Why this ride
A 135 km round trip from Kronstadt - roughly 2 h 48 in the saddle. The stops in between: The Coastal Fort «Reef», The Datcha of the Hospital, The English Park and Oranienbaumsky Springboard.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The Barrier of Stone and Oranienbaumsky Springboard
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 135 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 48
- 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
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 17 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go — slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 29 km
- Named road
- Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
For about 16 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.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 16 km
- Named road
- Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. The Barrier of Stone
The Barrier of Stone is a name that sounds like a medieval wall, though what is actually out here is a creature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: the great flood barrier that stretches across the Gulf of Finland to protect St Petersburg. The city has been flooded again and again since its foundation, because it sits at the mouth of the Neva on land barely above sea level, and when westerly storms push water up the gulf the river backs up and spills into the streets. The worst floods are remembered in literature, most famously in Pushkin's poem about the bronze horseman.
Read the complete The Barrier of Stone write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Barrier of Stone is where the day begins. Next is The Coastal Fort «Reef».
2. The Coastal Fort «Reef»
In the shallow, grey waters of the Gulf of Finland, a chain of fortified islands guards the sea approach to Saint Petersburg. Peter the Great founded the naval base of Kronstadt on Kotlin Island in 1703, and over the following two centuries forts were built on artificial islets and reefs to the north and south, to form a defensive screen. In many cases the forts are military or ruined, and visits require permission.
Read the complete The Coastal Fort «Reef» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Coastal Fort «Reef» comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Datcha of the Hospital.
3. The Datcha of the Hospital
Somewhere between Bolshaya Izhora and Lomonosov, along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, stood a summer house known as the Datcha of the Hospital. The name suggests one of the many country retreats built along this coast in the nineteenth century, when the road west from St Petersburg was lined with the estates of the aristocracy, merchants and institutions. Few of these houses survive intact, and the exact remains of this one are hard to pin down; it is better to take it as a pause on one of the most historic stretches of shore in Russia.
Read the complete The Datcha of the Hospital write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 48 km into the recorded legs you reach The Datcha of the Hospital. Next is The English Park.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is Oranienbaumsky Springboard.
5. 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
Oranienbaumsky Springboard sits at 67 km, about halfway. Next is back through The English Park.
6. 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 comes up about 88 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through The Datcha of the Hospital.
7. back through The Datcha of the Hospital
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Datcha of the Hospital write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 104 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The Datcha of the Hospital. Next is back through The Coastal Fort «Reef».
8. back through The Coastal Fort «Reef»
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Coastal Fort «Reef» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through The Coastal Fort «Reef», late in the day. Next is The Barrier of Stone.
9. The Barrier of Stone
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Barrier of Stone 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 135 km.
Leg by leg
The Barrier of Stone to The Coastal Fort «Reef»
The Barrier of Stone → The Coastal Fort «Reef» is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Coastal Fort «Reef» to The Datcha of the Hospital
The Coastal Fort «Reef» → The Datcha of the Hospital is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Datcha of the Hospital to The English Park
The Datcha of the Hospital → The English Park is 16 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 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The English Park to back through The Datcha of the Hospital
back through The English Park → back through The Datcha of the Hospital is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Datcha of the Hospital to back through The Coastal Fort «Reef»
back through The Datcha of the Hospital → back through The Coastal Fort «Reef» is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Coastal Fort «Reef» to The Barrier of Stone
back through The Coastal Fort «Reef» → The Barrier of Stone is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.