CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
From Gatchina it runs 297 km to Gatchina; allow about 5 h 13 of riding. It goes by way of Volkhonskoe Highway, Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof, Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Re and Northern battery No. 5. The line favours views over speed.
For about 30 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
37 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
Gatchina has a palace that most visitors head for first, but the building that makes riders and architects alike stop and stare is the little Priory Palace standing on the shore of Black Lake in Prioratsky Park. It looks like a small Gothic castle with a tower and a chapel, pale and slightly unreal against the water, and it is built of rammed earth. Nikolai Lvov, the architect and polymath, put it up around 1799 for Emperor Paul I, who had made himself Grand Master of the Knights of Malta and wanted a residence to offer the Order. The earth walls, compacted in layers and then plastered, have now survived more than two centuries of Russian winters, which is a better record than plenty of brick.
Read the complete Prioratsky Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Prioratsky Park is where the day begins. Next is Volkhonskoe Highway.
The Volkhonskoe Highway is not a scenic mountain road but a historic route on the southern edge of Saint Petersburg, running out from the city towards Gorelovo and the old road to Krasnoye Selo. It belongs to the network of eighteenth and nineteenth century highways that linked the capital with the imperial residences and military camps to the south and west, and it is included in the wider protected area of the historic centre of Saint Petersburg and its related monuments. What you see today is a mix of suburban growth, open fields and stretches of tree-lined road, with the ghosts of history underneath.
Read the complete Volkhonskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Volkhonskoe Highway comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof.
Peter the Great wanted a palace by the sea that would rival Versailles, and he chose this stretch of the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, about thirty kilometres west of Saint Petersburg. What became Peterhof is a town built around an imperial residence: the Grand Palace on a terrace above the sea, the Grand Cascade of gilded statues and fountains falling toward a canal that runs straight to the water, and parks full of pavilions, including Peter's own small Dutch style house, Monplaisir, right on the shore. The fountains run on gravity, fed by springs on the higher ground inland, a feat of eighteenth century engineering.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 66 km into the recorded legs you reach Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof. Next is Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Re.
Saint Petersburg began here, on Hare Island in the Neva, where Peter the Great laid the foundations of the Peter and Paul Fortress in 1703. The fortress, with its tall golden spire above the cathedral where Russian emperors are buried, still marks the heart of the city, and from its walls you look across the river to the Winter Palace, the Hermitage and the long granite embankments that make the city one of the most beautiful in Europe. The historic centre and its related monuments form a World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Re write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Re, about halfway. Next is Northern battery No. 5, 35 km on.
On the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, the Primorskoye Highway runs from St Petersburg through a string of resort villages, pine woods and sandy beaches toward Zelenogorsk and Vyborg. Northern Battery No. 5 belongs to the other side of the story, the chain of coastal defences that once guarded the sea approach to the city.
Read the complete Northern battery No. 5 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Northern battery No. 5 sits at 140 km, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Re.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Re write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Re comes up about 189 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 235 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof. Next is back through Volkhonskoe Highway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Volkhonskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Volkhonskoe Highway, late in the day. Next is Prioratsky Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Prioratsky Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 297 km.
Prioratsky Park → Volkhonskoe Highway is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Volkhonskoe Highway → Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof → Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Re is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Re → Northern battery No. 5 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Northern battery No. 5 → back through Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Re is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Re → back through Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof → back through Volkhonskoe Highway is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Volkhonskoe Highway → Prioratsky Park is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.