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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Pulkovo and Tsarskoye Selo

      ⏱ 10 h🚶 6 km + 🚕🚆🍽 3📍 9 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      Moskovsky Prospekt, the observatory on its hill and an evening in Catherine Park.

      🏛 History and architecture🌳 Parks and nature🚆 Out of town
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps (with transit)
      1. 1
        ☕️ Sever-Metropol café-confectionery
        Московский пр., 195
        ▮▮▯▯▯
        Breakfast at Sever-Metropol
        🍴 A café-confectionery of the Petersburg Sever chain by Moskovskaya metro: classic cakes and pastries, coffee, breakfasts. What to order: an Esterházy pastry, “Kievsky” cake, a cappuccino or Turkish coffee.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🏛 House of Soviets
        Московский пр., 212
        The city's main monument of Stalinist Empire style
        The House of Soviets
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        House of Soviets
        © Mike1979 Russia · CC BY-SA 4.0
        House of Soviets
        © Mike1979 Russia · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The building was built in 1936–1941 by a team of architects led by Noy Trotsky.
        • The plan was to move the city government here, farther from the Finnish border, but after the war of 1939–1940 the border moved back and the plan was cancelled.
        • In September 1941 a defence strongpoint with an artillery observation post of the Leningrad Front was set up in the building.
        • The central portico of 14 columns is crowned with a sculptural group by N. V. Tomsky and the coat of arms of the RSFSR.
        • On the east facade a half-rotunda of the assembly hall for three thousand people juts out.
        • The monument to Lenin by Mikhail Anikushin was placed in front of the building in 1970, as planned in the 1936 project.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🖼 Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad
        пл. Победы
        🎟 partly ticketed · The monument is free; the underground hall is ticketed
        An underground memorial hall
        The monument
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad
        © SadPetzl · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad
        © Reshinna · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The authors are the architects Valentin Kamensky and Sergey Speransky and the sculptor Mikhail Anikushin, all participants in the defence of Leningrad.
        • The monument was built for the 30th anniversary of Victory partly with public donations — about 2 million rubles were collected.
        • The underground memorial hall opened on 23 February 1978 and is now part of the Museum of the History of the City.
        • The hall is surrounded by a broken ring 40 m across, faced with granite, with the inscription “900 days — 900 nights” on either side of the break.
        • The granite obelisk rises 48 metres.
        • 26 bronze figures of defenders face the Pulkovo Heights, the former front line.
        • Lines by Olga Berggolts were removed from the design for ideological reasons; Yury Voronov's words “O stones! Be steadfast like people!” were cast instead.
      6. 🚕 taxi ≈15 min along Pulkovskoye Shosse
      7. 4
        🖼 Pulkovo Observatory
        Пулковское ш., 65
        🚪 entrance from Pulkovskoye Highway
        🎟 ticket · only on a tour, by appointment
        Tours with telescopes — by appointment
        A tour by appointment
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Pulkovo Observatory
        © Spb.Terminator · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Pulkovo Observatory
        © SadPetzl · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Pulkovo Observatory
        © Spb.Terminator · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The site for the observatory on Pulkovo Hill was chosen by Nicholas I; it was laid down in 1835 and opened on 7 (19) August 1839.
        • The buildings were designed by the architect Alexander Bryullov; the instruments were ordered from Munich and Hamburg.
        • The first director was Vasily Struve (1839–1862), succeeded by his son Otto Struve.
        • At its opening it held the world's largest refractor, by Merz and Mahler, with a 38 cm objective.
        • From 1844 the Pulkovo meridian through the centre of the Main Building served as Russia's zero point for longitude.
        • In the war all the buildings were destroyed, but the lens of the 30-inch refractor was saved; the observatory reopened in May 1954.
