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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Vasilyevsky Spit: Kunstkamera and sphinxes

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

      The embankment of scholarly Petersburg: columns, the university and Egyptian sphinxes.

      👶 With kids🏛 History and architecture
      👶 7–12, 13+ years · ✗ hard with a stroller

      The Kunstkamera has no lifts or ramps — the halls on the 2nd–3rd floors are stairs only, and the cloakroom doesn’t take strollers; Menshikov Palace has stairs too.

      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🌅 Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island (the Spit)
        The Rostral Columns and a view of the Neva
        The best panorama of the Neva
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island (the Spit)
        © A.Savin · FAL 1.3
        Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island (the Spit)
        © Kora27 · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • Until 1885 Petersburg's seaport worked on the Spit, then it was moved to Gutuevsky Island.
        • The 32-metre Rostral Columns were put up by Thomas de Thomon in 1805–1810; until 1885 they served as lighthouses.
        • The columns' name comes from the Latin rostrum, “ship's prow”: they are decorated with metal ship prows and anchors.
        • The version that the figures at the base of the columns are the Volkhov, Neva, Dnieper and Volga is recent and not confirmed by documents.
        • The Exchange building, shaped like an ancient temple, opened in 1816; since 2013 it has been handed over to the Hermitage.
        • From 1937 to 1989 the square on the Spit was called Pushkin Square.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🖼 Kunstkamera
        Университетская наб., 3
        🎟 ticket
        A turquoise building with an openwork tower — Peter's anatomical rarities and the ethnography of the world's peoples.
        Russia’s first museum
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Kunstkamera
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The founding date is considered to be 1714, when Peter's collection was placed in the Chambers by the Summer Palace.
        • The present Petrine Baroque building was built from 1718 to 1734, begun by Georg Mattarnovy.
        • Peter bought the anatomical collection of over 2,000 items in 1717 from the Dutch anatomist Frederik Ruysch.
        • Peter's decree of 1718 promised a reward for delivering “monsters” and unusual things and threatened a fine for hiding them.
        • In the fire of 5 December 1747 the tower, the observatory and the interior finishes burned; the building was restored by Savva Chevakinsky.
        • Mikhail Lomonosov worked in the building — a separate exhibition is devoted to him, with the Academy of Sciences' meeting hall.
        • The tower is crowned with an armillary sphere — a model of the celestial sphere made of rings.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🏛 Twelve Collegia (St Petersburg State University)
        Университетская наб., 7–9
        A long red-and-white Petrine building across Vasilyevsky Island — the university's main building.
        A corridor 400 metres long
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Twelve Collegia (St Petersburg State University)
        © A.Savin · FAL 1.3
        Twelve Collegia (St Petersburg State University)
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • Construction began in 1722: the overall design is by Domenico Trezzini, the upper floors by Theodor Schwertfeger.
        • It is the largest monument of Petrine Baroque: 12 identical three-storey sections, one per collegium, the prototype of a ministry.
        • The first session of the collegia in the new building was held in 1732.
        • In 1830 the whole building was handed over to St Petersburg University.
        • Only the Petrovsky Hall has kept its authentic 1735–1736 finish — with the monograms of Peter I and Anna Ioannovna.
        • Scenes of Georgy Danelia's “Autumn Marathon” (1979) were shot here.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🖼 Menshikov Palace
        Университетская наб., 15
        🎟 ticket
        One of the city's first stone buildings — Menshikov's yellow palace with Petrine-era tiled rooms.
        A palace richer than the tsar’s
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Menshikov Palace
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Menshikov Palace
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • Construction of the palace began in May 1710 to a design by Giovanni Maria Fontana, who was replaced by Gottfried Schädel in 1713.
        • Peter called the palace the Embassy House: foreign ambassadors were received here and feasts held.
        • The future Empress Anna Ioannovna celebrated her wedding to the Duke of Courland in the palace.
        • In 1727 Menshikov was exiled to Berezov, and from 1731 the palace was taken over by the Land Gentry (later Cadet) Corps.
        • By 1727 there were 13 rooms here faced with white and blue tiles, of which four survive; some of the tiles came from Delft.
        • The grand staircase has survived from 1716–1720.
        • Since 1981 the palace has been a branch of the Hermitage with the exhibition “Russian Culture of the First Third of the 18th Century”.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🧺 Vasileostrovsky Market
        Большой пр. В.О., 16/14б
        ▮▮▯▯▯
        A snack at the Vasileostrovsky (Andreevsky) Market: a food court and stalls
        🍴 A gourmet market from the 1930s which, after the 2019 renovation, is a food hall with 30+ stalls and grocery rows with their own cheese dairy. What to order: Roman pizza at Piopizza, pho at Bổ, khinkali (Georgian dumplings) at Georgiani, oysters at Fisha.
      10. 🚶 on foot
      11. 6
        🌳 Rumyantsev Garden
        A small square on the University Embankment with the “To Rumyantsev's Victories” obelisk in the centre.
        A quiet garden
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Rumyantsev Garden
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The “To Rumyantsev's Victories” obelisk, designed by Vincenzo Brenna, was put up in 1799 on the Field of Mars and moved here in 1818.
        • The garden was laid out in 1865–1866 with money from house owners, above all the city councillor S. F. Solovyov; the fence was cast at the San Galli works.
        • From 1939 to 2001 the square was called Shevchenko Square — the poet lived and worked in the neighbouring Academy of Arts.
        • In the early 18th century the bustling Menshikov market stood here, and later the Cadet Corps' parade ground.
        • The garden's two cast-iron fountains were made in France.
      12. 🚶 on foot
      13. 7
        🏛 Sphinxes by the Academy of Arts
        Университетская наб., 17
        A pair of granite Egyptian sphinxes on the steps down to the Neva by the Academy of Arts.
        The sphinxes are about 3,400 years old
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Sphinxes by the Academy of Arts
        © Alex Fedorov (Florstein) · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Sphinxes by the Academy of Arts
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The sphinxes were made under the pharaoh Amenhotep III for his mortuary temple in Thebes; in 1825 they were found by the antiquities hunter Giovanni d'Athanasi.
        • Each sphinx, of pink Aswan granite, weighs 23 tonnes and is 5.24 m long.
        • Buying them was proposed by the traveller Andrey Muravyov, who had seen a sphinx in Alexandria in 1830.
        • The sphinxes had already been sold to France, but the July Revolution wrecked the deal — and Russia bought them for 64,000 rubles.
        • While being loaded onto the ship ‘Buena Esperanza’, one sphinx fell and damaged the headcloth.
        • The sphinxes arrived in May 1832, but for two years stood in the courtyard of the Academy of Arts while Konstantin Thon finished the landing stage.

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