Why this ride
From Kronstadt it runs 555 km to Kronstadt; allow about 9 h 16 of riding. The stops in between: Primorskoe Highway, Fort «Seraya Loshad», Krasnoe Selo and The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Fort «Kronshlot» and The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 555 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 9 h 16
- 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 67 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 67 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 Primorskoe Highway.
2. Primorskoe Highway
Zelenogorsk used to be Terijoki, a Finnish resort town on the Gulf of Finland, and it belonged to Finland until the Winter War of 1939 to 1940, when this stretch of the Karelian Isthmus passed to the Soviet Union. Before that, Terijoki was a place where Russian aristocrats and artists kept summer houses, and the wooden villas that survive among the pines still have some of that air. The Primorskoe highway runs north-west from Saint Petersburg along the shore to Vyborg, and this is the part of it where the road threads a sandy, forested coastal strip with dunes on one side and wet pinewoods on the other.
Read the complete Primorskoe Highway write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Primorskoe Highway comes up about 67 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort «Seraya Loshad».
3. Fort «Seraya Loshad»
Along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, west of Saint Petersburg, a low strip of pine forest and sand runs for kilometres between the road and the sea. Fort Seraya Loshad, the Grey Horse, stands in this coastal country, eleven kilometres from the village of Lebyazhye, among a group of forts built for the defence of the capital and the naval base at Kronstadt.
Read the complete Fort «Seraya Loshad» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 163 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort «Seraya Loshad». Next is Krasnoe Selo.
4. Krasnoe Selo
Readers of Anna Karenina will know Krasnoye Selo, even if they have never been within a thousand kilometres of it. It was here, at the summer camp of the imperial guards, that Tolstoy set the officers' steeplechase in which Vronsky rides his mare Frou-Frou to disaster in front of the court. For more than a century, from the early nineteenth century until the revolution, the guards regiments of the Russian army gathered each summer in this area south-west of Saint Petersburg for manoeuvres, parades and horse races, and the tsar and the court came to watch. It is listed as one of the monuments associated with the historic centre of Saint Petersburg.
Read the complete Krasnoe Selo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Krasnoe Selo, 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 193 km, about halfway. Next is back through Krasnoe Selo.
6. back through Krasnoe Selo
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Krasnoe Selo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Krasnoe Selo comes up about 316 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Fort «Seraya Loshad».
7. back through Fort «Seraya Loshad»
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort «Seraya Loshad» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 393 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fort «Seraya Loshad». Next is back through Primorskoe Highway.
8. back through Primorskoe Highway
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Primorskoe Highway write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Primorskoe Highway, late in the day. Next is Fort «Kronshlot».
9. 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
The route ends here after 555 km.
Leg by leg
Fort «Kronshlot» to Primorskoe Highway
Fort «Kronshlot» → Primorskoe Highway is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Primorskoe Highway to Fort «Seraya Loshad»
Primorskoe Highway → Fort «Seraya Loshad» is 96 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort «Seraya Loshad» to Krasnoe Selo
Fort «Seraya Loshad» → Krasnoe Selo is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Krasnoe Selo to The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha
Krasnoe Selo → The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha to back through Krasnoe Selo
The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha → back through Krasnoe Selo is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Krasnoe Selo to back through Fort «Seraya Loshad»
back through Krasnoe Selo → back through Fort «Seraya Loshad» is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Fort «Seraya Loshad» to back through Primorskoe Highway
back through Fort «Seraya Loshad» → back through Primorskoe Highway is 104 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Primorskoe Highway to Fort «Kronshlot»
back through Primorskoe Highway → Fort «Kronshlot» is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.