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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Atlantes and Millionnaya: the long walk

      ⏱ 6 h 30 min🚶 4.5 km🍽 2📍 10 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      From the Hermitage atlantes along Millionnaya to the Field of Mars, through the Summer Garden and Mikhailovsky Castle — to pies and dinner by Nevsky.

      🏛 History and architecture🎨 Art
      🗺 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”
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        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
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        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.
        A marble facade
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        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
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        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
        🌳 Summer Garden
        🚪 entrance on the Moika side, by the Carp Pond
        🎟 partly ticketed · The garden is free; the Summer Palace is ticketed
        Peter I's garden with marble statues, fountains, the Summer Palace and the famous railing on the Neva side.
        Walk the main avenue to the railing on the Neva side and back along the Swan Canal; the garden is open 10 to 22, closed on Tuesdays.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Summer Garden
        © ElenaLitera · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Summer Garden
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Summer Garden
        © Евгений Со · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • The garden was laid out by order of Peter I in 1704, on the site of the manor of the Swedish major von Konow.
        • Most of the marble statues are by Italian masters of the turn of the 17th–18th century; they were bought in Italy by Peter's agents.
        • The sections of the Neva railing were forged in 1773–1777 at the merchant Denisov's Tula works.
        • The storm and flood of 21 September 1777 destroyed the garden's fountains, and it was then decided not to restore them.
        • Rossi's Coffee House (1826) was rebuilt from the “Grotto” pavilion, and Charlemagne's wooden Tea House (1827) is finished to look like stone.
        • The monument to Krylov by Pyotr Klodt was put up in 1855; the pedestal is decorated with scenes from the fables.
        • After restoration the garden had its grand reopening on 27 May 2012.
      12. 🚶 on foot
      13. 7
        🖼 Mikhailovsky Castle
        Садовая ул., 2
        🎟 ticket
        Paul I's fortress castle surrounded by rivers and canals, with the high golden spire of its house church.
        The castle where Paul I was killed: the state rooms hold a Russian Museum exhibition — don't miss the restored throne room and the oval courtyard; closed on Tuesday.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Mikhailovsky Castle
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Mikhailovsky Castle
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The castle was built in 1797–1801: the project was begun by Vasily Bazhenov and completed by Vincenzo Brenna.
        • Paul I lived in the castle for about 40 days: he moved in on 1 (13) February 1801 and was killed here on the night of 12 March.
        • The castle stands on the site of Elizabeth Petrovna's wooden Summer Palace, where Paul himself was born in 1754.
        • The copper letters over the gate — “Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever” — were first made for the Smolny Cathedral, then for St Isaac's.
        • According to legend, the colour of the walls was chosen after the glove of Paul's favourite Anna Lopukhina; restorers found a pinkish-orange paint under the plaster.
        • The castle got its second name, “Engineers' Castle”, from the Main Engineering School that took it over in 1819.
        • In front of the castle stands the monument to Peter I after a model by B. K. Rastrelli, with the inscription “To the great-grandfather from the great-grandson” — Paul put it up in 1800.
        • Since 1994 the whole building has belonged to the Russian Museum.
      14. 🚶 on foot
      15. 8
        🏛 Church of the Savior on Blood
        наб. канала Грибоедова, 2Б
        🎟 ticket
        A colorful church in the Old Russian style with enamel and gilded domes on the spot where Alexander II was wounded.
        Through the Mikhailovsky Garden to the cathedral — the mosaics inside are worth a separate ticket.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Church of the Savior on Blood
        © Wolfgang Moroder · CC BY-SA 3.0
        Church of the Savior on Blood
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The church, 81 meters tall, took 24 years to build — from 1883 to 1907.
        • Alexander III rejected the designs of two competitions and approved the design by Alfred Parland and Archimandrite Ignaty (Malyshev).
        • The mosaics were made by Vladimir Frolov's workshop from sketches by more than 30 artists, among them Viktor Vasnetsov and Mikhail Nesterov.
        • During the siege the church was used as a morgue, and after the war as a scenery warehouse of the Maly Opera Theater.
        • In 1961 steeplejacks found a German high-explosive shell in the central dome, which had lain there for 18 years.
        • The museum opened on 19 August 1997 — exactly 90 years after the church was consecrated.
      16. 🚶 on foot
      17. 9
        ☕️ 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).
      18. 🚶 on foot
      19. 10
        🍽 Gogol
        Малая Морская ул., 8
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        Dinner a stone's throw from Stolle: a restaurant furnished like a drawing room in Gogol's day (Gogol himself lived on this street, in house 17); order borscht, pirozhki and cutlets; open 12 to 23.
        🍴 A Russian-cuisine restaurant set in a 19th-century noble apartment, between St Isaac's Cathedral and Nevsky. What to order: borscht with salo and pampushki, chicken Kiev, pirozhki, olivier salad, homemade tinctures.

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