Strelka Vasil'yevskogo Ostrova

This guide to the Strelka on Vasilievsky Island in Saint Petersburg follows the twin red columns that French architect Thomas de Thomon built as working lighthouses between 1805 and 1811, burning oil in bowls seven meters above the Neva to guide ships through fog and northern dark. A lamplighter climbed a hidden staircase inside each column every evening to keep the flame lit. The bronze ship prows decorating the stone borrow a Roman trick used on ancient victory columns.