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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      The metro as a museum: from Avtovo to Nevsky

      ⏱ 3 h🚶 1.5 km + 🚇🍽 2📍 7 stops
      🐢 A little — under 3 km

      Underground palaces of the 1950s — the perfect route for a rainy day.

      👶 With kids🏛 History and architecture☔️ If it rains
      👶 7–12, 13+ years · ✗ hard with a stroller

      The whole route is metro stations without lifts, only escalators and stairs (Avtovo, Kirovsky Zavod, Narvskaya, Ploshchad Vosstaniya).

      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps (with transit)
      1. 1
        🏛 Avtovo station
        Glass-clad columns and chandeliers — an underground “palace”
        Glass columns and mosaics
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Avtovo station
        © SmallSonMarex · CC0
        Avtovo station
        © Spb.Terminator · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The station opened on 15 November 1955 — the first Leningrad metro train came here.
        • It is the only shallow-level station on the first line: it is 12 m deep and has a staircase instead of escalators.
        • Of the 46 columns, 16 are clad in cast glass with relief — glass was used in the metro for the first time then.
        • The inscription on the pavilion dome first read “Glory to Great Stalin”; now it is about the defenders of Leningrad.
        • In 2014 The Guardian included Avtovo in its list of the 12 most beautiful metro stations in the world.
      2. 🚇 from Avtovo to Kirovsky Zavod (red line), 1 stop
      3. 2
        🏛 Kirovsky Zavod station
        A station of 1955 with marble columns in the Stalinist style and bas-reliefs about industry.
        Industrial Empire style
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Kirovsky Zavod station
        © ButanAnim · CC BY 4.0
        Kirovsky Zavod station
        © ButanAnim · CC BY 4.0
        • The pavilion by architect A. K. Andreev resembles a Greek temple: it is surrounded by 44 Doric columns.
        • The station is 44 m deep; here the columns were assembled from cast-iron tubing segments for the first time, instead of steel.
        • The hall is faced with smoky grey Caucasian marble ‘Svanetia’, and the columns are crowned with aluminium cartouches with industrial emblems.
        • Andreev wanted to place a monument to Kirov at the end of the hall, but from the opening a bust of Lenin stood there — in 2025 it was moved to a niche in the pavilion.
        • On 26 December 2025 the station became the first interchange outside the centre, after the neighbouring Putilovskaya opened.
      4. 🚇 from Kirovsky Zavod to Narvskaya (red line), 1 stop
      5. 3
        🏛 Narvskaya station
        A showpiece station of the metro's first line, opened in 1955, with a tall hall and massive marble piers.
        Bas-reliefs of working trades
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Narvskaya station
        © Ninara from Helsinki, Finland · CC BY 2.0
        Narvskaya station
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The station opened on 15 November 1955 as part of the first metro section; it is about 52 m deep.
        • The legend that the station was to be called “Stalinskaya” is a myth: “Ploshchad Stachek” and “Narvskiye Vorota” were discussed.
        • At the end of the hall hung the mosaic panel “Stalin on the Rostrum” by Alexander Gerasimov; in 1961 it was covered with a false marble wall.
        • Among the authors of the high reliefs on the piers is Mikhail Anikushin, who modelled the “Collective Farmers”.
        • Stalin was originally to stand in the centre of the “Glory to Labour!” panel above the escalator.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🏛 Narva Triumphal Gate
        пл. Стачек
        A triumphal arch commemorating the war of 1812, with a chariot of Glory and figures of warriors on the roof.
        Step outside to look at the gate
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Narva Triumphal Gate
        © Kora27 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The first gate was built in a month in 1814 of wood and alabaster to a design by Quarenghi, to welcome the troops returning from Europe.
        • Stasov's stone gate was founded on 26 August 1827, the anniversary of Borodino, and opened on 17 August 1834.
        • The brick frame is clad in copper sheets; the six horses were modelled by Pyotr Klodt — his first serious work.
        • The gate is over 30 m high and 28 m wide.
        • In 1877–1880 the copper was replaced with iron, and the corrosion only got worse.
        • On 28 February 1917 the gate was set on fire — the city duma archive stored inside burned.
        • In the war the gate received more than two thousand holes and was fully restored in 1949–1951.
      8. 🚇 from Narvskaya to Ploshchad Vosstaniya (red line), 5 stops, ≈12 min
      9. 5
        🏛 Ploshchad Vosstaniya station
        A station from the metro's first line, opened in 1955: marble piers and bas-reliefs about the 1917 revolution.
        Mosaics and medallions
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Ploshchad Vosstaniya station
        © Michel Chauvet · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The station opened on 15 November 1955 as part of the metro's first section, Avtovo to Ploshchad Vosstaniya.
        • The above-ground rotunda vestibule stands on the site of the demolished Znamenskaya Church.
        • The station lies about 58 metres deep, and the 848 m stretch to Vladimirskaya is the shortest in the Petersburg metro.
        • The bas-relief “Lenin Speaking at the Tauride Palace” still shows an image of Stalin.
        • The vestibule's spire was first crowned with a star in a laurel wreath, then replaced with the letter ‘M’, which later disappeared.
      10. 🚶 on foot
      11. 6
        🍽 Restaurant "Mama na Dache" on Nevsky · 🧸 play area
        Невский пр., 88
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        From Ploshchad Vosstaniya, 7 minutes along Nevsky to Mama na Dache (Nevsky, 88): a kids’ room, and you can have lunch before the final stop — Eliseyevsky.
        🍴 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.
      12. 🚶 on foot
      13. 7
        ☕️ Eliseevsky Store
        Невский пр., 56
        ▮▮▯▯▯
        Tea at the finish — on foot along Nevsky
        🍴 A food hall in an Art Nouveau building from 1903 (now the Eliseev Merchants' Store) with a café by the display counters, a restaurant on the 2nd floor and “Warehouse No. 5” in the former wine cellar. What to order: cakes from their own pastry shop, tea, shchi in a bread loaf, chocolate as a gift.

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