Walking tour along the old Peterhof road

Peterhof Road is primarily a forty-kilometer system of seaside estates and imperial residences, a chain of palaces, gardens and parks. The Peterhof road is the embodiment of the “regularity” inherent in St. Petersburg. It is built on the distribution of standard land. The configuration of these sections is unusual: in plans they resembled the keys of a giant piano. The evenly located estate complexes and the dominants of the imperial residences set a clear rhythm to the panorama of the coast.

The dachas were famous for the splendor of architecture and the luxury of the gardens. Among their owners were representatives of the highest capital society. The estates had their own farms and profitable establishments: farms, fruit orchards, greenhouses, zucchini, inns, villages.

According to Peter’s plan, the estates along the Peterhof road were to perform a socio-pedagogical function. First of all, the yards were seaside – designed to accustom Russians to navigation. The wide water panorama has become an integral and important part of the ensembles founded here. The southern coast of the Neva Bay was of great importance to the king. The king wanted his associates to have the same need to see the sea as he did.

The heyday of the Peterhof road falls during the reign of Catherine II. Then foreigners compared the trip from St. Petersburg to Peterhof with a trip from Paris to Versailles. And if in Peter’s time on the Peterhof road there were 80-90 dachas, at the end of the 18th century there were more than 150.

In the Russian Empire, the status of the Peterhof Road was always special: it was a government highway along which guards regiments passed, plumbing carriages raced, couriers galloped.

Unfortunately, few of the estates have survived to this day.

Back in the 20s-30s of the last century, in the Soviet period, numerous old buildings were lost on Strachek Avenue in the area of Narva Zastava, and after the war on the site of suburban areas, in the area of Dachnoye, Ulyanka, Ligovo, Sosnovaya Polyana, new residential areas appeared, houses went down, almost to the road itself and buried the remains of estates. So about the former splendor of the Peterhof Road, which suffered greatly during the war, we can only recall now. In 1941, almost the entire coast of the Gulf of Finland was occupied by the Nazis, who turned all the palaces and parks into ruins. In January 1944, the coast was liberated and immediately began the restoration of the palace and park ensembles, which continues to this day.

During the walking tour we will see what has been preserved from several old estates along the former Peterhof road. These are the estates of Sivers-Osterman, Roman Vorontsov, the estate of Ulyanka counts Sheremetev and “Alexandrino” Chernyshevs – Sheremetevs. Each of them keeps the history of its owners and the history of the Peterhof road.

The cost is indicated per person with a group of 2-10 people.

Walking tour along the old Peterhof road.