The village of Taitsy, south of Saint Petersburg near Krasnoye Selo, is home to an estate built in the eighteenth century for the Demidov family, the industrial dynasty whose fortune came from iron and metalworks in the Urals. The classical manor house, attributed to the architect Ivan Starov, stands in a landscape park with ponds and springs, and those springs mattered far beyond the estate: the Taitsy water conduit, built in the eighteenth century, carried water from here to the palaces and fountains of Tsarskoye Selo.
The landscape here is gently rolling, with woods of birch and pine, fields and lakes. Just to the north, the Duderhof heights rise above the flat country around Saint Petersburg, among the highest points in the region, and offered artillery positions during the Second World War. Krasnoye Selo, a town with a long military history as the summer camp of the Imperial Guard, lies eight kilometres away.
The roads here are rural and suburban, mostly flat, with long straights and gentle bends. Surfaces vary, and potholes are common after winter. Traffic is moderate, heavier near the city and on weekends, when Petersburgers head for their dachas. The best riding season is short, from May to September, and white nights in June mean long evenings with light until late.
Taitsy is a good example of how the imperial capital reached out into its hinterland. The noble estates south of the city were not just country houses; they supplied water, timber, food and soldiers, and the roads that link them today follow old routes between palaces, barracks and villages. Riding slowly between Taitsy, Krasnoye Selo and Gatchina, with its own vast palace and park a short way south, gives a sense of that web. The woods smell of resin and wet moss after rain, and in late summer the verges fill with people picking mushrooms and bilberries, buckets in hand.
Krasnoye Selo has fuel and services. If you are riding in from outside the country, read your own foreign ministry's guidance first; the paperwork side of a Russian trip is harder today than the riding. The estate at Taitsy has been in varying states of repair, so check before visiting; the park is pleasant for a walk whatever the condition of the house.