Gogol's Petersburg: Nevsky Prospekt, The Nose, The Overcoat

Gogol's story opens with a hymn: "There is nothing better than Nevsky Prospekt, at least in Petersburg." Then the narrator turns on it: everything here is deceit and dream, nothing is what it seems. Two friends part to follow two women down the avenue. The painter Piskarev trails a dark-haired beauty to what turns out to be a brothel; the officer Pirogov chases a blonde. The tale ends warning that Nevsky lies at all hours, and worst at night. Even in The Overcoat a tailor knows its prices: on Nevsky, he says, the work alone would cost seventy-five roubles.

Visitor guidance: A public street you can walk end to end; the Kazan Cathedral, Anichkov Bridge and Gostiny Dvor stops below all stand on or beside it.

Lieutenant Pirogov, the earthy foil to the dreamy painter, follows a blonde woman through the dark Kazan gates into Meshchanskaya Street, which Gogol sketches as a street of tobacco and small-goods shops, German craftsmen and a few "nymphs". She turns out to be the wife of a German tinsmith. Pirogov is caught with her in his arms and flogged. The street has carried the name Grazhdanskaya since October 1918.

Location precision: Gogol names the street but gives no house; the pin marks Grazhdanskaya Street, as Meshchanskaya Street is now called.

Visitor guidance: An ordinary city street; Gogol gives no address to look for.

The Nose begins at breakfast. Ivan Yakovlevich, a barber who lives on Voznesensky Prospekt, finds a nose baked inside his loaf, and recognises it as the nose of Major Kovalyov, one of his regular clients. Terrified, he tries to get rid of it and finally throws it into the Neva, only to be confronted at once by a police inspector. Voznesensky was one of three axes of the 1737 city plan, all meeting at the Admiralty spire.

Location precision: Gogol gives the avenue but no house number; the pin marks the avenue itself.

Visitor guidance: The avenue runs from the Admiralty to the Fontanka and is open to walk.

Kovalyov sees his own nose step out of a carriage in the gold-embroidered uniform of a state councillor. He runs after it, and the carriage stops in front of Kazan Cathedral. Inside, the nose stands with its face buried in a tall collar, praying "with the greatest devotion". Kovalyov confronts it, but it haughtily denies any connection to him and walks away. The cathedral, built in 1801-1811 on Nevsky Prospekt, was modelled by Voronikhin on St Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Visitor guidance: Open to visitors; it stands on Nevsky Prospekt.

Major Kovalyov has a habit of strolling along Nevsky Prospekt every day. On the morning he loses his nose the street is packed, with "a whole waterfall of flowers" of ladies pouring along the pavement from the Police Bridge to the Anichkov Bridge. The bridge appears in the works of Pushkin, Gogol and Dostoevsky. Its four famous horse sculptures date from 1849-50, later than the story.

Location precision: Gogol sketches a stretch of Nevsky Prospekt, not one spot; the pin marks Anichkov Bridge at its far end.

Visitor guidance: The bridge is on Nevsky Prospekt where it crosses the Fontanka.

Soon the whole city is talking. First the rumour is that the nose of Major Kovalyov strolls along Nevsky Prospekt every day at three o'clock. Then comes another: not on Nevsky at all, but in the Tauride Garden. The garden is real, laid out between 1783 and 1789 behind the Tauride Palace, near the Smolny Cathedral. Gogol only reports the gossip; no one in the story actually finds the nose there.

Visitor guidance: A public park behind the Tauride Palace; Gogol's rumour is the only link to the story.

One morning Kovalyov wakes to find the nose back in its proper place, as if nothing had happened. In the final pages he is seen always in good humour, smiling and pursuing every pretty woman, once even stopping at a shop in Gostiny Dvor to buy an order ribbon. Gostiny Dvor stands at Nevsky Prospekt 35 and fills a whole block; it was designed by Vallin de la Mothe.

Visitor guidance: A working department store and arcade directly on Nevsky Prospekt; the metro station of the same name is attached.

The Overcoat turns into a ghost story. Akaky Akakievich is robbed of his new coat by two ruffians who leave him in the snow, and dies soon after. Rumours then race through Petersburg: near Kalinkin Bridge, and far beyond it, a dead clerk appears at night, hunting for a stolen overcoat and tearing every coat off every shoulder, regardless of rank or title. Gogol names only "Kalinkin Bridge", and the city has three such bridges.

Location precision: Gogol names only a Kalinkin Bridge and Petersburg has three; the pin marks the Staro-Kalinkin Bridge over the Fontanka.

Visitor guidance: The bridge carries traffic over the Fontanka and has a pavement.