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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      St Isaac’s, the Bronze Horseman and Bolshaya Morskaya

      ⏱ 3 h 30 min🚶 2.5 km🍽 1📍 5 stops
      🐢 A little — under 3 km

      A short walk through the ceremonial centre, with a climb up to the colonnade.

      🏛 History and architecture
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🌳 Alexander Garden
        A garden along the Admiralty with paths, busts of cultural figures and a big fountain in the middle.
        A fountain and a view of the Admiralty spire
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Alexander Garden
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Alexander Garden
        © Bernd Fiedler · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The garden opened in 1874 and was named after Alexander II; it covers 9 hectares.
        • At the opening Alexander II planted a young oak himself opposite the portal of St Isaac's Cathedral — the oak still stands inside the fence.
        • In Soviet times it was the Workers' Garden (named after Gorky from 1936); the historic name was restored in 1997.
        • A bronze camel lies by the 1892 bust of Przhevalsky; because the explorer looked like Stalin, tourists asked: “Why is Stalin with a camel?”
        • The height of the central fountain's jet changes with the music, which is why it is called ‘dancing’.
        • The busts of Gogol and Lermontov by the fountain were put up in 1896, and Glinka's in 1899.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🏛 The Bronze Horseman
        Сенатская пл.
        Falconet's equestrian statue of Peter I on a rock pedestal, facing the Neva.
        The Thunder Stone, weighing 1,600 tonnes
        📖 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.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🏛 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
        262 steps up to the colonnade
        📖 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.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🖼 Nabokov Museum
        Б. Морская ул., 47
        🎟 ticket
        A pink granite mansion with a mosaic frieze; inside are the family's drawing room and library and a butterfly collection.
        Nabokov’s childhood home
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Nabokov Museum
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • Vladimir Nabokov was born in this house in 1899 and lived here until November 1917.
        • The house came to the family in 1897 as the dowry of the writer's mother, Yelena Rukavishnikova.
        • Nabokov called it “the only house in the world” and never bought real estate afterwards, living in hotels all his life.
        • On 8 November 1904 the drawing room hosted a meeting of the zemstvo congress that adopted constitutional demands; later the Cadet party's Central Committee met here.
        • The museum opened in April 1998 for the writer's centenary and belongs to the Philology Faculty of St Petersburg State University.
        • Among Nabokov's personal things in the museum are index cards, pencils, glasses and a Scrabble game.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🍽 Teplo restaurant · 🧸 play area
        Б. Морская ул., 45
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        Lunch in a cosy maze of rooms
        🍴 A living-room restaurant in the House of Composers: several cosy rooms with a homey feel, home cooking and their own baking. What to order: chicken liver salad, draniki with salmon, a curd cheese bake, the “Aunt Tanya” sponge cake.

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