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Sovetskaya Street

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Sovetskaya Street

Sovetskaya Street connects Lenin Square to Vokzalnaya Street in the central part of the city. It runs almost exclusively there, where the ancient Velikaya Street used to go, leading towards the Pskov city wall.

The main street of the ancient Pskov was named Velikaya (Great) due to its length and significance, as embassies, princes and archbishops would enter the city down this road. 

Later, (apparently, in the XVII century) Velikaya Street was given another name — Velikolutskaya. It was the main and the most developed street until the revolution. The best shops and many institutions were situated along the street. In 1923, on the 6th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution the street was renamed Sovetskaya.  

Perhaps, in the modern Pskov there is no street richer in sights which belong to different epochs and periods then Sovetskaya Street, as it has preserved samples of Pskov civil and ecclesiastical architecture.    

Great Gates

In ancient times, at the junction of Sovetskaya Street and Pobeda Square there were Great Gates with a tower, which joined the city wall together. These were the main gates of Pskov, through which grand princes of Moscow and archbishops of Novgorod would enter the city. For the first time the Great Gates, which soon became the main entrance to Pskov, were installed in the second half of the XV century during the construction of the city wall.    

Behind the gates there was Alekseevskaya village inhabited by free peasants and the Smolensk road, which connected Pskov with southern Russian lands.

Botanic Garden

On October 28, 1907 an opening ceremony of a non-classical secondary school was held in front of Letniy Sad (Summer Garden). Behind the building was an empty area, where wide ditch running from the Great to the Sergiev Gates had previously been.

The first headmaster of the school Nikolaiy Raevsky was a teacher of geography and natural history, which included botany. To hold tutorial classes he decided to lay out a botanic garden, where various plants from all over the world were brought. When the weather was fine, the school students attended botanic classes given in the garden. The entrance to the garden led through the ruins of the Sokoli Gates, where the present Komsomolsky lane runs. On selected days the garden was open to visitors on either a paid-for basis or free of charge.