        • The asteroid (762) Pulcova, discovered in 1913 at its Simeiz branch, is named after the observatory.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🌅 Pulkovo Heights
        A view of the whole city from the south
        A view of the city
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Pulkovo Heights
        © deepskyobject · CC BY-SA 2.0
        • The heights are the northern edge of the Izhora Upland; about 7,500–5,000 years ago the shore of the Littorina Sea was here.
        • The observatory stands on the highest point, Pulkovo Hill, about 75 m above sea level.
        • On 31 October (13 November) 1917 General Krasnov's troops advancing on Petrograd were defeated here.
        • On 13–23 September 1941 the Germans stormed the heights without success; until January 1944 the front line ran at their foot.
        • The "Pulkovo Frontier" memorial was erected in 1967 at the 20th kilometre of the Kiev Highway.
      10. 🚕 taxi ≈15 min
      11. 6
        🖼 Catherine Palace (Amber Room)
        Садовая ул., 7, Пушкин
        🎟 ticket
        Better to book tickets online in advance
        The Amber Room
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Catherine Palace (Amber Room)
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Catherine Palace (Amber Room)
        © Matthias Süßen · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The palace was founded in 1717 for Catherine I — at first it was a two-storey house “of 16 chambers” designed by Braunstein.
        • Rastrelli gave it its present look in 1752–1756; the palace is 325 m long.
        • More than 100 kg of gold went into gilding the facade and the statues on the roof.
        • Catherine II called the palace an old-fashioned “whipped cream” and stopped the overly expensive gilding of the statues in the park.
        • The Amber Cabinet was given to Peter I by the Prussian king Frederick William I in 1716; it was moved to Tsarskoye Selo in 1755.
        • In the war the Amber Room's decor was taken to Königsberg and its fate is unknown; the recreated room opened in 2003.
        • Cameron's Lyons Hall, closed on 22 June 1941, was reopened to visitors in 2019.
      12. 🚶 on foot
      13. 7
        🍽 Admiralty restaurant
        Екатерининский парк, павильон «Адмиралтейство», Пушкин
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        Lunch
        🍴 A Gutsait Group restaurant in the brick Admiralty pavilion on the shore of the Great Pond: Russian and European cuisine, a grill and a summer veranda. What to order: Finnish-style fish soup, draniki, lamb cutlets with cherry sauce, lamb shank.
      14. 🚶 on foot
      15. 8
        🌳 Catherine Park
        Пушкин
        🎟 ticket · In the cold season entry to the park is usually free
        A huge park by the Catherine Palace with a formal section, ponds, pavilions and bridges.
        A walk
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Catherine Park
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Catherine Park
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Catherine Park
        © Raita Futo from Tokyo, Japan · CC BY 2.0
        • Under the Swedes this was the Saari manor; in 1710 Peter gave it to Marta Skavronskaya — the future Catherine I.
        • The park is divided into the formal Old Garden and the landscape English Park.
        • The architect Charles Cameron finished the Cameron Gallery for Catherine II's walks in March 1787.
        • In the Agate Rooms of the Cold Bath Catherine II sorted through documents and wrote letters in the mornings.
        • The Hermitage pavilion (1744–1754) stands on an artificial island surrounded by water.
        • The Chesme Column in the middle of the Great Pond was erected in 1771–1776 to a design by Antonio Rinaldi in honour of the Chesme victory.
        • The town of Pushkin was occupied on 18 September 1941, and the park reopened to visitors as early as summer 1945.
      16. 🚆 20 min to Tsarskoye Selo station, a train to Vitebsk Station at ≈17:05, 17:32, 18:05, 18:30, 19:01 (≈35 min), then 20 min on foot to the Fontanka
      17. 9
        🍽 Erivan
        наб. реки Фонтанки, 51–53
        ▮▮▮▮▯
        Dinner: Armenian cuisine on the Fontanka (train timetable for October 2026)
        🍴 An Armenian restaurant on the Fontanka with a national interior and live music, a five-minute walk from the Alexandrinsky Theatre and Zodchego Rossi Street. What to order: charcoal-grilled lyulya kebab, kufta, shashlik, pomegranate wine.

      ↩️ Getting back: The route ends in central Petersburg: from Erivan ≈10 min on foot to Gostiny Dvor or Vladimirskaya metro

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