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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Palace and English Embankments in lights

      ⏱ 3 h 30 min🚶 4 km🍽 1📍 9 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      An evening along the Neva: the lit Winter Palace, Admiralty and Bronze Horseman, dinner near Palace Square and a finale on Blagoveshchensky Bridge with a view of the Strelka.

      🌙 Evening🏛 History and architecture
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🌳 Field of Mars
        A huge field-square with lawns and lilacs, with a granite memorial to the Victims of the Revolution in the centre.
        Set out for sunset (in October around 17:30–18:00, earlier in November): the Eternal Flame burns on the Field of Mars, and the Neva is five minutes away.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Field of Mars
        © Godot13 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Field of Mars
        © Комова Анастасия · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Field of Mars
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The square covers about 9 hectares — the second largest in the city after Moskovskaya Square.
        • Under Peter I parades were held here and “amusement fireworks” were set off; the meadow was called the Great one, under Elizabeth the Tsaritsyn, and the Field of Mars from 1805.
        • The monument to the Fighters of the Revolution, designed by Lev Rudnev, was unveiled on 7 November 1919; the inscriptions on the slabs were written by Lunacharsky.
        • On 6 November 1957 the USSR's first eternal flame was lit here — the torch was brought from an open-hearth furnace of the Kirov Plant.
        • In 1967 the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow was lit from the fire on the Field of Mars.
        • In the summer of 1942, during the siege, the whole field was given over to vegetable gardens.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🚶 Palace Embankment
        A granite embankment along the Neva from the Summer Garden to the Hermitage, with views of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Spit.
        Walk on the river side: when it gets dark, the walls and spire of Peter and Paul Fortress light up opposite, and behind you are the lamps of Troitsky Bridge.
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        Palace Embankment
        © Vyacheslav Bukharov · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The embankment is 1.3 km long; it is named after the Winter and Marble palaces.
        • From 1923 to 1944 it was called Ninth of January Embankment, in memory of the shooting of the 1905 demonstration.
        • The wooden bank was faced with granite by a decree of 1762; the work under Yury Felten went on until 1780.
        • The fabulist Ivan Krylov lived at No. 2, Betskoy's house.
        • Prime Minister Sergey Witte, the painter Konstantin Makovsky and the historian Yevgeny Tarle lived at No. 30.
        • In 1832 the 600-tonne monolith of the Alexander Column was unloaded at this embankment, brought on the special boat ‘St Nicholas’.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🌅 Winter Canal
        A short canal between the Moika and the Neva with an arched passage between Hermitage buildings over the water.
        Climb the little bridge over the canal: the arch between the Hermitage and the theater in lights is the most theatrical view of the evening.
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        Winter Canal
        © Александр Байдуков · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Winter Canal
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The canal was dug in 1718–1719 under the contractor Vasily Ozerov.
        • The Winter Canal is only 228 m long and about 20 m wide; it is one of the shortest canals in the city.
        • The embankments were clad in granite in 1782–1784, and the railings were made to a design by Ivan Dunker.
        • According to legend, Catherine II held a feast in the gallery above the arch to prove it was sturdy; historians consider this an anecdote.
        • In Tchaikovsky's opera The Queen of Spades, Liza throws herself into the Winter Canal.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🏛 Palace Square
        The city's main square between the Winter Palace and the arc of the General Staff Building with the Triumphal Arch.
        Come out onto the square via Millionnaya past the atlantes: the Winter Palace, the column and the General Staff arch are lit, and after 21:00 it is almost empty here.
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        Palace Square
        © Mikhey77777 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • From 1918 to 1944 the square was called Uritsky Square, after the head of the Petrograd Cheka, killed by the General Staff Building.
        • On 16 June 1766 Catherine II held a Carousel here — an equestrian festival-tournament with Rinaldi's wooden amphitheater seating several thousand.
        • The granite monolith of the Alexander Column is not fixed in any way and stays on its pedestal under its own weight alone.
        • In 1924 it was decided to replace the angel on the column with a figure of Lenin, but after a year of discussion the project was dropped.
        • The east side of the square is closed off by the Guards Corps headquarters, built by Alexander Bryullov in 1837–1843.
