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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      The Moika and Fontanka in lights

      ⏱ 3 h 30 min🚶 4.3 km🍽 1📍 7 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      From the lit St Isaac's along the Moika past Pushkin's house to the Summer Garden and down the Fontanka — with dinner on the embankment and a finale at Klodt's horses.

      🌙 Evening🏛 History and architecture
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🏛 St Isaac's Cathedral and its colonnade
        Исаакиевская пл., 4
        🎟 ticket · The cathedral and the climb to the colonnade need separate tickets
        In summer the colonnade is also open at night
        Start at dark by the lit cathedral, then across the Blue Bridge to the Moika embankment.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        St Isaac's Cathedral and its colonnade
        © A.Savin · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • The cathedral is consecrated in the name of St Isaac of Dalmatia because Peter I was born on his feast day, 30 May.
        • According to legend, Montferrand was told he would die right after finishing the cathedral, so the construction dragged on for 40 years, from 1818 to 1858.
        • Each 17-metre, 114-tonne column was raised into place in 40–45 minutes.
        • During the fire-gilding of the dome in 1838–1841, 60 craftsmen died of mercury vapour poisoning.
        • From 1931 to 1986 a Foucault pendulum on a 98-metre cable swung in the cathedral, showing the rotation of the Earth.
        • The cathedral's dome was the third in the world built on a metal frame.
        • The white marble iconostasis is decorated with malachite and Badakhshan lapis lazuli.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🏛 Pevchesky Bridge
        A wide bridge over the Moika by Palace Square — one of the widest in the city, opposite the Court Capella.
        Along the Moika past Pushkin's house: from Pevchesky Bridge, in line with the General Staff arch, you can see the lit Palace Square.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Pevchesky Bridge
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • Pevchesky is the fourth widest bridge in St Petersburg, after the Blue, Apothecary and Kazan bridges.
        • The first, wooden bridge was built in 1834 to a design by Montferrand — for troops to pass to the parade at the opening of the Alexander Column.
        • The bridge got its name in 1840 because it leads up to the gates of the Court Capella (the Singers' Chapel).
        • Abroad, "Pevchesky Bridge" was a figurative name for the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Empire, which from 1828 stood nearby.
        • According to legend, Nicholas I ordered the bridge built after Count Golovkin, hurrying to dine with him, stepped past the ferry boat straight into the Moika.
        • At the opening of the cast-iron bridge in December 1840, Nicholas I was the first to cross it, in a carriage.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🏛 Konyushennaya Square
        A square by the Court Stables Department — a long yellow Empire-style building with a church in the center.
        The square is quiet in the evening; then along the Moika past the Field of Mars to the Summer Garden.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Konyushennaya Square
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The square got its name in 1739, after the Imperial Stables Yard.
        • On 1 February 1837 Pushkin's funeral service was held in the Konyushennaya Church, from where the coffin was taken to the Svyatogorsk Monastery.
        • The Stables Department building was rebuilt by Vasily Stasov in 1817–1823, turning its main facade toward the square.
        • In 1812 Barclay de Tolly set off for the active army from the square, where court carriages gathered.
        • In 1883 the chapel from the site of the assassination attempt on Alexander II was moved here, when the Savior on Blood began to be built there.
        • In the 2010s the stables building was to be turned into an apart-hotel, but after protests by preservationists it was given to the Museum of the History of St Petersburg.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🏛 Chizhik-Pyzhik
        наб. Фонтанки, у Первого Инженерного моста
        A tiny bronze bird on a ledge above the Fontanka: land a coin on the pedestal for good luck.
        At the First Engineers' Bridge is the Chizhik-Pyzhik: try to land a coin on the ledge below it; a lamp shines right on the little bird.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        • The Chizhik was installed on 19 November 1994; the idea was proposed by the writer Andrei Bitov and realised by Rezo Gabriadze with the architect Vyacheslav Bukhaev.
        • The bird is 11 cm tall and weighs about 5 kg.
        • Until 2014 the Chizhik was stolen seven times, but each time it was returned or cast anew.
        • Legend says the song about the Chizhik is about students of the neighbouring School of Jurisprudence in their green-and-yellow uniforms, but a parody of it was already known in 1825, before the school opened.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🖼 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.
        The museum is already closed, but the red castle is lit — look at it from the Fontanka embankment.
        📖 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.
      10. 🚶 on foot
      11. 6
        🍽 Salone pasta&bar
        наб. реки Фонтанки, 30
        ▮▮▮▮▯
        Dinner by Belinsky Bridge: pasta until midnight, until 2:00 on Friday and Saturday.
        🍴 An Italian restaurant by Belinsky Bridge: home-made pasta, crudo and risotto, with carbonara finished right in a wheel of Parmesan. What to order: carbonara, tortelli with prosciutto and truffle, beef tartare.
      12. 🚶 on foot
      13. 7
        🏛 Anichkov Bridge (Klodt's horses)
        A bridge over the Fontanka on Nevsky with four bronze sculptures of a man taming a horse at its corners.
        The finale at Klodt's horses under the lamps; from the bridge you can see how the lights of Nevsky run toward the Admiralty.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Anichkov Bridge (Klodt's horses)
        © Ninara from Helsinki, Finland · CC BY 2.0
        • The bridge is named after the settlement of Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Anichkov's battalion — he also built the first, wooden bridge here in 1716.
        • The current bridge was built in record time in 1841: the first stone was laid on 22 May and traffic opened on 20 November.
        • The cast-iron railing copies that of Schinkel's Palace Bridge in Berlin — Nicholas I liked its pattern.
        • Nicholas I gave the first pair of Klodt's bronze horses to the King of the Two Sicilies, and in 1846 they were sent to Naples.
        • While plaster copies stood on the bridge, Petersburgers joked that the horses would never come back; the bridge was fully completed in 1851.
        • In October 1941 the sculptures were taken down and buried in the garden of the Anichkov Palace to save them from the bombing.
        • The pedestal of the north-west group kept the marks of a shell, with a plaque about the 148,478 shells fired at Leningrad.

      ↩️ Getting back: from Anichkov Bridge to Gostiny Dvor metro ≈7 min or to Mayakovskaya ≈10 min on foot along Nevsky

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