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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Circus, castle and the Summer Garden

      ⏱ 4 h🚶 3 km🍽 2📍 5 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      A kids’ day by the Fontanka: the garden, a castle with a ghost and a circus show.

      👶 With kids🏛 History and architecture
      👶 3–6, 7–12 years · ✓ stroller-friendly

      The Summer Garden’s paths are gravel but passable. At St Michael’s Castle and the circus strollers go to the cloakroom. The pyshechnaya is cramped and has a step at the entrance.

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      1. 1
        🌳 Summer Garden
        🚪 entrance on the Moika side, by the Carp Pond
        🎟 partly ticketed · The garden is free; the Summer Palace is ticketed
        Peter I's garden with marble statues, fountains, the Summer Palace and the famous railing on the Neva side.
        Fountains and statues — from May to autumn; from late October the statues stand in wooden casings, and in April the garden is closed to dry out
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Summer Garden
        © ElenaLitera · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Summer Garden
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Summer Garden
        © Евгений Со · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • The garden was laid out by order of Peter I in 1704, on the site of the manor of the Swedish major von Konow.
        • Most of the marble statues are by Italian masters of the turn of the 17th–18th century; they were bought in Italy by Peter's agents.
        • The sections of the Neva railing were forged in 1773–1777 at the merchant Denisov's Tula works.
        • The storm and flood of 21 September 1777 destroyed the garden's fountains, and it was then decided not to restore them.
        • Rossi's Coffee House (1826) was rebuilt from the “Grotto” pavilion, and Charlemagne's wooden Tea House (1827) is finished to look like stone.
        • The monument to Krylov by Pyotr Klodt was put up in 1855; the pedestal is decorated with scenes from the fables.
        • After restoration the garden had its grand reopening on 27 May 2012.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🖼 Mikhailovsky Castle
        Садовая ул., 2
        🎟 ticket
        Paul I's fortress castle surrounded by rivers and canals, with the high golden spire of its house church.
        Find the Chizhik-Pyzhik statue
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Mikhailovsky Castle
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Mikhailovsky Castle
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The castle was built in 1797–1801: the project was begun by Vasily Bazhenov and completed by Vincenzo Brenna.
        • Paul I lived in the castle for about 40 days: he moved in on 1 (13) February 1801 and was killed here on the night of 12 March.
        • The castle stands on the site of Elizabeth Petrovna's wooden Summer Palace, where Paul himself was born in 1754.
        • The copper letters over the gate — “Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever” — were first made for the Smolny Cathedral, then for St Isaac's.
        • According to legend, the colour of the walls was chosen after the glove of Paul's favourite Anna Lopukhina; restorers found a pinkish-orange paint under the plaster.
        • The castle got its second name, “Engineers' Castle”, from the Main Engineering School that took it over in 1819.
        • In front of the castle stands the monument to Peter I after a model by B. K. Rastrelli, with the inscription “To the great-grandfather from the great-grandson” — Paul put it up in 1800.
        • Since 1994 the whole building has belonged to the Russian Museum.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        ✨ Ciniselli Circus
        наб. Фонтанки, 3
        Russia's first stone circus — book tickets in advance
        A show at the oldest circus
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Ciniselli Circus
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The circus opened on 26 December 1877 and became the first permanent stone circus in the Russian Empire.
        • Its dome, with a span of 49.7 m, was the first in the world built without supporting columns inside the hall.
        • They say Gaetano Ciniselli's pretty daughter helped him get a plot near the imperial residence.
        • The boxes and stalls held 1,500 people, and with the gallery the hall could seat up to 5,000 spectators.
        • In 1919 the circus was nationalised, and the last of the Cinisellis emigrated to Paris.
        • The historic name "Ciniselli Circus" was returned to the building in 2015, for the founder's 200th anniversary.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        ☕️ Pyshechnaya on Bolshaya Konyushennaya
        Б. Конюшенная ул., 25
        ▮▯▯▯▯
        Pyshki after the circus
        🍴 A Leningrad-style doughnut shop with a Soviet interior and an unchanged recipe since 1958, everything served at the counter. What to order: pyshki (Petersburg doughnuts) with powdered sugar, coffee with condensed milk from the urn, tea.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🍽 Goose Goose Restaurant · 🧸 play area
        Б. Конюшенная ул., 27
        ▮▮▮▮▯
        Goose Goose — 80 m from the Pyshechnaya: after the pyshki you can linger in the kids’ room while the adults have coffee. Great after an afternoon circus show.
        🍴 An Italy Group restaurant by Konyushennaya Square with its own children's room and children's menu — a handy stop two steps from the Mikhailovsky Garden. What to order: for a toddler, a soup from the children's menu; for adults, pasta or risotto from the Italian menu.

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