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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      The islands: Kamenny and Yelagin

      ⏱ 5 h🚶 8 km🍽 1📍 5 stops
      🏃 A lot — over 7 km

      Art Nouveau dachas, Yelagin Palace and sunset on the Strelka — a day in nature.

      👶 With kids🏛 History and architecture🌳 Parks and nature
      👶 3–6, 7–12, 13+ years · ✓ stroller-friendly

      The islands have asphalt and packed gravel, with gentle slopes at the bridges. 8 km is a long way. A ramp leads to the entrance of Yelagin Island Palace, but the 2nd–3rd floors and the cloakroom in the basement are stairs only: with a stroller, see the 1st floor.

      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🌳 Kamenny Island
        Art Nouveau dachas and the Kamennoostrovsky Palace
        Wooden dachas and quiet canals
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Kamenny Island
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Kamenny Island
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • From 1920 to 1989 Kamenny was officially called the “Island of the Working People”.
        • According to legend, the island got its name from a huge stone that stuck out of the Neva by its south shore.
        • In 1765 Catherine II gave the island to Tsarevich Paul; the palace for him was built by Yury Felten.
        • In the Church of the Forerunner Kutuzov prayed for victory, and the Pushkins christened their children Natasha and Grisha.
        • The summer Kamennoostrovsky Theatre, designed by S. L. Shustov, was built in just 40 days.
        • Under Nicholas II the industrialist Putilov, the merchant Eliseev and Professor Bekhterev built dachas here.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🖼 Yelagin Palace
        Елагин остров, 1
        🎟 ticket
        Rossi's white-and-yellow Empire palace with a semicircular facade on Yelagin Island.
        The empresses’ summer palace
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Yelagin Palace
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Yelagin Palace
        © Ludvig14 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Yelagin Palace
        © Александровы АГ · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The first house for Ivan Yelagin, in the Palladian style, was built by an unknown architect — Quarenghi is suspected.
        • Alexander I bought the island for his mother Maria Feodorovna and in 1818 commissioned Carlo Rossi to rebuild it.
        • The palace was nicknamed the “palace of doors”: twenty-odd carved and gilded doors, and none repeats.
        • The white stucco in one of the rooms looks so much like porcelain that the room was named the Porcelain Cabinet.
        • In the early 20th century the palace served as a retreat for prime ministers — Witte and Stolypin stayed here.
        • In the war a shell hit a chimney and started a fire; by 1960 the interiors were restored from the surviving fragments.
        • Since 1987 the palace has housed the Museum of Russian Decorative and Applied Art and Interiors.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🌳 Yelagin Island (Central Park of Culture and Rest)
        🎟 partly ticketed · Free entry on weekdays; ticketed on weekends and holidays
        Boats, squirrels, bicycles
        Boats, bikes and squirrels
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Yelagin Island (Central Park of Culture and Rest)
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Yelagin Island (Central Park of Culture and Rest)
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Yelagin Island (Central Park of Culture and Rest)
        © Александр Байдуков · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The island's Finnish name is Mistulansaari, its old Russian one Mishin Island.
        • Peter I gave the island to Shafirov in 1709, and the name stuck to Ivan Yelagin, who owned it from 1777.
        • In 1817 the island was bought for the treasury for 350,000 rubles for the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.
        • The island's nine ponds cover 20 ha — a fifth of its area.
        • From 1700 to 1878 the island was flooded 134 times.
        • The Central Park of Culture and Rest opened in 1932, and was given Kirov's name in 1934.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        ☕️ Ostrov café on Yelagin Island
        ЦПКиО, Елагин остров, 4, лит. Т
        ▮▮▯▯▯
        A snack by Maslyany Meadow
        🍴 The oldest café on Yelagin Island (since 2002), not far from the entrance by the 2nd Yelagin Bridge, with a terrace in summer. What to order: aubergine salad, draniki, chicken shashlik, khachapuri.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🌅 Yelagin Island Spit
        🎟 partly ticketed · On weekdays entry to the island is free, on weekends it is ticketed
        The best sunsets over the gulf
        Sunset over the bay
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Yelagin Island Spit
        © Germash19 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Yelagin Island Spit
        © Purpleabyss · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The terrace on the western cape with a light pink granite parapet was built in the 1920s to a design by L. A. Ilyin.
        • The stone lions on the parapet were moved from the Stroganov dacha.
        • During the Crimean War an artillery battery stood on the spit.
        • The cape is man-made — one of the highest parts of the island, yet it rises only a little over 3 metres above the sea.

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      Data: © OpenStreetMap · DB-IP · weather — Open-Meteo
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