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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Vyborg Side: the Cannon-Fence Arsenal and Benois's Church

      ⏱ 1 h 10 min🚶 2.5 km🍽 0📍 3 stops
      🐢 A little — under 3 km

      Industrial Vyborg Side: Kresty, the Arsenal fence made of gun barrels and Nikolay Benois's Romanesque church on the site of a Catholic cemetery.

      🏛 History and architecture🏘 Off the centre⏱ An hour or so
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🏛 Kresty
        Арсенальная наб., 7
        A former red-brick prison of the late 19th century with cross-shaped blocks; closed for reconstruction from autumn 2026. The closure dates are known only from plans for summer 2026 — check before you go.
        From Ploshchad Lenina, 8 minutes along Arsenalnaya Embankment. Look at the red-brick Kresty from outside, from the embankment.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Kresty
        © Александровы АГ · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The prison was built in 1884–1892 to a design by A. O. Tomishko: two five-storey cross-shaped blocks with 960 cells.
        • In 1937–1938 the prisoners here included Nikolai Zabolotsky, Lev Gumilev, Georgy Zhzhyonov and the future marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky.
        • In 1922 the raider Lyonka Panteleev escaped from Kresty, climbing down the wall on ropes made of blankets.
        • On the top floor of one of the blocks was the prison Church of Alexander Nevsky; the crosses were returned to its domes in 2004.
        • In 2017 the detention centre moved to the new Kresty in Kolpino, and in 2025 the KVS group bought the old building for 1.136 billion rubles.
        • Across the Neva opposite are Mikhail Shemyakin's sphinxes (1995) and the monument to Anna Akhmatova (2006), whose husband and son were held in Kresty.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🏛 Arsenal Plant: the Fence of Cannon Barrels
        ул. Комсомола, 1–3
        The red-brick Arsenal of 1844–1849: the gates and fence here are made of gun barrels.
        Further along Komsomola Street: by the park with the Frunze bust, look closely at the fence — its posts are made of cannon barrels.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Arsenal Plant: the Fence of Cannon Barrels
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The plant was built to a single plan, designed by A. P. Gemilian under the direction of A. A. Thon.
        • The site was chosen almost opposite the old Arsenal — equipment was moved by water.
        • A statue of Peter I stood on the gates; now a bust of M. V. Frunze stands in the park.
        • The descent to the Neva in front of the buildings is decorated with cannons.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🏛 Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth
        Минеральная ул., 21
        Nikolai Benois's Romanesque church of 1856–1879 — all that is left of a huge Catholic cemetery.
        15 minutes north along Mineralnaya Street. The church is active: during Mass you can go in quietly.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth
        © Vvk121 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • At first there was a cemetery chapel of 1859 here; in the 1870s Benois added a bell tower with a clock.
        • Adolf Charlemagne painted the interior, and Nikolai Benois himself is buried in the crypt.
        • The Vyborg Catholic Cemetery had about 40,000 burials; it was closed in 1939.
        • The artist Fyodor Bruni and the singer Angiolina Bosio were buried here.

      ↩️ Getting back: To Vyborgskaya — about 15 minutes along Mineralnaya and Lesnoy Prospekt; to Ploshchad Lenina — about 20 minutes.

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