The first mention of Repin Street dates back to the 1720s. Then it stretched along the path from the French settlement itself in the depths of the island to the Menshikov market, which was located on the territory of the modern Rumyantsev Garden. According to historians, the street owes its origin to the local landscape: the sandy mane — a slope towards the Neva River — was well suited for forming a trail, and later a road.

For a long time Repin Street did not have an official name. Locals called it simply Sandy Lane. As the development progressed, with the advent of the 1st line of Vasilievsky Island, the walking trail gradually expanded. A little later, rows of houses and courtyards that grew up on both sides of Pesochny Lane turned it into a full-fledged access road. On March 5, 1871, Pesochny Lane became known as Solovyevsky, in honor of the famous gold miner Stepan Solovyov.During the blockade heavy winter of 1941-1942, the lane became notorious: it was turned into a district morgue, the bodies of the deceased were brought here from all the surrounding streets of Vasilievsky Island. In 1952, Solovyevsky Lane changed its name again and turned into Repin Street, by association with the Academy of Arts, located in the immediate vicinity of the street.Today Repin Street is known as the narrowest street of the city on the Neva. Its width is only 5.6 meters. It is also one of the few streets in the historical part of the city where stone paving has been preserved for almost the entire length.

The street attracts many tourists with its atmosphere. Diving into Repin Street from the noisy Sredny Prospekt, you find yourself in an amazing corridor of silence: on both sides it is fenced off from the outside world by houses of various sizes and shapes — tall, painted in the characteristic "St. Petersburg" yellow and small two- and three-storey mansions and quaint architectural structures that are difficult to attribute to at least one of the known types of urban development. The blank walls "with traces of former windows" are suddenly replaced by different-sized arches of either rounded or square shape, and behind each of them hides a cozy courtyard. Some arches end in dead ends of entrances, others loop all the way to the exit to neighboring lines. You can easily get lost in this maze.A surprising sense of "timelessness" and the architectural quirks of Repin Street feed the already rich urban folklore of St. Petersburg. So, residents of other districts of the city complain that it is sometimes simply impossible to get to Repin Street. It is lost sight of among the numerous turns from the Middle Avenue, and you can walk back and forth for hours in search of a passage. And some of the townspeople even talked about meeting ghosts in this alley.Anyway, if you are tired of the hustle and bustle of the city and the noise of cars, do not be lazy to look into this secluded corner of the Northern capital. Here you will not only relax from the hustle and bustle, but you will be able to get in touch with the true spirit of St. Petersburg. And admirers of the work of Anthony Pogorelsky may well wander here for a longer time — suddenly the very portal that was described in the story "The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants" will open?