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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Tauride Garden and Smolny: the long loop

      ⏱ 6 h 30 min🚶 4.4 km🍽 2📍 10 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      From a gastrobar on Kirochnaya through Suvorova and Tauride Garden to the Petrine Kikin Chambers, Rastrelli's cathedral and the Smolny Institute — with a Georgian dinner as the finale.

      🍽 Food tour🏛 History and architecture🌳 Parks and nature
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🍽 Duo Gastrobar
        Кирочная ул., 8, лит. Б
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        Lunch at one of the best gastrobars
        🍴 A small gastrobar from the Duoband group with signature cuisine and a summer veranda, open since 2014. What to order: tuna ceviche, tartare, oxtail, lamb with aubergines.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🏛 Transfiguration Cathedral
        Преображенская пл., 1
        A yellow-and-white Empire-style guards' cathedral with five domes, rebuilt by Stasov.
        Across the road from Duo is the Preobrazhensky Regiment Cathedral with a fence of captured Turkish cannons.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Transfiguration Cathedral
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Transfiguration Cathedral
        © MBH · CC BY 4.0
        Transfiguration Cathedral
        © MBH · CC BY 4.0
        • The first church was built in 1743–1754 in memory of the Preobrazhensky Regiment placing Elizabeth Petrovna on the throne.
        • In 1796 Paul I gave the cathedral the honorary title of “cathedral of the whole Guards”.
        • In August 1825 the cathedral burned down, and Vasily Stasov rebuilt it in the Empire style by 1829.
        • The fence of 1832–1833 was assembled from 102 barrels of captured Turkish cannons, set muzzle-down.
        • The fence barrels still bear the Turkish names of the guns — for example, “Wrath of Allah” and “I Give Only Death”.
        • The cathedral was never closed for services, even in Soviet times.
        • On the feast of the Transfiguration, the Apple Saviour, a fruit market used to be held by the church.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🌳 Saltykov-Shchedrin Garden
        A small green square with trees, paths and benches next to the Tauride Garden.
        A small garden on Kirochnaya — a short green link to the Suvorov Museum.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        • The garden's other name is the Preobrazhensky Regiment Barracks Garden, and it covers 0.84 hectares.
        • Kirochnaya Street, where the garden stands, was called Saltykov-Shchedrin Street from 1939 to 1998.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🖼 Suvorov Museum
        Кирочная ул., 43
        🎟 ticket
        A building in the spirit of an old fortress with towers; inside are the commander's awards, banners and personal belongings.
        Facade mosaics and tin soldiers
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Suvorov Museum
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 3.0
        Suvorov Museum
        © A.Savin · FAL 1.3
        • The museum opened on 13 (26) November 1904 — Russia's first museum built specially in honour of one person.
        • The money was raised by public subscription: 298,000 rubles had been collected by the opening, and peasants of one village donated bread.
        • The building in the spirit of ancient Russian fortresses was designed by the architect Alexander von Hohen.
        • The mosaics on the facade are “Suvorov Crossing the Alps” and “Suvorov Leaving the Village of Konchanskoye”, each about 4 by 9 metres.
        • They were the first large mosaic panels on a building facade in Petersburg.
        • The foundation stone was laid on 8 June 1901 in the presence of Suvorov's descendants.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🌳 Tauride Garden
        🚪 entrance from Kirochnaya Street
        A large landscape garden by the Tauride Palace with canals, hills and playgrounds.
        Ponds and little bridges
        🚪 exit towards Shpalernaya Street
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Tauride Garden
        © Anzhi86 · CC0
        Tauride Garden
        © Liabilityme · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Tauride Garden
        © Godot13 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The garden was laid out in 1783–1800 by the English gardener William Gould at Prince Potemkin's Tauride Palace.
        • The ponds were filled with water from the Ligovsky Canal and stocked with sterlet, and the soil dug out was piled into hills.
        • The garden opened to the public only in 1866.
        • From 1958 it was the City Children's Park; the historic name was restored in 1975.
        • In Chukovsky's “Moydodyr”, it is in the Tauride Garden that the washcloth chases the hero and he meets the Crocodile.
        • The garden has monuments to Tchaikovsky (1990) and Yesenin (1995).
      10. 🚶 on foot
      11. 6
        🏛 Tauride Palace
        Шпалерная ул., 47
        🎟 ticket · tours by reservation only, with a passport
        Potemkin's palace by Starov (1780s): the State Duma met here, and today it houses the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly; inside only on tours by reservation, while the classical façade with its dome is visible from Shpalernaya.
