Page "Vasilyevsky Island" Paragraph 10

Geographically, the island consists of two main parts.

The south and east of the island are old, with buildings mostly from the 19th century.

The southern embankment ( with its western part named after St Petersburg University located there ) has some of the oldest buildings in the city dated from 18th century.

That part of the island is notable for its rectangular grid of streets ( originally intended to be canals, like in Venice ), with three lengthwise thoroughfares called prospekts – Bolshoi ( Big ), Sredniy ( Middle ) and Maly ( Small ) – going roughly from east to west, and with about 30 crosswise Linii ( Lines ) forming about 15 peculiarly numbered streets going perpendicularly from south to north.

The island boasts the city's narrowest street named after the artist Ilya Repin.