Why this ride
An 81 km round trip from Kronstadt - roughly 1 h 16 in the saddle. It goes by way of The English Park, Oranienbaumsky Springboard and back through The English Park.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Southern battery No 2 and Oranienbaumsky Springboard
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 81 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 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 33 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 33 km
- Named road
- Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Southern battery No 2
Kotlin Island sits in the middle of the Gulf of Finland like a cork in a bottle, and Peter the Great knew it. He seized this stretch of coast from Sweden in 1703 and almost at once began fortifying the island to guard the new capital, Saint Petersburg, which lay at the head of the gulf. Over the next two centuries a ring of forts and batteries grew up on islands, shoals and the shore, and Kronstadt became the home port of the Baltic Fleet. The batteries named in these ride titles, Southern and Northern, belong to that defensive system.
Read the complete Southern battery No 2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Southern battery No 2 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 33 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 45 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 Southern battery No 2.
5. Southern battery No 2
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Southern battery No 2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Southern battery No 2. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Southern battery No 2 to The English Park
Southern battery No 2 → The English Park is 33 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 Southern battery No 2
back through The English Park → Southern battery No 2 is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.