Spit of the Basil Island - Tours around St. Petersburg Spit of the Basil Island St. Petersburg is situated on 42 islands.
Basil Island is the largest one.
At Peters's time it was planned to design a port on the Spit of the Basil Island. For that purpose 2 beacons were erected. It was an old-Roman tradition to decorate columns with the prows of the defeated ships. So this kind of decorating the lighthouses is allegorical. Between the columns a building of Stock Exchange was constructed in 1805-1810 by Thomas de Thomon.