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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Field of Mars, the Summer Garden and Mikhailovsky Castle

      ⏱ 1 h 10 min🚶 1.5 km🍽 0📍 4 stops
      🐢 A little — under 3 km

      The avenues and statues of the Summer Garden, the Chizhik-Pyzhik statue by the red Mikhailovsky Castle and Rossi's palace on Arts Square. Gardens and water at every step.

      🏛 History and architecture🎨 Art🌳 Parks and nature⏱ An hour or so
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🌳 Field of Mars
        A huge field-square with lawns and lilacs, with a granite memorial to the Victims of the Revolution in the centre.
        Start at the Eternal Flame
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Field of Mars
        © Godot13 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Field of Mars
        © Комова Анастасия · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Field of Mars
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The square covers about 9 hectares — the second largest in the city after Moskovskaya Square.
        • Under Peter I parades were held here and “amusement fireworks” were set off; the meadow was called the Great one, under Elizabeth the Tsaritsyn, and the Field of Mars from 1805.
        • The monument to the Fighters of the Revolution, designed by Lev Rudnev, was unveiled on 7 November 1919; the inscriptions on the slabs were written by Lunacharsky.
        • On 6 November 1957 the USSR's first eternal flame was lit here — the torch was brought from an open-hearth furnace of the Kirov Plant.
        • In 1967 the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow was lit from the fire on the Field of Mars.
        • In the summer of 1942, during the siege, the whole field was given over to vegetable gardens.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🌳 Summer Garden
        🚪 entrance on the Moika side, by the Carp Pond
        🎟 partly ticketed · The garden is free; the Summer Palace is ticketed
        Peter I's garden with marble statues, fountains, the Summer Palace and the famous railing on the Neva side.
        The city's first formal garden
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Summer Garden
        © ElenaLitera · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Summer Garden
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Summer Garden
        © Евгений Со · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • The garden was laid out by order of Peter I in 1704, on the site of the manor of the Swedish major von Konow.
        • Most of the marble statues are by Italian masters of the turn of the 17th–18th century; they were bought in Italy by Peter's agents.
        • The sections of the Neva railing were forged in 1773–1777 at the merchant Denisov's Tula works.
        • The storm and flood of 21 September 1777 destroyed the garden's fountains, and it was then decided not to restore them.
        • Rossi's Coffee House (1826) was rebuilt from the “Grotto” pavilion, and Charlemagne's wooden Tea House (1827) is finished to look like stone.
        • The monument to Krylov by Pyotr Klodt was put up in 1855; the pedestal is decorated with scenes from the fables.
        • After restoration the garden had its grand reopening on 27 May 2012.
      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.
        Find Chizhik-Pyzhik by the Fontanka
        📖 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
        🖼 Russian Museum (Mikhailovsky Palace)
        Инженерная ул., 4
        🎟 ticket
        Rossi's classical palace with a grand staircase — the largest collection of Russian art, from icons to the avant-garde.
        We look at Rossi's palace from Arts Square; “The Ninth Wave” and “Barge Haulers” are separate and take another 1.5–2 hours.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Russian Museum (Mikhailovsky Palace)
        © Елена Нечипоренко · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Russian Museum (Mikhailovsky Palace)
        © Елена Нечипоренко · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The Mikhailovsky Palace was built in 1819–1825 for Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, the youngest son of Paul I.
        • Paul I ordered money to be set aside each year for a palace for his youngest son, "so that my son could live like a tsar", but did not live to see it built.
        • The museum was established by Nicholas II in 1895 as the "Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III" and opened on 19 March 1898.
        • The collection has more than 410 thousand items, including about 5 thousand icons from the 12th to the early 20th century.
        • In 1941 more than 7,500 of the most valuable exhibits were evacuated to Molotov, and not one was damaged during the war.
        • Besides the Mikhailovsky Palace, the museum also owns the Marble and Stroganov palaces, St Michael's Castle and Peter I's Summer Palace.

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