This stunning station frontage of Vitebsk is the finest in St. Petersburg and one that they are justifiably most proud of. This building replaced the original wooden building dating from 1837 being built in 1904 in the Art Nouveau style. However, I think that it is more akin to an Indian place of time kind! Trains from this grand building go to many Russian cities, CIS countries and to the rest of Europe. Specific places include the Baltic countries, Berlin, Budapest, Warsaw, Prague, Adler, Smolensk, Kiev, Lviv, Gomel, Chisinau, Riga and Vilnius. The station also serves the suburbs of St. Petersburg ostensively to the south of the city. Access to the suburban platforms was via the dreaded barriers, with my Russian not up to explaining that I wanted to pop on, spend a little time and take some pictures so I gave up. I also gave up when I entered the front concourse seeing armed guards with passengers going through metal detectors and their luggage going through airport style x-ray machines. This was before the ticketing area had been entered! I later fund out this was the norm and it was easy to just pass through as any other customer with not an eyelid raised, I wish that I had the confidence to do this here at Vitebsk station.
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