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 Taytsy it runs 151 km to Taytsy; allow about 3 h 22 of riding. The stops in between: Peterhofskaya Road, Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof, The Coastal fort “Shanetz” and back through Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof. The coast is the point of it.
For about 25 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.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 25 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.
The village of Taitsy, south of Saint Petersburg near Krasnoye Selo, is home to an estate built in the eighteenth century for the Demidov family, the industrial dynasty whose fortune came from iron and metalworks in the Urals. The classical manor house, attributed to the architect Ivan Starov, stands in a landscape park with ponds and springs, and those springs mattered far beyond the estate: the Taitsy water conduit, built in the eighteenth century, carried water from here to the palaces and fountains of Tsarskoye Selo.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag is where the day begins. Next is Peterhofskaya Road.
Peterhofskaya Road was once the grandest road out of St Petersburg. Running southwest from the city along the shore of the Gulf of Finland toward Strelna and Peterhof, it was lined in the eighteenth century with country estates, dachas and palaces built by the nobility, who wanted to be close to the imperial residences along the coast. Peter the Great started the trend, granting plots to courtiers along the road, and the result was a chain of estates with gardens, parks and ponds stretching for miles. Many of these estates survive in some form, and the road and its surroundings are part of the UNESCO listing of the historic centre of St Petersburg and related groups of monuments.
Read the complete Peterhofskaya Road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Peterhofskaya Road comes up about 25 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 50 km into the recorded legs you reach Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof. Next is The Coastal fort “Shanetz”.
Shanetz sounds like a word for a small redoubt, and that is roughly what these coastal forts were: low, squat batteries put on islets and spits to cover the fairways into the Gulf of Finland. This one lies in the western approaches of Kotlin, on the shoals north of the island, and it belongs to the great ring of defences that earned Kronstadt its nickname as the key to Petersburg. The forts earned their keep during the Crimean War, when Allied ships came up the Baltic, took a look at the defences and decided not to risk an attack.
Read the complete The Coastal fort “Shanetz” write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Coastal fort “Shanetz”, about halfway. 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.
back through Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof sits at 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through Peterhofskaya Road.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Peterhofskaya Road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Peterhofskaya Road comes up about 125 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag closes the day.
The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag → Peterhofskaya Road is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Peterhofskaya Road → Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof → The Coastal fort “Shanetz” is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Coastal fort “Shanetz” → back through Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof is 25 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 Peterhofskaya Road is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Peterhofskaya Road → The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.