        Leave the garden onto Shpalernaya: the dome and portico of the Tauride Palace are visible from the street, inside only by tour appointment.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Tauride Palace
        © VekaSpb · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Tauride Palace
        © Godot13 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The palace is named after the title "Tauride" that Potemkin received in 1787 for annexing Crimea.
        • About 400,000 roubles in gold were spent on its construction and decoration.
        • In spring 1791 Potemkin threw a lavish feast here, hoping to win back Catherine II's favour.
        • In 1797 Paul I gave the palace to the Horse Guards as barracks and had its furnishings carted off to the Mikhailovsky Castle.
        • In 1906–1910 the interiors were remodelled for the State Duma, and on 5 (18) January 1918 the Constituent Assembly met here.
        • Today the palace is the headquarters of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly.
      12. 🚶 on foot
      13. 7
        🏛 Kikin Hall
        Ставропольская ул., 9
        One of the oldest buildings in the city (1714): the chambers of the boyar Kikin, executed in the case of Tsarevich Alexei; under Peter they housed the first library and the Kunstkamera. Now a music school — view from the outside.
        The Red Chambers of 1714 — one of the oldest buildings in the city; look from outside and walk around it.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Kikin Hall
        © Ludvig14 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The layout and dimensions of the chambers match the central part of the Grand Peterhof Palace; the architect is thought to be Andreas Schlüter.
        • In 1719–1727 the Kunstkamera collections and Peter the Great's personal library were kept here.
        • From 1733 the building held an infirmary and the chancellery of the Horse Regiment; Rastrelli put a wooden bell tower over the house church.
        • The chambers were badly damaged in the Siege; in 1952–1956 they were restored to their 1719–1720 appearance to a design by Irina Benois.
        • Today a music lyceum works in the building.
      14. 🚶 on foot
      15. 8
        🌅 Smolny Cathedral (bell tower)
        пл. Растрелли, 1
        🎟 partly ticketed · The climb to the bell tower is ticketed
        A viewing platform on the bell tower — 277 steps
        A view of the city from the bell tower
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Smolny Cathedral (bell tower)
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Smolny Cathedral (bell tower)
        © A.Savin · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • The cathedral was founded on 30 October 1748: Elizabeth Petrovna wanted to end her days in a convent on the site of the palace of her childhood.
        • Because of the Seven Years' War money ran out, and under Elizabeth Rastrelli's cathedral was left unfinished as a bare shell.
        • The cathedral was completed by Vasily Stasov and consecrated on 20 July 1835.
        • Rastrelli built the cathedral ‘cold’, and Stasov had to struggle to cut flues for stoves in the walls.
        • The cathedral is 93.7 metres high.
        • The giant bell tower Rastrelli had planned was raised only a few metres and then dismantled.
        • From 1990 to 2015 the cathedral served as a classical music concert hall.
      16. 🚶 on foot
      17. 9
        🏛 Smolny Institute
        Смольный пр., 1
        Quarenghi's Neoclassicism: the former institute for noble maidens, the headquarters of the 1917 revolution, now the governor's administration; from the square you can see the propylaea and the garden with the Lenin monument, and the museum is by prior reservation.
        Five minutes from the cathedral: the propylaea and the square before Quarenghi's building, from which the 1917 coup was directed.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Smolny Institute
        © Kora27 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The Smolny Institute is Russia's first educational institution for women, conceived on the model of the Saint-Cyr institute near Paris.
        • Girls were admitted from the age of six for 12 years, and parents signed a pledge not to take their daughter home before the term was up.
        • The pupils' uniform changed colour with age: coffee-brown, dark blue, light blue, and white for the oldest.
        • Quarenghi built the building with its eight-column portico in 1806–1808.
        • On 1 December 1934 Sergei Kirov, head of the Leningrad Communists, was assassinated at Smolny.
        • Since 1996 Smolny has been the official residence of the governor of Petersburg.
      18. 🚶 on foot
      19. 10
        🍽 Dobry Gruzin
        Ярославская ул., 4
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        Dinner at the finish: khinkali, Adjarian khachapuri and pkhali; open from 12:00, until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
        🍴 A Georgian restaurant with live music in the evenings, a couple of blocks from Smolny Cathedral and the Smolny. What to order: khinkali (Georgian dumplings) with lamb, lyulya kebab, khachapuri, salad with crispy aubergines.

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