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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Demmeni marionettes and Fabergé eggs

      ⏱ 3 h 30 min🚶 1.6 km🍽 1📍 5 stops
      🐢 A little — under 3 km

      A morning show at the country's oldest puppet theater, a square with Catherine, Klodt's horses and Fabergé's treasures — all within fifteen minutes' walk along Nevsky.

      👶 With kids🎨 Art☔️ If it rains
      👶 3–6, 7–12 years · ✓ stroller-friendly

      The whole way is along the pavements of Nevsky and the Fontanka embankment. At the theater and the Fabergé Museum strollers are left in the cloakroom; for the theater hall it's better to carry your child or wait until age 4.

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      1. 1
        ✨ Demmeni Marionette Theatre
        Невский пр., 52
        🎟 ticket · for shows and tours
        The oldest professional puppet theatre in Russia, right on Nevsky by Gostiny Dvor: daytime marionette shows for children aged 4 and up, and backstage theatre tours.
        Matinees are at 11:00 and 14:00; for little ones choose the “from 4 years” mark, for the rest the family 6+ shows will do. Tickets are on the theater's website, seating is sometimes open: arrive 20 minutes early to sit closer.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Demmeni Marionette Theatre
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The theatre was founded in 1918 and is considered the first professional puppet theatre in Russia.
        • It is named after Evgenia Demmeni — a director and artist who led the theatre for many years and staged marionette shows.
        • Marionettes are string puppets: the performer controls them from above with a vaga — a wooden cross-piece.
        • Besides shows, the theatre runs a children's tour, “A Journey to the Magical Land of Puppets”.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🌳 Catherine Garden
        Санкт-Петербург, пл. Островского
        A garden on Nevsky with a monument to Catherine II, at whose foot stand figures of her associates.
        Across the road from the theater. Let the kids find Suvorov, Derzhavin and Princess Dashkova under Catherine — there are about nine figures, and they will surely miss someone.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Catherine Garden
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Catherine Garden
        © Игорь Гордеев · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Catherine Garden
        © Александровы АГ · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The garden in front of the theatre was laid out in summer 1832 by the master gardener Yakov Fyodorov.
        • The monument to Catherine II, designed by Mikhail Mikeshin, was unveiled in 1873.
        • The statue of the empress was sculpted by Matvey Chizhov, the figures of her associates by Alexander Opekushin.
        • Nine figures stand around the pedestal, among them Potemkin, Suvorov, Rumyantsev, Derzhavin and Dashkova.
        • In the early 1930s there were plans to replace Catherine with a statue of Lenin, but the monument survived.
        • The bronze Suvorov's sword was stolen and has been recreated twice.
        • Locals call the garden "Katkin sadik" (Katka's little garden).
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🏛 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.
        Four sculptures — four moments of taming a horse: walk around the bridge in a circle and put the story together in order. On the pedestal at the west bank are shell marks from the Siege.
        📖 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.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🖼 Fabergé Museum (Shuvalov Palace)
        наб. Фонтанки, 21
        🎟 ticket
        A mansion on the Fontanka with restored halls displaying Easter eggs, jewellery and silver.
        Entrance from Fontanka Embankment 21. For kids the main thing is nine imperial Easter eggs in the Blue Drawing Room, especially the “Coronation” egg with a tiny carriage inside. An hour is enough; fewer people on weekday mornings.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Fabergé Museum (Shuvalov Palace)
        © Ninara from Helsinki, Finland · CC BY 2.0
        Fabergé Museum (Shuvalov Palace)
        © Ninara from Helsinki, Finland · CC BY 2.0
        Fabergé Museum (Shuvalov Palace)
        © Guy Fawkes · CC BY-SA 2.0
        • The museum is built on Malcolm Forbes's collection: in 2004 Viktor Vekselberg bought it as a single lot just before the auction.
        • The museum opened on 19 November 2013 and became Russia's first private museum of national scale.
        • The palace restoration took seven years and cost roughly 1.2 billion rubles, with no state money.
        • The collection has over 4,000 items, including works by Fabergé's rivals Sazikov, Ovchinnikov and Khlebnikov.
        • In 1928 the building, then the House of the Press, hosted the famous OBERIU evening “Three Left Hours”.
        • During the First World War the palace's last owner, Countess Betsy Shuvalova, set up a field hospital here.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🍽 Restaurant "Mama na Dache" on Nevsky · 🧸 play area
        Невский пр., 88
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        Lunch five minutes along Nevsky: a free kids' room, porridge, cutlets with purée and syrniki (cheese pancakes). On weekend afternoons it's better to book a table.
        🍴 A cosy "country house" restaurant with a children's room and children's menu; on Sundays there are free cooking workshops with a nanny and an entertainer. What to order: for a toddler, semolina porridge or a meat patty with mash; for adults, draniki (potato pancakes) with sour cream and fried potatoes with mushrooms.

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