Rostral'naya Kolonna U Birzhevogo

This guide to the Rostral Columns beside Saint Petersburg's old stock exchange starts with a trick: the bronze ship prows bristling from the two towers were never won in battle, borrowed from an ancient Roman victory custom by French architect Thomas de Thomon around 1810. It traces how each hollow column once hid a working lighthouse, with a keeper climbing a spiral stair to tend an oil lamp, and introduces the four river gods seated at the base. Best viewed from the embankment facing the towers.