Known for
Nikolsky Cathedral, the canals and the courtyards south of the Mariinsky, without Nevsky’s shopfronts.
The intelligentsia
Kolomna
Kryukov Canal, Nikolskaya Square, Dekabristov Street
The quiet piece south of the Mariinsky: St Nicholas Naval Cathedral, canals, courtyards without shop windows. Petersburg talks more softly here than on Nevsky, and it is not a pose.

Nikolsky Cathedral, the canals and the courtyards south of the Mariinsky, without Nevsky’s shopfronts.
Come by day, without a schedule. The evening works if you are going to the theatre and walking back on empty embankments.
A calm base within a walk of the centre. Fewer restaurants than on the Petrograd side, and no avenue under the window.
Fedor Samorodov · guide
From the Mariinsky walk south along the Kryukov Canal and leave the theatre behind. Nikolsky Cathedral stands on its own square by the canal. If the street is empty and has no shopfronts, that is Kolomna: turn into the courtyard.