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The MonRepos Park was once impartially
called "a scenic work of nature and art". It's the
exceptional beauty of the site, the unique wilderness of rocky,
marine and wooded landscapes completed with tactful and masterly
interference of artists and designers, that makes the MonRepos
Park a place worth a visit. The park, bearing the official
status of a national historic and architectural landmark and
natural reserve museum, is located in the northwest part of
Tverdysh island on the Gulf of Vyborg coast not far from the
town of Vyborg and occupies 180 hectares.
The local legends say it is here that an
ancient settlement of the Karelians was laid to become the
town of Vyborg some day.
The historic part of the reserve takes
a visitor back to the 18th-early 19th centuries. The memorial
estate and park ensemble includes the Manor and Detached Library
- rare examples of classical style in wooden architecture
- and the landscape rock park laid in romantic tradition.
The estate owners commissioned many popular architects and
park planners working in St. Petersburg in the late18-early19th
centuries to create this unique monument of architecture and
nature. Auguste Montferrand known for designing and building
St.Isaac's Cathedral, Thomas de Thomon who created the Spit
of Vasilievsky island ensemble with the Rostral columns, Pietro
Gonzago who laid out the Pavlovsk park and decorated the Pavlovsk
palace are just a few names in the row of the MonRepos authors.
From the north and south, the historic
core of the park smoothly turns into a forestlike zone of
a natural landscape that belongs to the specific geographical
region having the name of Fennoscandia. It is notable for
Glacial Period formations of up to 20 m height made up of
a peculiar sort of granite.
48 species of plants falling under the
category of being conserved in Leningrad region, as well as
rare mosses and lichens can be found in the MonRepos Park.
The fauna of the natural reserve includes 34 species of birds
and mammals.
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