Why this ride
A 121 km round trip from Gorelovo - roughly 2 h 17 in the saddle. It goes by way of The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin, The English Park, Oranienbaumsky Springboard and The Maximov's Datcha.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Volkhonskoe Highway and The Maximov's Datcha
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 121 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 17
- 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 14 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 14 km
- Named road
- Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Volkhonskoe Highway is where the day begins. Next is The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin.
2. The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin
On the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, between St Petersburg and Peterhof, the old road runs past a string of palaces and estates that the Russian elite built in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to be near the sea and the court. Among them, near Strelna, stands the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, a monastery founded in the eighteenth century as a dependency of the great Trinity Lavra of St Sergius near Moscow. It is part of the wide UNESCO listing of St Petersburg's historic centre and the monuments around it.
Read the complete The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. Next is The English Park.
3. 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
about 29 km into the recorded legs you reach The English Park. Next is Oranienbaumsky Springboard.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is The Maximov's Datcha.
5. The Maximov's Datcha
The south shore of the Gulf of Finland west of St Petersburg is a strip of dachas, palaces and old military ground, and the place marked here as Maximov's Datcha sits within it, a couple of kilometres from the town of Lomonosov.
Read the complete The Maximov's Datcha write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Maximov's Datcha sits at 66 km, about halfway. Next is back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard.
6. back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard comes up about 78 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through The English Park.
7. 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
about 90 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The English Park. Next is back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin.
8. back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin, late in the day. Next is Volkhonskoe Highway.
9. Volkhonskoe Highway
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Volkhonskoe Highway 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 121 km.
Leg by leg
Volkhonskoe Highway to The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin
Volkhonskoe Highway → The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin to The English Park
The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin → The English Park is 14 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 The Maximov's Datcha
Oranienbaumsky Springboard → The Maximov's Datcha is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Maximov's Datcha to back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard
The Maximov's Datcha → back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard to back through The English Park
back through 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 Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin
back through The English Park → back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin to Volkhonskoe Highway
back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin → Volkhonskoe Highway is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.