        • In 1932 the square's cobblestones were paved over with asphalt, and the diabase-cobble paving was restored only in 1977.
        • In autumn 1941 they seriously discussed making an airfield for fighters on the square by moving the column, but dropped the idea.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🍽 Gogol
        Малая Морская ул., 8
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        Dinner five minutes from the square. The kitchen is open until 22:30; better to book on weekend evenings.
        🍴 A Russian-cuisine restaurant set in a 19th-century noble apartment, between St Isaac's Cathedral and Nevsky. What to order: borscht with salo and pampushki, chicken Kiev, pirozhki, olivier salad, homemade tinctures.
      10. 🚶 on foot
      11. 6
        🏛 Admiralty
        Адмиралтейский пр., 1
        🆓 free entry · no entry inside — you look from outside and from the Alexander Garden
        The main building of the Admiralty side, with its spire and little ship — Nevsky, Gorokhovaya and Voznesensky all converge on it.
        After dinner — to the Admiralty: the golden spire lit, with the best angle from the avenue of Alexander Garden.
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        Admiralty
        © Florstein (Telegram:WikiPhoto.Space) · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Admiralty
        © Florstein (Telegram:WikiPhoto.Space) · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The present building was built by Andreyan Zakharov in 1806–1823 on the site of Peter I's shipyard, founded in 1704.
        • The spire rises 72 metres — it can be seen from Nevsky, Gorokhovaya and Voznesensky Prospekt.
        • During the Siege the spire was covered with a burlap sheath so that it would not serve as a landmark for enemy artillery.
        • The building now houses the High Command of the Navy.
      12. 🚶 on foot
      13. 7
        🏛 The Bronze Horseman
        Сенатская пл.
        Falconet's equestrian statue of Peter I on a rock pedestal, facing the Neva.
        The monument is lit from below; walk around it from the Neva side so that Peter stands against the dark river.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        The Bronze Horseman
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        The Bronze Horseman
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The monument was unveiled on 7 (18) August 1782, on the centenary of Peter I's accession to the throne.
        • The statue is cast in bronze; it was Pushkin's poem that made it ‘copper’.
        • Falconet couldn't get Peter's head right, and it was modelled by his pupil Marie-Anne Collot.
        • The snake under the hooves was added as a third point of support for stability; it was modelled by Fyodor Gordeyev.
        • The pedestal is the “Thunder Stone”, a boulder from near Konnaya Lakhta, delivered to the square in 1770.
        • The inscription “To Peter the First from Catherine the Second” was devised by the empress, who struck the word “erected” from Falconet's version.
        • According to legend, during the casting in 1775 the pipe with bronze burst, and the master Yemelyan Khailov saved the lower part of the statue.
      14. 🚶 on foot
      15. 8
        🚶 English Embankment (Angliyskaya Naberezhnaya)
        The Neva embankment from Senate Square to New Holland: mansions, palaces and a view across the river to the University.
        Walk along the water: on the far bank glow the Kunstkamera, Menshikov Palace and the Academy of Arts.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        English Embankment (Angliyskaya Naberezhnaya)
        © Regina Ivanova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • It is named after the English merchants who settled here from the 18th century; an Anglican church stood nearby.
        • From 1918 to 1994 the embankment was called Krasnogo Flota (Red Fleet).
        • No. 44 is the Rumyantsev mansion, a branch of the Museum of the History of St Petersburg.
      16. 🚶 on foot
      17. 9
        🌅 Annunciation Bridge (Blagoveshchensky Bridge)
        The first permanent bridge across the Neva (1850), with lamps on cast-iron railings and a view of the Spit and St Isaac's.
        The finale in the middle of the bridge: the Strelka, the dome of St Isaac's and the Admiralty spire all at once. Until 30 November the bridge opens around 1:25 — that's late, no need to wait.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Annunciation Bridge (Blagoveshchensky Bridge)
        © Sergpavl · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Annunciation Bridge (Blagoveshchensky Bridge)
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The bridge opened in 1850 — before that, in summer, the Neva could only be crossed by pontoon bridges.
        • At its opening it was the longest bridge in Europe — about 300 metres.
        • From 1855 it was called Nikolaevsky, from 1918 Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge; its historic name was restored in 2007.
        • After the 2007 reconstruction, the cast-iron railings with sea horses and tridents, from Bryullov's design, were restored.

      ↩️ Getting back: from Blagoveshchensky Bridge to Admiralteyskaya metro ≈20 min on foot along Konnogvardeysky Boulevard and Malaya Morskaya, or by bus from Truda Square

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