Walk along the Moika embankment from the center. The island can be seen from afar — high brick walls, plywood windows, thickets by the water. The entrance to “New Holland” is only from one side. Be prepared for security guards to ask you to show the contents of your bags, and leave drinks and food waiting for you in special boxes. Feet that step into the territory of the art space usually direct their owners first to the photo booth, then to the trendy cafes, and finally ask to lie on the green grass if it's summer, or put on your skates and go to the ice rink in winter.

A short digression: rumor ascribes the island to be a camp and prisoner, while history says that ships of the Soviet fleet were built and tested here. There was a prison here after all. For its shape, it was called “bottle”. This is where the expression “stay out of the bottle” came from. However, it is only certain that the buildings severely destroyed during the Great Patriotic War for a long time were not used, restored and were empty.

Now the territory of the island has really been significantly transformed. New Holland has become a huge art object in the center of St. Petersburg. And next to it there are houses with the same St. Petersburg roofs that are shown in the films.

The events held on the island attract perhaps the most diverse audience. The concert that lovers come to dance, the Library Day, where the book collectors flock, the lecture for young parents, the Astronomy Day or the production of modern ballet. There are evenings without events. On such days, they play badminton or tennis on the island, lie on the grass, sit with laptops (free Wi-Fi everywhere), read books.

New Holland was closed for reconstruction and promised to return to residents in 2018, but they managed it much earlier: the partially renovated park opened in August 2016. The first changes affected the “bottle”. It has restaurants and cafes, a bookstore, yoga and ballet halls.

It was decided not to build new buildings in “New Holland”. Instead, we bought several hundred trees from European nurseries. You can already walk along the linden alley here. Sculptures, installations and art objects by artists from all over the world regularly appear in the park.

In the summer of 2020, New Holland opened a new part of the space around the renovated House 12. Now guests can see the Garden Alley, another attraction of the green area. The project was developed by the architectural company West 8 with the participation of landscape designer Linda Bird. 119 Lamarck irgs, 26 apple trees, hydrangea, mahonia, mountain ash, willow, viburnum and much more were planted here.

Admission is free.