You can walk the seven main squares of central St Petersburg in a single day if you take them in the right order: from Palace Square to Senate Square and St Isaac's, on to the Mariinsky Theatre and Sennaya Square, then one stop on the metro to the Alexandrinsky Theatre and the Russian Museum. On foot it adds up to about 7 km, roughly an hour and a half of actual walking. With 10–20 minute stops at each square it takes 4–5 hours, and if you go inside St Isaac's Cathedral it fills the whole day.
In autumn, start in the morning: on 21 October the sun sets at 17:33, and by mid-November at about 16:30. Here is what we checked on 19 October 2026: St Isaac's Cathedral opening hours and prices on its official website, museum and market hours on Yandex Maps, and walking distances between the stops. We found no official notices of fencing or works on Palace Square or St Isaac's Square for that date, but the square in front of the Winter Palace is regularly closed off for concerts and celebrations, so check the local news on the day.
🏛 Palace Square (Dvortsovaya ploshchad): start at Admiralteyskaya metro
From the Admiralteyskaya metro exit on Kirpichny Lane to the Alexander Column it is about 600 metres, an 8-minute walk through the General Staff arch. This is the best way onto the square: first you see only the opening of the arch, then the whole Winter Palace at once.
What to see in 15–20 minutes. The Alexander Column was put up in 1830–1834 to a design by Auguste de Montferrand to commemorate the victory of 1812. The red granite monolith, more than 25 metres long and weighing about 600 tonnes, stands on its pedestal with no fixings at all, held by its own weight. With the angel on top it is 47.5 metres tall. Opposite is the Winter Palace, the main building of the Hermitage; behind you is the curve of Carlo Rossi's General Staff Building. If you plan to go into the Hermitage or the General Staff, remember both are closed on Mondays.
🐎 Senate Square (Senatskaya ploshchad) and the Bronze Horseman
From the column to the Bronze Horseman (Medny vsadnik) is about a kilometre, 13 minutes: walk along the Admiralty through the Alexander Garden. Étienne Falconet's monument to Peter the Great was unveiled in 1782 and stands on the huge Thunder Stone. Peter looks out over the Neva, and on the west side of the square stand the Senate and Synod buildings, also by Rossi, with an arch over Galernaya Street.
The Bronze Horseman on Senate Square — Photo: PiterPass
Ten minutes is enough here. In autumn the wind off the Neva is noticeable, so this is the stretch where a scarf and hood earn their keep.
⛪ St Isaac's Square (Isaakievskaya ploshchad): the cathedral and the colonnade
From the Bronze Horseman to the Nicholas I monument on St Isaac's Square is about 700 metres, 8–9 minutes around the cathedral. St Isaac's Cathedral took forty years to build, from 1818 to 1858, again to Montferrand's design. It is 101.5 metres high, and its porticoes rest on 48 granite columns, each 17 metres tall and weighing 114 tonnes.
St Isaac's Cathedral — Photo: PiterPass
This is the main place on the route to warm up. The museum is open 10:00–18:00, the ticket desks until 17:30, and it is closed on Wednesdays. The exception is school holidays (other than summer) and public holidays, when the museum opens every day. A ticket to the cathedral costs 700 roubles, and the climb to the colonnade another 700 roubles, with no concessions on the colonnade. The viewing platform is 43 metres up, and you climb up and down on foot. From October to April the colonnade is closed on the third Wednesday of the month: in 2026 that is 21 October and 18 November. Evening climbs only run from May to September.
Outside, take 10 minutes for the equestrian statue of Nicholas I in the middle of the square, the Mariinsky Palace on its southern side, now home to the city's Legislative Assembly, and the Blue Bridge over the Moika in front of it.
🎭 Theatre Square (Teatralnaya ploshchad): the Mariinsky and the Conservatory
From St Isaac's to Theatre Square is about 1.3 km, 16 minutes along the Moika and down Glinki Street. The historic Mariinsky Theatre building and the Conservatory face each other across the square. If you want to come back in the evening for a performance, our guide on how to buy Mariinsky Theatre tickets explains how sales work.
🛒 Sennaya Square and one stop on the metro
Next comes the longest walking stretch: about 1.6 km, 20 minutes to Sennaya Square (the Haymarket). Three metro stations meet here, Sennaya Ploshchad, Spasskaya and Sadovaya, and nearby at 4 Moskovsky Prospekt is the Sennoy Market. It is open daily 8:00–20:00 and is the second place on the route to warm up and grab a bite. Readers of Crime and Punishment will recognise the streets around Sennaya, although Dostoevsky never gives his characters' exact addresses in the novel.
You don't need to walk the length of Nevsky from here: take the metro from Sennaya Ploshchad one stop to Nevsky Prospekt and change through the passage to Gostiny Dvor. That saves about 20 minutes. To work out which travel ticket is cheapest, see St Petersburg transport for a day: what's cheaper.
👑 Ostrovsky Square (ploshchad Ostrovskogo): the Alexandrinsky Theatre and Catherine the Great
From Gostiny Dvor metro to the Catherine the Great monument is about 350 metres, 5 minutes. Mikhail Mikeshin's monument was unveiled in 1873 and stands in the middle of Catherine Garden. Behind the garden is Rossi's Alexandrinsky Theatre, on the right the National Library of Russia, and on the left the pavilions of the Anichkov Palace.
The Alexandrinsky Theatre in the evening — Photo: Vityavo, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Be sure to walk round the theatre to Zodchego Rossi Street (Architect Rossi Street) behind it: two identical yellow façades with white columns make one of the most recognisable views in the city. The theatre is floodlit in the evening, and in November it is dark by 16:30, so this is a good square to reach at dusk.
