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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Marble Palace, Paul's castle and the Siege

      ⏱ 5 h🚶 1.8 km🍽 1📍 4 stops
      🐢 A little — under 3 km

      Rinaldi's Marble Hall, brunch near the Savior on Spilled Blood, the halls of Mikhailovsky Castle and the Museum of the Defense of Leningrad — three centuries of the city between the Neva and the Fontanka.

      🏛 History and architecture🎨 Art☔️ If it rains
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🖼 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.
        Closed Tue, ticket office an hour before closing. The main thing is the Marble Hall on the second floor: walls of dozens of stone shades.
        📖 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.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        ☕️ Prosa Breakfast Bar
        наб. канала Грибоедова, 5
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        9 minutes past the Field of Mars to Griboedov Canal. Breakfasts are served until evening — eggs Benedict or syrniki with raspberry sorbet.
        🍴 A small breakfast bar by the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood: breakfast is served from morning to evening, with wine and cocktails alongside. What to order: eggs Benedict, syrniki with raspberry sorbet, oatmeal with Parmesan and prosciutto.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🖼 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.
        8 minutes via Inzhenernaya Street; closed Tue. The throne room, the house church and the chambers where Paul I lived and was killed in 1801.
        📖 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.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🖼 Museum of the Defence and Siege of Leningrad
        Соляной пер., 9
        🎟 ticket
        A museum in Solyanoy Gorodok: letters, diaries and belongings of siege survivors, military equipment and weapons.
        7 minutes across the Fontanka to Solyanoy Lane; closed Tue, ticket office until 17:30, the last Wednesday of the month is a cleaning day. Siege ration cards and a metronome; allow an hour.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Museum of the Defence and Siege of Leningrad
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Museum of the Defence and Siege of Leningrad
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The museum grew out of the exhibition “The Heroic Defence of Leningrad”, which it was decided to create during the siege itself, in December 1943.
        • In August 1945 the exhibition was visited by Marshal Zhukov and the American General Eisenhower.
        • Among the first exhibits were Tanya Savicheva's diary and an eight-metre pyramid of pierced German helmets.
        • By 1946 the museum had 37,654 exhibits; its first director was the historian Lev Rakov.
        • In 1952 the museum was closed in the course of the “Leningrad Affair”, and reopened only in 1989.
        • The building was built in 1901–1903 to a design by Pyotr Trifanov for the Handicrafts Museum.

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