repin Street date back to the 1720s. Back then, it stretched as a path from the French Quarter deep within the island to the Menshikov Market, which was located on the territory of the modern Rumyantsev Garden. According to historians, the street owes its origin to the local landscape: a sandy ridge — a slope towards the Neva River — was well suited for forming a path, and later — a road. For a long time, Repin Street had no official name. Locals simply called it Sand Lane. As construction progressed, with the appearance of the 1st Line of Vasilievsky, the walking path gradually widened. A little later, rows of houses and yards that grew on both sides of Sand Lane turned it into a full-fledged access road. On March 5, 1871, Sand Lane was renamed Solovyov Lane, in honor of the famous gold miner Stepan Solovyov. This little street, "hidden" between the 1st and 2nd Lines of V.O., is quite unlike other streets of Petersburg. It rather resembles the streets of old European towns: cobblestone-paved and so narrow that it is almost impossible for two cars to pass each other.

Now I will explain why the street is frightening. People don’t like to write about this. During the harsh blockade winter of 1941–1942, the lane gained a grim reputation: it was turned into a district morgue, where bodies of the deceased from all the surrounding streets of Vasilievsky Island were brought. At first, the corpses were stacked in piles, then dumped in heaps. Crematories could not keep up with the burning. To be fair, I must note that there were many such streets in the city, several in each district. Even the Church of the Savior on Blood served as a morgue. The Moscow Victory Park should also be considered a necropolis. Ashes left after burning people were dumped by trucks into local ponds. Today, Repin Street will not remind tourists of its terrible history. Neither a memorial plaque nor a guide’s story. Only at night on this street can one hear strange sounds, rustlings, screams; some see mysterious moving light spots on the walls of houses. As the Soviet hit song goes... "nothing on earth passes without a trace"...

In 1952, Solovyov Lane was renamed again and became Repin Street, by association with the Academy of Arts located nearby. Today, Repin Street is known as the narrowest street in the city on the Neva. Its width is only 5.6 meters. It is also one of the few streets in the historic part of the city where stone paving has been preserved almost along its entire length. The street attracts numerous tourists with its atmosphere. Diving into Repin Street from the noisy Middle Avenue, you enter an amazing corridor of silence: on both sides, houses of various sizes and shapes fence it off from the outside world — tall buildings painted in the characteristic "Petersburg" yellow and small two- and three-story mansions and whimsical architectural structures that are hard to classify even into one known type of urban development. The lane was mainly used for delivering firewood. A kind of "back entrance to the noble houses." The blank walls "with traces of former windows" suddenly give way to arches of various sizes, sometimes rounded, sometimes square, and behind each one hides a cozy courtyard. Some arches end in dead-end driveways, others wind all the way to the exit onto neighboring lines. It is easy to get lost in this labyrinth. The amazing feeling of "timelessness" and the architectural quirks of Repin Street feed the already rich urban folklore of Petersburg. For example, residents of other city districts complain that sometimes it is simply impossible to get to Repin Street. It disappears from sight among the numerous turns from Middle Avenue, and one can walk back and forth for hours searching for the passage. Some locals have even told stories about encounters with ghosts in this alley. One way or another, if you are tired of the city hustle and the noise of cars, do not hesitate to visit this secluded corner of the Northern capital. Here you will not only rest from the bustle but also touch the true spirit of Petersburg.

Sources:

https://kudago.com/spb/place/ulica-repina/

https://www.etovidel.net/sights/city/saint-petersburg/id/samaia_uzkaia_i_strashnaia_ulica_sankt-peterburga

http://www.ipetersburg.ru/ulica-repina/

https://www.miloserdie.ru/article/ulitsa-morg-i-sladkaya-zemlya-8-mest-sankt-peterburga-kotorye-pomnyat-blokadu/