Far Slingshot

Modern general view of the Far Slingshot

Dalnaya Rogatka is a historical place in St. Petersburg in the area of Pulkovo Mountain and Pulkovo Airport , in the historical district of Pulkovo . Administratively refers to the Moscow and Pushkin districts of the city, which in this area are separated by a border that runs along the Pulkovsky highway at the point where it adjoins the Petersburg highway of Pushkin .

In Peter the Great, a slingshot was called a road fence, which served as a barrier. At the exit from St. Petersburg to the south, there were three cordons with such slingshots - they were called Near (First ^[1] ), Middle (Second) ^[2] and Far (Third) slingshots. Cordons served to “obstruct the passage of malicious people”: fugitive soldiers and serfs trying to leave St. Petersburg; cab drivers who violated the tsar’s decree on the import of three stones on each cart for paving St. Petersburg streets, and those city dwellers who wanted to leave without permission.

Nowadays, Moscow Gate Square is located on the site of the near slingshot; Victory Square is located on the site of the middle one. The distant slingshot was located “on a pond mill dam under Pulkovo Mountain”. Before the war of 1941, settlements existed on the Far Slingshot. In 1835, at the top of Pulkovo Mountain, the Pulkovo Observatory was founded - from this place all distances in the Russian Empire began to be counted.

With the beginning of the Second World War, residents of the Far Slingshot were evacuated, then their houses were destroyed by fighting: the front line passed here. After the war, housing was prohibited here in connection with the creation of a protective park zone of the observatory .

In modern times, in addition to the numerous objects of the observatory, there is a junction of the Pulkovo and St. Petersburg highways, equipped with a car tunnel and an overpass. In 2015, between the passages of this interchange, the Dalnaya Rogatka landscape park was created, in which there is no pedestrian access ^[3] .

Active development of the adjacent territory is currently underway, as the new ExpoForum exhibition complex is nearby. In this regard, the Pulkovo Mountain region is illuminated by urban illumination, from which the protective zone should have protected it. This caused protests from the scientific community ^{[4] [5]} .