Why this ride
A 76 km round trip from Kronstadt - roughly 1 h 34 in the saddle. On the way it passes The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya, Oranienbaumsky Springboard and back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Southern battery No 3 and Oranienbaumsky Springboard
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 76 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 34
- 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
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 17 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 23 km
- Named road
- Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Southern battery No 3
Sailors in the Gulf of Finland used to say that Kotlin Island was a long grey shape you saw only when you were already too close, and Southern Battery No. 3 is part of the reason the sailors came to respect it. It stands on the low, southern shore of the island, facing the channel that runs past Lomonosov on the mainland, one of a numbered line of coastal batteries that guarded the approach to Saint Petersburg from the sea. The batteries were built for guns and are now mostly quiet, grassy ruins of earth, brick and concrete.
Read the complete Southern battery No 3 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Southern battery No 3 is where the day begins. Next is The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya.
2. The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya
Peterhof is the one everyone has seen in photographs, with the golden statue of Samson tearing open a lion's jaws and the long canal running down to the Gulf of Finland. The Sobstvennaya Dacha, the Tsar's Own Dacha, is a quieter corner of the same ensemble, tucked into the parkland on the southern shore of the gulf. The ground here is the Izhorsky bench, a limestone shelf running east to west with a sudden step down toward the water.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya comes up about 23 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 39 km into the recorded legs you reach Oranienbaumsky Springboard. Next is back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya.
4. back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya, late in the day. Next is Southern battery No 3.
5. Southern battery No 3
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Southern battery No 3 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 3. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Southern battery No 3 to The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya
Southern battery No 3 → The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya to Oranienbaumsky Springboard
The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya → Oranienbaumsky Springboard is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Oranienbaumsky Springboard to back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya
Oranienbaumsky Springboard → back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya to Southern battery No 3
back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya → Southern battery No 3 is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.