Gatchina is one of the great imperial estates ringing St Petersburg, and the Menagerie, the Zverinets, is its wild back garden: a large walled tract of forest north of the palace that was laid out in the eighteenth century as a hunting reserve, with deer and other game kept for the court. Today it is mostly woods, ponds and paths, and on a hot day it is the coolest place within reach.
The palace belongs above all to Paul I, the son of Catherine the Great, who was given Gatchina and turned it into a small, drilled, slightly paranoid world of his own, complete with a private army that he paraded in the courtyard. Later Alexander III made it his favourite residence, feeling safer here than in the capital after his father was killed by a bomb. The palace was badly burned during the German occupation and has been restored piece by piece; the lakes, the Silver Lake and the White Lake, and the little pavilions around them are among the prettiest corners of the whole region.
As a riding stop, Gatchina is honest about what it is: a city of nearly ninety thousand people, about forty-five kilometres south of St Petersburg, with everything you need and a fair amount of traffic. The approach from the north on the Kievskoe highway is fast, multi-lane and dull; much nicer is to come cross-country on the smaller roads from Krasnoye Selo or the Pulkovo heights, through villages and fields with the occasional glimpse of an old church. Inside town, cobbles near the palace and tram-era street layouts need care, and parking near the park gates is easy on weekdays, busier at weekends.
Fuel and food are no problem: there are filling stations on every main road, supermarkets, and cafes near the station and the palace. Mariyenburg on the edge of town is a residential district rather than anything else. The Menagerie paths are for walking, not riding, so lock up, take the helmet off and walk ten minutes in. You will hear woodpeckers, see squirrels, perhaps a heron on the pond, and smell pine resin and damp moss, which after a day of exhaust is its own reward.