Inside a ruined palace in a quiet park south of Saint Petersburg sits one of the strangest objects in Russia: a gigantic bath carved from a single block of granite, more than five metres across, made in the early nineteenth century by the stonemason Samson Sukhanov for the Babolovsky palace. The palace, a small Gothic style residence built for Catherine the Great's favourite Prince Potemkin, was later rebuilt and then ruined during the Second World War, but the bath was too heavy to move and remains inside the shell of the building.
The Babolovsky Park lies just west of Pushkin, the town formerly known as Tsarskoye Selo, where the imperial family built the Catherine Palace and the Alexander Palace, and where the Amber Room, lost during the war, was later recreated. The park itself is quieter and wilder than the formal parks of Pushkin, with ponds, woods and paths that wander through birch and pine. It is a good place for a walk away from the crowds.
The roads around Pushkin are busy, suburban and not particularly scenic, with frequent traffic lights and heavy traffic at rush hours. But the parks and palaces make it worth a visit, and the town has a pleasant atmosphere. In winter, snow and ice make riding difficult, and the season for two wheels is effectively late spring to early autumn.
It is hard to picture anyone ever filling it. The tub reads more as a boast in stone, a demonstration of what Russian masons could do with granite, than as somewhere to take a bath.
Pushkin is a sizeable town with plenty of fuel, food and lodging. Western bank cards and many foreign motor policies do not work in Russia at the moment, so anyone coming from abroad needs to sort out cash, cover and the latest government advice long before the trip. The palaces and parks are popular, especially on summer weekends, and early mornings are the quietest. The Lyceum where the poet Alexander Pushkin studied, and after whom the town is named, is in the centre and open to visitors.