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      Lesnoy: Constructivism, the Forestry Academy and dachas

      ⏱ 4 h🚶 5.6 km🍽 2📍 7 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      From the Constructivist Batenin housing estate to the oldest teaching arboretum and the dachas of Lesnoy, now home to restaurants.

      🏛 History and architecture🏘 Off the centre
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🚶 Batenin Housing Estate
        Лесной проспект, 37–39 (у Батенинской площади)
        A Constructivist quarter of the 1920s–30s: ribbon-shaped apartment blocks, garden courtyards, bathhouses and a kindergarten — Leningrad's answer to the Bauhaus.
        From Lesnaya metro, 10 minutes south along Lesnoy Prospekt; step into the garden courtyards.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Batenin Housing Estate
        © Nikolai Bulykin · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Batenin Housing Estate
        © Nikolai Bulykin · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The estate was built in 1930–1933 to a design by G. A. Simonov, T. D. Katsenelenbogen and others.
        • The name comes from the holdings of the merchant Batenin, which stuck in local place names.
        • The two trapezoid quarters stand symmetrically, the southern one slightly bigger than the northern.
        • The long flat facades are broken up by Simonov's signature triple-span arched passageways.
        • The middle staircase of the northern quarter is enclosed in a cylinder above a tall passageway.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🌳 Forestry Academy Park
        Институтский переулок, 5 (вход у главного корпуса)
        A teaching arboretum around the classical main building of the Forestry Institute: phenological observations have been made here since 1830, with rare trees, ponds and quiet.
        Back along Lesnoy and Institutsky Lane to the main building of the Forestry Institute.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Forestry Academy Park
        © Александровы АГ · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Forestry Academy Park
        © SealMan11 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • This used to be the model farm of the Englishman Davidson, confiscated for debts.
        • In 1811 the Forestry Institute moved to the former farm from Tsarskoye Selo.
        • The park marks the spot of the famous 1825 duel between Novosiltsev and Chernov.
        • The forester Dmitry Kaigorodov (1846–1924), called the "father" of Russian phenology, is buried in the park.
        • In 1943 the "Neva" command post was built in the park.
        • Some of the park's ponds are former shell craters.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🌳 Forestry University Botanical Garden
        Институтский переулок, 5
        A teaching botanical garden with a greenhouse and a collection of tree species in the middle of the park.
        On weekdays, look into the greenhouse.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Forestry University Botanical Garden
        © Tomis13 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Forestry University Botanical Garden
        © Vaija · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The botanical garden and the adjoining plot form a specially protected natural area of federal significance.
        • The university's predecessor was the Practical Forestry School in Tsarskoye Selo, established by decree on 19 May 1803.
        • The university's six institutes work in four buildings in the middle of a park of more than 65 hectares.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🏛 Forestry Institute Water Tower
        Институтский переулок, 5И
        A brick water tower — a landmark of the old Lesnoy campus.
        Through the park to the old tower.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Forestry Institute Water Tower
        © Alexey Komarov · CC BY 3.0
        Forestry Institute Water Tower
        © Доброе Утро · CC BY 3.0
        • The tower was built in 1907–1909 by the architect Adam Dietrich, who taught at the Forestry Institute.
        • They wanted to supply the institute with artesian water, but it contained too much iron, so the idea was dropped.
        • The failed water tower was given to the meteorological observatory.
        • A station measuring groundwater level still works inside.
        • The tower originally had a wooden top, but it burned down.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🍽 Lesopilka
        Политехническая улица, 6
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        A snack or lunch: tom yum and ribs.
        🍴 A spacious restaurant by the Forestry Park with grilled meat and a family atmosphere. What to order: tom yum with seafood, pork ribs, a beef burger, potatoes with chanterelles.
      10. 🚶 on foot
      11. 6
        🍽 Ogorodniki (Danilevsky Estate)
        Институтский проспект, 22
        ▮▮▮▮▯
        Danilevsky’s dacha of 1911 — dinner or tea with pirozhki.
        🍴 A Russian restaurant in a restored 1911 dacha (the estate of the engineer A. I. Danilevsky) with a tiled stove and a terrace. What to order: shchi (cabbage soup), borscht, pirozhki (small pies), rye bread with homemade pickles.
      12. 🚶 on foot
      13. 7
        🏛 Kotlov Mansion ("Chaliapin's Dacha")
        проспект Тореза, 8
        The mansion of the merchant D. Kotlov from 1913–1914 (architect N. Tovstoles), restored in 2022; inside is the theatre-restaurant "•19•14•".
        Finish at Chaliapin’s Dacha; it’s 5 minutes to Ploshchad Muzhestva metro.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Kotlov Mansion ("Chaliapin's Dacha")
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The nickname "Chaliapin's dacha" is unconfirmed: there is no evidence the singer ever lived here.
        • After 1917 the mansion housed a primary school until the 1930s, then the Serafimovich Library.
        • The library worked here throughout the Siege: an elderly librarian heated one room every day and lent out books.
        • The veranda with ramps, the spire with a weathervane and the stained glass are lost.
        • The mansion was filmed in "Varyonyi's Last Case" (1994), where it is the firm "Delta-Z".
        • The house stands exactly on the 60th parallel north.

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