Metravel city quest

St Petersburg quest: guardians of the city

City Saint Petersburg: free walking route “St Petersburg quest: guardians of the city” along the sights. 11 points. Approximately 3 h 20 min. Quests and

In May 1703, Peter I founded a city in the Neva delta, on marshy islands flooded every autumn. Legend says that, standing on one of them, he declared, ‘Here a city shall be founded.’ It was a dangerous, uncomfortable place to live, yet over three centuries one of the world's most beautiful cities grew on those islands.

Perhaps that explains why St Petersburg, more than any other city, acquired an entire invisible garrison of guardians made of stone, bronze and glass. A horse rearing over a defeated snake. An angel with a cross atop a granite column. Ten giants forever holding a museum portico on their shoulders. Griffins with gilded wings outside a bank. A bronze bird on a glass globe. And the most unexpected guardian: a bronze bird only a palm high, sought by visitors for thirty years.

Today you will walk through the city centre and meet them one by one, from Senate Square to a quiet bend in the Fontanka.

What to do: 1) Read the story and task at each stop. 2) Find the place on the map and walk to it. 3) Look around and answer the question.

This walking route is around five kilometres long, entirely through the historic centre. We start on Senate Square beside the Bronze Horseman. Let's go!

What is on the route

The route points in order — what these places are and why they are interesting. Tasks and answers stay inside the quest.

  1. The Bronze Horseman on the Thunder Stone — The Bronze Horseman, Senate Square

    Here is the first and most famous guardian: Peter in bronze on a rearing horse. Sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet worked on the monument for fifteen years, from 1768 to 1778, seeking that precise instant when the horse rises and its rider extends his hand commandingly over the Neva, over the city he founded on these marshes.

  2. St Isaac’s Cathedral — forty years for one dome — St Isaac’s Cathedral, St Isaac’s Square

    It takes a minute to walk from Senate Square to neighbouring St Isaac's Square: the two guardians, equestrian and stone, stand almost shoulder to shoulder. The cathedral took forty years to build, from 1818 to 1858, under three successive emperors and the same stubborn French architect, Auguste de Montferrand.

  3. The General Staff Arch — Glory’s chariot flies towards the emperor — General Staff Arch, Palace Square

    From St Isaac's Square, turn onto Bolshaya Morskaya Street and walk straight ahead. It leads to the triumphal arch connecting the two wings of the General Staff Building.

  4. The Alexander Column — a block that stands on its own — Alexander Column, Palace Square

    Through the arch lies the empire's main square, Palace Square. In its centre, since 1834, stands the column Nicholas I commissioned to commemorate his elder brother Alexander I's victory over Napoleon.

  5. The New Hermitage atlantes — ten holders of the sky — Atlantes, New Hermitage portico, Millionnaya Street

    From Palace Square, go around the Winter Palace to the left and onto quiet Millionnaya Street. Here, at the New Hermitage entrance, stands another detachment of guardians, this time stone giants.

  6. Bank Bridge — griffins guarding the gold — Bank Bridge, Griboyedov Canal embankment

    From the Hermitage comes the route's longest walk: southeast through the centre towards Griboyedov Canal and pedestrian Bank Bridge. Do not be surprised by the distance; soon the route draws together again in a compact cluster around Nevsky Prospekt.

  7. Kazan Cathedral — a serf architect and a commander with trophies at his feet — Kazan Cathedral, Kazan Square

    From Bank Bridge, head back up to Nevsky Prospekt. In a couple of minutes, a magnificent semicircular colonnade opens on your left towards the city's main street, like a stone embrace.

  8. Singer House — the globe that outwitted the law — Singer Company House (House of Books), 28 Nevsky Prospekt

    Across the road from the colonnade, at the junction of Nevsky Prospekt and Griboyedov Canal, stands an elegant building with a glass turret. Today it holds the House of Books bookshop; it was built for the American sewing-machine company Singer.

  9. The Saviour on Spilled Blood — a church on the site of tragedy — Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood (Church of the Resurrection of Christ), Griboyedov Canal embankment

    From Singer House, follow Griboyedov Canal north. In ten to fifteen minutes it brings you straight to a colourful, almost toy-like church with onion domes.

  10. St Michael’s Castle — optional — St Michael’s (Engineers’) Castle, 2 Sadovaya Street

    From the Saviour on Spilled Blood, enter Mikhailovsky Garden. Architect Carlo Rossi laid it out in the 1820s, combining formal French planning around the edges with a freer English layout at its centre.

  11. Chizhik-Pyzhik — the city’s smallest guardian — Chizhik-Pyzhik monument, Fontanka embankment, near First Engineers’ Bridge

    From the castle, walk to the Fontanka and First Engineers' Bridge. Here on the granite embankment wall, right beside the water, sits our route's last and hardest-to-find guardian: St Petersburg's smallest monument, a bronze bird only eleven centimetres high.

Where to go next

This route is part of Metravel city quests. Below are the other quests in this city and cities with quests nearby.

Quests in nearby cities

All city quests