Cats on the cornices, Chizhik-Pyzhik and pyshki

⏱ 1 h 15 min🚶 2.4 km🍽 2📍 4 stops

🐢 A little — under 3 km

A mini-quest for kids: find the bronze cats on the cornices and the tiny Chizhik above the Fontanka, and as a reward — pyshki (doughnuts) with cocoa at the legendary pyshechnaya.

👶 With kids🏛 History and architecture⏱ An hour or so

👶 7–12 years · ✓ stroller-friendly

The whole route is on sidewalks and pedestrian bridges without steps. The Pyshechnaya is cramped and has a step at the entrance — leave the stroller by the door, under supervision.

🗺 Open in Yandex Maps

1
🏛 Cat Yelisei and Cat Vasilisa
Малая Садовая ул., 8 и 3
Two bronze cats on cornices facing each other — a monument to the cats that saved the city from rats after the Siege.
Riddle: “Find two cats at second-floor height.” Elisey is on the cornice of No. 8, Vasilisa is opposite, on No. 3. Whoever spots Vasilisa first gets an extra pyshka.
📖 More about the placeCollapse
- The cats were installed in 2000: the idea was Sergei Lebedev's, the sculptor Vladimir Petrovichev, the architect Larisa Domracheva.
- Malaya Sadovaya became pedestrian in 1999, and a whole series of small sculptures appeared on it afterward.
- Nearby are the little dog Gavryusha in a courtyard (1999) and the photographer with a bulldog (2003).
🚶 on foot
2
🏛 Chizhik-Pyzhik
наб. Фонтанки, у Первого Инженерного моста
A tiny bronze bird on a ledge above the Fontanka: land a coin on the pedestal for good luck.
Riddle: “The city's smallest monument — where is it hiding?” Chizhik sits above the water by the First Engineers' Bridge. Hold the children's hands by the parapet.
📖 More about the placeCollapse
- The Chizhik was installed on 19 November 1994; the idea was proposed by the writer Andrei Bitov and realised by Rezo Gabriadze with the architect Vyacheslav Bukhaev.
- The bird is 11 cm tall and weighs about 5 kg.
- Until 2014 the Chizhik was stolen seven times, but each time it was returned or cast anew.
- Legend says the song about the Chizhik is about students of the neighbouring School of Jurisprudence in their green-and-yellow uniforms, but a parody of it was already known in 1825, before the school opened.
🚶 on foot
3
☕️ Pyshechnaya on Bolshaya Konyushennaya
Б. Конюшенная ул., 25
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Finale and prize: pyshki with powdered sugar, and cocoa. At weekends the queue is 10–15 minutes; after 16:00 it's quieter.
🍴 A Leningrad-style doughnut shop with a Soviet interior and an unchanged recipe since 1958, everything served at the counter. What to order: pyshki (Petersburg doughnuts) with powdered sugar, coffee with condensed milk from the urn, tea.
🚶 on foot
4
🍽 Goose Goose Restaurant · 🧸 play area
Б. Конюшенная ул., 27
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Goose Goose — next door to the Pyshechnaya: after the quest you can have lunch, and the kids' room will keep the little ones busy.
🍴 An Italy Group restaurant by Konyushennaya Square with its own children's room and children's menu — a handy stop two steps from the Mikhailovsky Garden. What to order: for a toddler, a soup from the children's menu; for adults, pasta or risotto from the Italian menu.