Krestovsky Island () is a 3.4 km2 island in Saint Petersburg, Russia, between several tributaries of the Neva: the Srednyaya Nevka, the Malaya Nevka and the Krestovka. The island is served by the Krestovsky Ostrov station of Saint Petersburg Metro. Until recently, the western part of the island was occupied by the Maritime Victory Park, where the international Goodwill Games of sports and athletics competition took place in 1994, which was the first large scale post-Soviet Union international event in Russia. A new stadium, Gazprom Arena, is located where Kirov Stadium was. The stadium serves as home for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Meanwhile, the eastern part of this Saint Petersburg island, has seen slow but steady urbanization since the early 1900s, which has slowly changed its parkland nature. Recently there has been even more pressure from today's "nomenclature" to locate top-end housing projects and high-prestige homes here - a long-time tendency that also continues today, since historically the island was always owned by families who were close to and favourites of the Tzars/"powers-to-be" and who served them well.
History
The history of Krestovsky island and its near past up to the early 1900s is closely tied with the owners of the island, the Belosselsky-Belozersky family, and the way they developed and used the island. In the 19th through early 20th centuries the island belonged to the Belosselsky-Belozersky family. Aided by the infusion of wealth from the fortune of his second wife Anna Grigorievna (ne'e Kozitskaya and the wealth through her mother's Myasnikov family from Siberian mining and metals fortunes) Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Belosselsky-Belozersky acquired the island in 1803. Previously it had belonged to the courtier Count Cyril Razumovsky and his family. During the mid-1800s the Belosselskys reconstructed the original Razumovsky stone manor house, which was located at the southern shore of the island using the well-known architect A.I. Stackenschneider for the works. This house served the family as their summer retreat for years to come.
In the 1880s after having sold their famous Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace (the pink palace at No. 41 Nevsky Prospect at the Anichkov Bridge) to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (Nicholas II's uncle) the Belosselsky-Belozersky family moved to live on their Krestovsky island and the estate at the southern side of the island, now year-round. They reconstructed the original Stackenschneider designed manorial building into a small palace (using the contemporary court architect Rastrelli for its design). Popularly, this building was known as the "Datcha of the Belosselskys".
Many street names on Krestovsky island today still remind of and reflect the Belosselsky-Belozersky family having owned and occupied the Krestovsky island: e.g. Olgina, Eleninskaya, Esperova, Konstantinova streets have survived the change of times and herald the names of some of the Belosselsky-Belozersky immediate family members who lived on the island at the end of the Tsarist period until the 1917 Russian Revolution (Olga's street, Elena's street, Esper's street, Konstantin's street, respectively). Prior to the Revolution the main north to south street leading to the Belosselsky-Belozersky manor house was named Belosselsky Prospect (the Belosselsky avenue/view). After the Revolution of 1917, the street name was changed to Riukhina street (which runs South towards the edge of Malaya Nevka from the new Metro station on the island). The St Petersburg city council has approved and implemented, at the end of June 2011, the renaming of the lane one street over to the East and South of the Riukhina to "Belosselsky Pereulok" (the Belosselsky Lane), bringing back a relevant piece of the Krestovsky history and improving the awareness of this important period of the islands history. However, the Alexandrovskiy avenue (avenue named for the first Belosselsky owner of the island, Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Belosselsky), Nadezhdinskaya (wife of Constantine Esperovich), Sergievskaya, Andrievskaya (sons of Sergei Konstantinovich), Mariinsky, (daughter of Konstantin Esperovich) as well as the Nikolayevsky and Vladimirsky streets (named for the Tsar and the Romanov Grand Duke respectively under whom some Belosselskys served as aide de camp during the last years of the Tsarist era), these all have been victims of urbanisation and disappeared under apartment blocks and Dynamo sports facilities built in the 1950s and since.