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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Atlantes, Winter Canal and Millionnaya

      ⏱ 3 h🚶 2.5 km🍽 1📍 6 stops
      🐢 A little — under 3 km

      The city’s most aristocratic street and the place where Liza threw herself into the canal.

      🏛 History and architecture
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🏛 Atlantes of the New Hermitage
        Миллионная ул., 35
        Ten granite figures holding up the museum's portico, each about five metres tall.
        Rub an Atlantes’ toes for luck
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Atlantes of the New Hermitage
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The atlantes were carved in 1846 from grey Serdobol granite by the sculptor Alexander Terebenev and 150 stonecutters.
        • The model for the figures was made by the Munich sculptor Johann von Halbig, based on the atlantes of the Temple of Zeus at Akragas in Sicily.
        • A curiosity: these mighty figures strain enormously to hold up only a light balcony.
        • The atlantes guard the entrance to the New Hermitage — Russia's first building constructed specially for a public museum (1842–1851).
        • Nicholas I commissioned the New Hermitage from the Munich architect Leo von Klenze after a trip to Munich in 1837.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🌅 Winter Canal
        A short canal between the Moika and the Neva with an arched passage between Hermitage buildings over the water.
        The arch over the canal — a scene from The Queen of Spades
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        Winter Canal
        © Александр Байдуков · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Winter Canal
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The canal was dug in 1718–1719 under the contractor Vasily Ozerov.
        • The Winter Canal is only 228 m long and about 20 m wide; it is one of the shortest canals in the city.
        • The embankments were clad in granite in 1782–1784, and the railings were made to a design by Ivan Dunker.
        • According to legend, Catherine II held a feast in the gallery above the arch to prove it was sturdy; historians consider this an anecdote.
        • In Tchaikovsky's opera The Queen of Spades, Liza throws herself into the Winter Canal.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🚶 Millionnaya Street
        An old street parallel to the Palace Embankment with palaces, mansions and a portico with atlantes.
        Palaces and mansions
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        Millionnaya Street
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Millionnaya Street
        © Pavlikhin · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • It is one of the oldest streets in the city: a decree of 16 November 1715 called it Bolshaya, and the first maps called it Pochtovaya.
        • The name comes from Count Pyotr Sheremetev's lavish "Millionny House" (no. 19); until 1874 it was spelled with a single "l".
        • Under Catherine II, races of trotters harnessed to carriages with court ladies and gentlemen were held on the street.
        • From 1918 to 1991 the street bore the name of the People's Will member Stepan Khalturin, who set off the explosion in the Winter Palace.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🖼 Marble Palace
        Миллионная ул., 5/1
        🎟 ticket · a branch of the Russian Museum
        Rinaldi's palace, faced with marble and granite in dozens of shades, with the Marble Hall and Russian Museum exhibitions.
        The marble facade
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        Marble Palace
        © Vyacheslav Bukharov · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The palace was built in 1768–1785 for Grigory Orlov, but Catherine II's favourite died in 1783 before it was finished.
        • It was the first building in Petersburg with natural stone façades — hence its first name, the "Marble House".
        • The pilasters are made of pinkish Tivdia marble from Karelia, with bluish-grey Ruskeala marble between them.
        • Until the end of the 19th century Quarenghi, rather than Rinaldi, was mistakenly thought to be its architect.
        • The last king of Poland, Stanisław Poniatowski, lived and died here in 1797–1798.
        • The ceiling painting of the Marble Hall, "The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche", was painted by Stefano Torelli in 1775.
        • From 1940 to 1992 an Austin-Putilovets armoured car stood in front of the palace — it was a branch of the Lenin Museum.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🌳 Field of Mars
        A huge field-square with lawns and lilacs, with a granite memorial to the Victims of the Revolution in the centre.
        Lilacs in May
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        Field of Mars
        © Godot13 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Field of Mars
        © Комова Анастасия · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Field of Mars
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The square covers about 9 hectares — the second largest in the city after Moskovskaya Square.
        • Under Peter I parades were held here and “amusement fireworks” were set off; the meadow was called the Great one, under Elizabeth the Tsaritsyn, and the Field of Mars from 1805.
        • The monument to the Fighters of the Revolution, designed by Lev Rudnev, was unveiled on 7 November 1919; the inscriptions on the slabs were written by Lunacharsky.
        • On 6 November 1957 the USSR's first eternal flame was lit here — the torch was brought from an open-hearth furnace of the Kirov Plant.
        • In 1967 the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow was lit from the fire on the Field of Mars.
        • In the summer of 1942, during the siege, the whole field was given over to vegetable gardens.
      10. 🚶 on foot
      11. 6
        ☕️ Stolle on Nevsky
        Невский пр., 11
        ▮▮▯▯▯
        Pies at the finish
        🍴 A pie shop of the St Petersburg chain Stolle at the start of Nevsky: open and closed pies by weight, soup and hot dishes at the counter. What to order: a cabbage pie, a lingonberry or blueberry pie, borscht, homemade pelmeni (dumplings).

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