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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Summer Garden and the Russian Museum: the long loop

      ⏱ 7 h 30 min🚶 3.9 km🍽 2📍 10 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      From the Marble Palace and the Summer Garden to the castle of Paul I and the Russian Museum, then to the Savior on Spilled Blood along Konyushennaya. Lunch on Konyushennaya, pies at the finish.

      🏛 History and architecture🎨 Art🌳 Parks and nature
      🗺 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
        🖼 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.
        First look at the facade of 32 kinds of stone from the Field of Mars side; inside are exhibitions of the Russian Museum
        📖 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.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🌳 Summer Garden
        🚪 entrance from Palace Embankment
        🎟 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
        🚪 exit to the Moika, by the Carp Pond
        📖 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.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🏛 Chizhik-Pyzhik
        наб. Фонтанки, у Первого Инженерного моста
        A tiny bronze bird on a ledge above the Fontanka: land a coin on the pedestal for good luck.
        Go down to the First Engineers' Bridge and try to land a coin on the pedestal
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        • The Chizhik was installed on 19 November 1994; the idea was proposed by the writer Andrei Bitov and realised by Rezo Gabriadze with the architect Vyacheslav Bukhaev.
        • The bird is 11 cm tall and weighs about 5 kg.
        • Until 2014 the Chizhik was stolen seven times, but each time it was returned or cast anew.
        • Legend says the song about the Chizhik is about students of the neighbouring School of Jurisprudence in their green-and-yellow uniforms, but a parody of it was already known in 1825, before the school opened.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🖼 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 the 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.
      10. 🚶 on foot
      11. 6
        🖼 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.
        “The Ninth Wave” and “Barge Haulers”
        📖 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.
      12. 🚶 on foot
      13. 7
        🌳 Mikhailovsky Garden
        🚪 entrance from the Griboedov Canal Embankment
        🆓 free entry
        A landscape garden behind the Russian Museum with a pond, lawns and Parland's ornate fence on the Savior on Blood side.
        A stroll behind the palace
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Mikhailovsky Garden
        © Vyacheslav Bukharov · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Mikhailovsky Garden
        © Александровы АГ · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Mikhailovsky Garden
        © GAlexandrova · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • In the early 18th century the garden was called the Third Summer Garden — to distinguish it from Peter I's other two gardens.
        • From 1712 a residence for Catherine I was built here, and in the greenhouses the gardener grew bananas and pineapples.
        • Under Anna Ioannovna part of the garden was set aside as a "jagd-garten" — a place to hunt deer, boar and hares.
        • Parland's fence was put up in 1907, when part of the garden went to the Savior on Blood and the new canal embankment.
        • In 2001 a full reconstruction of the garden began, after which the summer festival "Imperial Gardens of Russia" started to be held here.
      14. 🚶 on foot
      15. 8
        🏛 Church of the Savior on Blood
        наб. канала Грибоедова, 2Б
        🎟 ticket
        A colorful church in the Old Russian style with enamel and gilded domes on the spot where Alexander II was wounded.
        Leave the garden through the gate to the canal — the cathedral will open up to its full height
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Church of the Savior on Blood
        © Wolfgang Moroder · CC BY-SA 3.0
        Church of the Savior on Blood
        © Florstein · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The church, 81 meters tall, took 24 years to build — from 1883 to 1907.
        • Alexander III rejected the designs of two competitions and approved the design by Alfred Parland and Archimandrite Ignaty (Malyshev).
        • The mosaics were made by Vladimir Frolov's workshop from sketches by more than 30 artists, among them Viktor Vasnetsov and Mikhail Nesterov.
        • During the siege the church was used as a morgue, and after the war as a scenery warehouse of the Maly Opera Theater.
        • In 1961 steeplejacks found a German high-explosive shell in the central dome, which had lain there for 18 years.
        • The museum opened on 19 August 1997 — exactly 90 years after the church was consecrated.
      16. 🚶 on foot
      17. 9
        🍽 Goose Goose Restaurant · 🧸 play area
        Б. Конюшенная ул., 27
        ▮▮▮▮▯
        A late lunch after the museum: pasta or risotto
        🍴 An Italy Group restaurant by Konyushennaya Square with its own children's room and children's menu — a handy stop two steps from the Mikhailovsky Garden. What to order: for a toddler, a soup from the children's menu; for adults, pasta or risotto from the Italian menu.
      18. 🚶 on foot
      19. 10
        ☕️ Stolle on Nevsky
        Невский пр., 11
        ▮▮▯▯▯
        Pies at the finish
        🍴 A pie shop of the St Petersburg chain Stolle at the start of Nevsky: open and closed pies by weight, soup and hot dishes at the counter. What to order: a cabbage pie, a lingonberry or blueberry pie, borscht, homemade pelmeni (dumplings).

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