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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Xenia's Chapel and the Smolenka Embankment

      ⏱ 1 h 5 min🚶 2.5 km🍽 0📍 3 stops
      🐢 A little — under 3 km

      The Chapel of Xenia of Petersburg at Smolensky Cemetery, the quiet Smolenka embankment and a finish at Erarta. The calmest Vasilyevsky.

      🏛 History and architecture🌳 Parks and nature⏱ An hour or so
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🏛 Smolensky Cemetery and Chapel of St Xenia of Petersburg
        Камская ул., 26
        One of the city's oldest cemeteries, with the Church of the Smolensk Icon, shady paths and old gravestones.
        Xenia's Chapel
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Smolensky Cemetery and Chapel of St Xenia of Petersburg
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Smolensky Cemetery and Chapel of St Xenia of Petersburg
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Smolensky Cemetery and Chapel of St Xenia of Petersburg
        © Bestalex · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The cemetery was established by the Synod in 1738 and confirmed by a Senate decree of 1756; today it covers 51.7 hectares.
        • Around 1803 Xenia of Petersburg was buried here; she was canonised in 1988.
        • The stone Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God was built by 1790 to a design by Alexey Ivanov.
        • In 1861 Taras Shevchenko was first buried here; later his remains were taken to Kaniv, and a boulder was placed on the grave site in 1989.
        • Alexander Blok was buried at the cemetery in 1921; in 1944 his remains were moved to the Literatorskie Mostki.
        • A plaque at the entrance says that Pushkin's nanny Arina Rodionovna lies here, although the exact place of her grave is unknown.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🚶 Smolenka Embankment
        A quiet river on Vasilyevsky Island with green banks, benches and a view of the cemetery groves.
        The quiet embankment
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Smolenka Embankment
        © Тулип · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Smolenka Embankment
        © Dj-2 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • Before Petersburg was founded the river was called Yamakkayoki, in the 18th century Mayakusha, then the Black and the Glukhaya River.
        • The river received the name Smolenka in 1864 — after the Smolensky Cemetery and to avoid confusion with another Chernaya River.
        • In the 1960s–1970s a new mouth was dug for the river: it used to flow into the Malaya Neva, and now flows straight into the Gulf of Finland.
        • From 1805, on 1 August, the clergy of the cemetery church walked to the river in a procession to bless the water.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🖼 Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art
        29-я линия В.О., 2
        🎟 ticket
        One of the most visited museums in Petersburg — a private museum of contemporary art with a permanent collection and changing exhibitions.
        Finish at Erarta; five floors of contemporary art are separate and take another 2 hours.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art
        © Peterburg23 · CC BY 3.0
        • The museum officially opened on 30 September 2010, having welcomed its first visitors back on 20 May.
        • The name stands for “era of art” — “Era” plus “Art”.
        • The building dates from 1951 in the Stalinist neoclassical style; in Soviet times it housed a district party committee, then a synthetic rubber institute.
        • The entrance is guarded by the sculptures of Era and Art by Dmitry Zhukov, made on the museum's commission.
        • The collection has over 2,800 works by more than 300 artists, from the 1950s to the present day.

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