Why this ride
A 541 km round trip from Lebyazh’ye - roughly 8 h 52 in the saddle. The stops in between: Fort «Ino», Northern battery No. 4, Vyborgskaya Road and The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» and The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 541 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 8 h 52
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 37 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 36 km
- Named road
- Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Fort «Krasnaya Gorka»
On the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, near the village of Lebyazhye, the remains of Fort Krasnaya Gorka sit among pine woods and sand dunes. The fort was built in the years before the First World War as part of a chain of coastal defences protecting the approaches to St Petersburg, with heavy guns facing the sea and their counterparts on the opposite shore at Ino, in what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland. Together, the forts were designed to close the gulf to an enemy fleet.
Read the complete Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» is where the day begins. Next is Fort «Ino».
2. Fort «Ino»
In pine woods on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, west of the resort strip of Zelenogorsk, lie the shattered concrete remains of Fort Ino. It was built from 1909 as part of the defences of Saint Petersburg, a key battery of Peter the Great's Naval Fortress, designed to close the gulf to enemy fleets with heavy guns. When Finland became independent, the fort ended up on Finnish territory, and under the Treaty of Tartu in 1920 its fortifications were to be dismantled, which is why what remains today is mostly blasted concrete, scattered among the trees and dunes.
Read the complete Fort «Ino» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fort «Ino» comes up 37 km in. Next is Northern battery No. 4, 36 km on.
3. Northern battery No. 4
Kotlin Island lies in the Gulf of Finland, at the entrance to the Neva, and its job for three centuries has been to guard St Petersburg from the sea. Peter the Great founded the naval base of Kronstadt here in 1704, and the island, long and narrow, was ringed with forts, batteries and artificial islands. The northern batteries, of which No. 4 is one, belong to that long chain, built in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as the guns grew bigger and the ships more dangerous. They are low, grass-covered earthworks and brick casemates facing the water, and on grey days the place has a lonely, military feel. The sea is shallow here and often frozen in winter.
Read the complete Northern battery No. 4 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
73 km in you reach Northern battery No. 4. Next is Vyborgskaya Road.
4. Vyborgskaya Road
Every road out of Saint Petersburg to the north-west ends up in Finland or in the memory of it, and the Vyborg highway is the old way. It leaves the city through the northern suburbs of Shuvalovo, Pargolovo and Parnas, passing parks, lakes and rows of tower blocks, and then continues over the Karelian Isthmus to Vyborg, a town that belonged to Finland until 1940.
Read the complete Vyborgskaya Road write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Vyborgskaya Road, about halfway. Next is The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha.
5. The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha
Here the Neva is a working river, broad and fast, carrying barges and the outflow of Lake Ladoga past factories and housing blocks on its way to the city. Yet on the left bank near Ust-Izhora, among the industry, survive the traces of a much older riverside life: the country houses, datchas in the old aristocratic sense, that Saint Petersburg's wealthy families built along the Neva in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with parks running down to the water. The ensemble of the Zinoviev datcha is one of them, included in the long list of estates, parks and buildings that make up the World Heritage Site around the historic centre of Saint Petersburg.
Read the complete The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha sits at 146 km, about halfway. Next is back through Vyborgskaya Road.
6. back through Vyborgskaya Road
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vyborgskaya Road write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Vyborgskaya Road comes up 183 km in. Next is back through Northern battery No. 4, 36 km on.
7. Back to Fort «Krasnaya Gorka»
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
219 km in you reach back through Northern battery No. 4. Next is back through Fort «Ino».
8. back through Fort «Ino»
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort «Ino» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fort «Ino», late in the day. Next is Fort «Krasnaya Gorka».
9. Fort «Krasnaya Gorka»
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 292 km.
Leg by leg
Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» to Fort «Ino»
Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» → Fort «Ino» is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort «Ino» to Northern battery No. 4
Fort «Ino» → Northern battery No. 4 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Northern battery No. 4 to Vyborgskaya Road
Northern battery No. 4 → Vyborgskaya Road is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vyborgskaya Road to The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha
Vyborgskaya Road → The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha to back through Vyborgskaya Road
The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha → back through Vyborgskaya Road is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vyborgskaya Road to Back to Fort «Krasnaya Gorka»
back through Vyborgskaya Road → Back to Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort «Ino» to Fort «Krasnaya Gorka»
back through Fort «Ino» → Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.