Why this ride
A 79 km round trip from Kronstadt - roughly 1 h 18 in the saddle. On the way it passes Northern battery No. 7, The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate and back through Northern battery No. 7. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Fort «Alexander I» and The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 79 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 18
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 16 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 16 km
- Named road
- Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Fort «Alexander I»
Fort Alexander I stands in the water about three kilometres from Kronstadt, a low, oval stone fort built in the nineteenth century as part of the sea defences of St Petersburg. It is better known by another name, the Plague Fort, because at the end of the century the Russian authorities installed a laboratory here to study plague and develop vaccines, working in isolation on a site that could be reached only by boat. The island setting made sense, since a lab handling deadly bacteria needed to be separated from the mainland, and the work done here was part of the early history of research on infectious disease in Russia.
Read the complete Fort «Alexander I» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fort «Alexander I» is where the day begins. Next is Northern battery No. 7, 17 km on.
2. Northern battery No. 7
Not every stop on a route has a story that belongs to one fort, and this one belongs to a coastline. The north shore of the Gulf of Finland, between Sestroretsk and Lisy Nos, is a flat, sandy and pine-covered strip of land that was once Finnish territory, and the batteries and forts built on it, including the one the label calls Fort Constantin, were part of the same defensive system that guarded Kronstadt from the other side. The names Gorskaya and Tarkhovka belong to the settlements around, and the Dam, the huge flood barrier that links the island with the mainland, lands at this shore.
Read the complete Northern battery No. 7 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Northern battery No. 7 comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate.
3. The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate
On the north shore of the Neva Bay, at the edge of the modern city, lies Lakhta, a district that was a village of Finnish and Ingrian farmers when Peter the Great first built his capital. By the nineteenth century the waterfront was dotted with country estates for the St Petersburg aristocracy, and the Steinbock-Fermor family held one of them, a park of old trees and lawns with a manor house by the Gulf of Finland. The estate park, shaded and quiet, is the kind of place where the city's dacha culture began.
Read the complete The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 29 km into the recorded legs you reach The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate. Next is back through Northern battery No. 7, 16 km on.
4. back through Northern battery No. 7
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Northern battery No. 7 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Northern battery No. 7, late in the day. Next is Fort «Alexander I».
5. Fort «Alexander I»
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort «Alexander I» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Fort «Alexander I». That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Fort «Alexander I» to Northern battery No. 7
Fort «Alexander I» → Northern battery No. 7 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Northern battery No. 7 to The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate
Northern battery No. 7 → The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate to back through Northern battery No. 7
The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate → back through Northern battery No. 7 is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Northern battery No. 7 to Fort «Alexander I»
back through Northern battery No. 7 → Fort «Alexander I» is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.