Shuvalovskoye Cemetery in Ozerki: a church on a hill above the lake, graves of scholars and writers, and the most scenic necropolis in the north of the city

From the Vyborg Highway, Shuvalovskoye Cemetery looks like a village churchyard on a hill: two churches, a fence, trees. Walk in and climb to the upper church, and the Suzdal Lake opens below — Ozerki, the dacha shores — and you understand why, since the eighteenth century, those who could choose chose to be buried here. It is a necropolis, a park and a viewpoint at once.

The church on the hilltop above the lake. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The oldest in the north

The cemetery grew up beside the Shuvalov estate in the eighteenth century as the parish ground for the surrounding villages; according to the Citywalls database, a wooden church already stood here in the 1750s. The present churches are the Saviour Not Made by Hands, 1790s, and Alexander Nevsky, 1880s. Both are in use and stand at different levels of the hill.

Two churches

The lower church, the Saviour, is small and classical with a bell tower, by the main gate. The upper, Alexander Nevsky, is in the Russian style with a tented roof on the highest point of the hill. Between them an alley climbs past the old graves.

The upper church of Alexander Nevsky in the Russian style. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The lake view

From the upper church the view takes in the Lower Suzdal Lake: water, the far shore with its dachas, bathing places in summer, ice in winter. It is one of the few cemeteries people visit for the view. Best in late autumn, when the leaves are down and the whole lake shows, and at sunset in any season.

The Suzdal Lake from the cemetery hill. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Whom to look for

Buried here are figures of science, theatre and literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: professors of the university and the Academy, actors of the city's theatres, Soviet-era writers. A plan by the main gate marks the notable graves. The old plots with cast-iron railings and nineteenth-century headstones are in the upper part.

Nineteenth-century headstones on the old plots. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The alley between the lower and upper churches. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Ozerki around it

The cemetery is part of Ozerki: three Suzdal lakes, early twentieth-century dachas, the former Ozerki restaurant where Blok wrote "The Stranger". A walk along the lakeshore from the cemetery to Shuvalov Park takes an hour — a natural chain of cemetery, lakes and park.

The lakeshore below the cemetery hill. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Getting there

Ozerki metro, exit to the Vyborg Highway, ten minutes north on foot. If you continue to Shuvalov Park and further north, transport between the points is sparse; a half-day transfer via RideClu links Ozerki, Pargolovo and Levashovo without waiting for buses.

The Vyborg Highway, the way from the metro to the cemetery. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Where to stay

Ozerki and Shuvalovo are a quiet northern district of lakes and dachas, twenty minutes by metro from Finlyandsky station. For a trip around the north of the city and the Karelian Isthmus, apartments here can be booked on Tutkakdoma — with water views and without central prices.

The main gate on the Vyborg Highway. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Not for you if cemeteries make you uneasy — it is a necropolis, however beautiful. For the view over Ozerki and for quiet, it is the best point in the district.

Checked on 22 October 2026 against the Citywalls database and Kultura.rf.

Cover photo: Фото: GAlexandrova, CC BY-SA 4.0, Викисклад