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      Polyustrovo: Bezborodko’s lions, a pond and the mineral park

      ⏱ 4 h🚶 3.5 km + 🚌🍽 1📍 6 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      An estate with lions and sphinxes on the Neva, a hidden pond with swans and a former iron-water spa; the finale — the Piskaryovskoye Memorial.

      🏛 History and architecture🏘 Off the centre
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps (with transit)
      1. 1
        🏛 Bezborodko Dacha and the Lion Fence
        Свердловская наб., 40
        An 18th-century Quarenghi estate with a famous fence of 29 cast-iron lions holding chains; restoration was completed in 2025.
        From Ploshchad Lenina metro by bus along Sverdlovskaya Embankment or 30 min on foot; take a look at the lions
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Bezborodko Dacha and the Lion Fence
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Bezborodko Dacha and the Lion Fence
        © John White spb · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Bezborodko Dacha and the Lion Fence
        © Сергей Ястребков · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • The first house here was built in the Gothic style in 1773–1777 by Vasily Bazhenov for Senator Teplov.
        • Teplov came here to take the mineral waters, then claimed they nearly poisoned him.
        • In 1782 Bezborodko bought the estate for the then huge sum of 22,500 rubles.
        • According to some accounts, the remodelling design was made not by Quarenghi but by Nikolai Lvov.
        • Because of the fence, the estate was nicknamed the "House with Lions".
        • In 1858 Alexandre Dumas stayed at the Kushelev Dacha, and Goncharov, Maykov and Pisemsky came to visit.
        • From 1896 it housed the Elizabeth Community of Red Cross nursing sisters.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🌅 Bezborodko Dacha Pier with Sphinxes
        Свердловская наб., напротив д. 40
        A granite pier with four sphinxes — a view of the Neva and Smolny.
        Sphinxes and a view of Smolny
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Bezborodko Dacha Pier with Sphinxes
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Bezborodko Dacha Pier with Sphinxes
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Bezborodko Dacha Pier with Sphinxes
        © Petersburger · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • The pier was built in the 1780s during the rebuilding of the Bezborodko estate.
        • The original sphinxes vanished without trace in the second half of the 19th century.
        • The present sphinxes are copies from the Stroganov Dacha, made when the pier was restored in the 1950s.
        • Behind the arch with a lion mascaron is a grotto where, in Bezborodko's day, an underground passage to the main house began.
        • Each sphinx is about a metre long; all four have women's faces in headscarves.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🌳 Polyustrovo Pond
        Свердловская наб., 44 (за БЦ «Лето»)
        The pond of the former Bezborodko estate, with swans — a quiet corner few people know about.
        A pond with swans behind a business centre
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Polyustrovo Pond
        © Messir · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The pond is the centre of Bezborodko Square, which received its name on 1 March 2013.
        • Locals call the pond "Bavarovka", after the New Bavaria brewery.
        • The square was named after years of appeals from Petersburg's Ukrainian community associations.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🍽 Restaurant "Na Polyane"
        Свердловская наб., 44, лит. Д (БЦ «Лето»)
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        Lunch with a view of the pond
        🍴 A panoramic restaurant overlooking the pond and swans. What to order: beef borscht, striploin steak, California rolls.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🌳 Polyustrovo Park
        Крюкова ул. / пр. Металлистов (вход)
        The former Polyustrovo mineral-water park — people took the iron-rich water here in the 19th century.
        A loop along the alleys of the former spa
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Polyustrovo Park
        © Uz1awa · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Polyustrovo Park
        © Alexey Komarov · CC BY 3.0
        Polyustrovo Park
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The name Polyustrovo comes from the Latin paluster, "marshy".
        • On the advice of his personal physician Blumentrost, Peter the Great drank the local iron-rich water and called it "steel".
        • In 1868 a fire destroyed the resort, and it was never rebuilt.
        • The present park was laid out in 1967 and until 2007 was called the 50th Anniversary of October Park.
        • The park is a water protection zone for the spring; the Polyustrovskaya mineral water plant operates on its grounds.
      10. 🚌 bus along Kondratyevsky and Piskaryovsky prospekts or taxi ≈12 min
      11. 6
        🏛 Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery
        Санкт-Петербург, пр. Непокорённых, 72
        🚪 entrance from Prospekt Nepokoryonnykh
        The main memorial to the victims of the Siege: mass graves, the "Motherland" monument and an eternal flame.
        A minute of silence
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery
        © Александров · CC BY-SA 3.0
        Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • In 186 mass graves rest more than 470,000 Leningraders and 75,951 servicemen.
        • From 1 December 1941 to 1 June 1942 alone, 371,428 people were buried here, and on 20 February 1942, 10,043 in a single day.
        • The memorial by the architects A. V. Vasilyev and E. A. Levinson opened on 9 May 1960.
        • The eternal flame was lit from a torch brought from the Field of Mars.
        • The six-metre "Motherland" was created by the sculptors Vera Isaeva and Robert Taurit; on the wall behind her are lines by Olga Berggolts.
        • The main path from the eternal flame to the monument is 480 metres long.
        • A copy of Tanya Savicheva's diary is displayed in the museum at the entrance.

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