Why this ride
A 97 km round trip from Kronstadt - roughly 1 h 36 in the saddle. On the way it passes The English Park, Oranienbaumsky Springboard and back through The English Park.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Fort «Kronshlot» and Oranienbaumsky Springboard
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 97 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 36
- 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 37 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 37 km
- Named road
- Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Fort «Kronshlot»
Fort Kronshlot is a stone fortress sitting on an artificial island in the middle of the water, and it has been there, in one form or another, since 1704. Peter the Great ordered it built to guard the shallow channel to the new city of Saint Petersburg, and the first version was a wooden tower on piles driven into the seabed and filled with stone. The name comes from the German for crown castle. The current structure is mostly of the nineteenth century, a long oval of brick and granite with gun casemates facing the water.
Read the complete Fort «Kronshlot» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fort «Kronshlot» is where the day begins. Next is The English Park.
2. The English Park
Everybody who comes to Peterhof heads for the fountains, the Grand Cascade and the gilded Samson tearing open the lion's jaws, and almost nobody walks the few hundred metres west into the English Park. That is their loss. Catherine the Great, who found Peter the Great's straight avenues and clipped hedges old-fashioned, had this park laid out from 1779 by the English gardener James Meader, in the natural landscape style then sweeping Europe: a chain of ponds, meadows, clumps of oak and lime, and paths that wander rather than march. It belongs to the World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Saint Petersburg and its ring of palaces and estates.
Read the complete The English Park write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The English Park comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Oranienbaumsky Springboard.
3. Oranienbaumsky Springboard
The Oranienbaum Springboard is not a single building but a piece of ground, and once you know the story the low woods and fields south of the Gulf of Finland look entirely different. In September 1941, as German and Finnish forces closed the ring around Leningrad, a pocket of coast around Oranienbaum, today's Lomonosov, held out. It was cut off from the city by land, supplied across the water and under the guns of Kronstadt, and it never fell. In January 1944 the Second Shock Army broke out of this pocket as one jaw of the offensive that finally lifted the siege.
Read the complete Oranienbaumsky Springboard write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 49 km into the recorded legs you reach Oranienbaumsky Springboard. Next is back through The English Park.
4. back through The English Park
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The English Park write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through The English Park, late in the day. Next is Fort «Kronshlot».
5. Fort «Kronshlot»
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort «Kronshlot» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Fort «Kronshlot». That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Fort «Kronshlot» to The English Park
Fort «Kronshlot» → The English Park is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The English Park to Oranienbaumsky Springboard
The English Park → Oranienbaumsky Springboard is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Oranienbaumsky Springboard to back through The English Park
Oranienbaumsky Springboard → back through The English Park is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The English Park to Fort «Kronshlot»
back through The English Park → Fort «Kronshlot» is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.