The Summer Garden is the first park of St Petersburg, laid out under Peter I in 1704. Today it is a Russian Museum branch — a formal landscape monument with 80 marble sculptures from the 17th and 18th centuries and Peter the Great's Summer Palace.
🌳 What to see
Three main avenues — Main, Shuvalovskaya and Transverse — cross at right angles. Round plazas with fountains sit at the intersections. By the Neva entrance stands Peter's Summer Palace by Trezzini. By the Karpiev Pond are the Tea House and Coffee House, now exhibition spaces.
🗿 Sculptures
Eighty marble statues, mostly by 17th-century Italian masters: Tauride Venus (a copy — the original is in the Hermitage), Truth, Terpsichore. In winter they are boxed up in wooden crates; autumn is the last chance to see them exposed.
📅 Closing dates
Full operation runs May through October. In November the sculptures go into their plywood jackets and the garden shifts to "winter" mode: free entrance but no fountains or statues.
🚕 Getting there
Gostiny Dvor or Chernyshevskaya metro, ten minutes on foot. Entrances from the Neva (at the Laundry Bridge) and from the Field of Mars. For a return home, a RideClu transfer works.
🛏 Where to stay
Apartments by the Field of Mars are bookable on Tutkakdoma.
If this is your first time in St Petersburg, bear two things in mind. Distances between the main sights are short, but autumn daylight is brief and rain arrives on no schedule. Plan your route around the lit half of the day, allow half an hour of buffer between stops, and bring a thermos and gloves for the evening. Dress in layers and wear non-slip soles — the embankments and bridges are windy, and courtyards stay wet after rain.
On the ground, walking is easiest between adjacent blocks, with short taxi hops when it gets dark or wet. If you are travelling as a group or with children, arrange the evening transfer back to your flat ahead of time — late-night fares spike. Flats in the centre go fast at weekends: book a week ahead for Nevsky, the Petrograd Side or Vasilievsky.
St Petersburg rewards half-day visits rather than one long marathon. Pick a theme — a single museum, a district, a walk — and give it time. After the active part, a warm cafe, a bookshop or a swimming pool is as much part of the ritual as the sights themselves, especially in November.
Verified against rusmuseum.ru on 22 October 2026.
Cover photo: Deror_avi, CC BY-SA 4.0, Викисклад
