So where does Victor live in St. Petersburg?

Since I’ve been in St Petersburg recently I wanted to share my assumptions and guesses on where Victor could live. The trip has gotten me a good feel of the city and I feel like I can make my guesses with more confidence since now I know the layout of the city, the realistic distances etc. (Though of course I can’t be compared to a native St Petersburgian (?) but my knowledge will have to do.)

Let us first lay out the key locations.

The Yubileyny Sports Palace (the rink of the Russian skaters in the anime) which I talked more about here, is located here:



(I know it’s small but bear with me for now since I’m just trying to show the general area now.)

The Tuchkov bridge (which we also see in the anime and which I also talked about here) is here:

They’re right next each other, which definitely makes sense, since why else would the bridge have any significance in the anime if it weren’t near the rink?

But the real question is: Does Victor live in the residential area around the rink or in a different part of the city entirely?



(Aaand I’m putting the rest of this post under the cut because all the maps and photos later on make it pretty long.)



Then, we have the Pulkovo airport, which Victor travels from in episode 2:

It’s about 30km from the rink.

You can get most of the way by subway and then switch to a bus, or of course take a taxi or have someone drive you.

With this information, you could conclude that Victor lives in the residential area around the rink, right here:

Which I think is a possibility.

HOWEVER, there is one more location in which we see Victor canonically which could suggest otherwise!

We only see it briefly and only a small part of it but it’s there.

It’s… the Winter Palace! Meaning it’s a part of the Hermitage museum. (thank you to @kabrakare for making me realize this. Look at their post and you’ll notice the similarities.)

Hermitage literally means a place where a hermit lives, but it can also be any secluded place, a retreat or a hideaway. Which is fitting when it comes to Victor who could be described as a hermit before Yuuri‘s appearing in his life. In the context of the anime and the name of the museum, I think it makes perfect sense for Victor to go and sit there alone, pondering his life choices.

How does this tie into the location of Victor’s apartment? Simple - the Hermitage is on the other side of the river. Right here:

And that on its own doesn’t tell us much - it’s easy enough to cross the river and the Hermitage itself is only about 2.5km away from the rink. Victor could easily get there even in the evenings/at night.

But it’s kind of out of the way, don’t you think? Like, assuming that Victor wanted to go out and sit there in the cold, pondering his life, you’d imagine he could just choose any random bench anywhere on the rink side of the river, closer to home, right?

But what if this place isn’t just a metaphorically convenient tool for story-telling, but also physically convenient for Victor? What if Victor is actually shown there because the Hermitage is located on his way home?

Perhaps the scene in the anime alone doesn’t prove it, but recently a piece of official art that seems in line with my theory was released. And it’s this one:

In the foreground you see young Victor with Makkachin and in the background - the Winter Palace aka the Hermitage once more. Since he’s with Makkachin it’s fair to assume he started his jog at home. He doesn’t look tired yet so he couldn’t have been jogging for long.

And the best part is the direction in which he’s jogging. I’ve seen the place with my own eyes so I can confidently say that he’s jogging that way aka towards the rink:

Okay, so I’ve shown you all this proof but where exactly does Victor live?

In my opinion? Fontanka river embankment.



The arrows point at the river, I didn’t circle it in red because that’d be a big circle.



From what I’ve seen it’s a pretty fancy area - it even has multiple little palaces of historical nobility. It sounds perfect; not to mention the lovely view of the river and the good location. It’s pretty much in the center of the city and it cuts across the largest/most popular street, since Nevsky Prospekt is like the Champs Elysees of St Petersburg.

And alright, we’re getting closer, but the river is still 7 km long. Could Victor live anywhere on its embankment? Yeah, definitely. Frankly he could live anywhere in St Petersburg because this is all a speculation.



But as I was there I passed a building that just screamed VICTOR’S APARTMENT, so I do have a specific headcanon on where Victor lives.

And it’s here, on Fontanka Embankment 24:

I’m specifically thinking of the second floor - the one with the three balconies.

(Naturally, it’s not just one apartment, there must be at least three different flats on that floor, judging by the balconies.)

But just look at it! Large windows, good location, a (mostly) well-maintained building. Sounds about right, right? What made me consider this building in the first place me was this sign

“Apartment with a view”. Plus, the wall decorations look elaborate and elegant which also fits Victor. The building is beautiful though if you look closely, parts of it appear to be falling apart. Kind of like Victor himself, isn’t it?



But since we’re zoomed in - let’s talk windows. We know little about the inside of Victor’s apartment in the anime but we can assume it’s one of these two:

It was changed in the DVD and BluRay versions for unknown reasons (but likely due to copyright). In the original version of the room (the top one) we actually see a very similar window in the background, so at the very least, we can assume that the building is in a similar style.

Then again, the window is gone in the new version of the room, or, at the very least, it’s not in the room we see/at the angle we see the room at. I could argue that it’s the window that casts light on the floor near Victor’s couch but that would be a stretch since the shape is vastly different. Still, large windows? Large windows. At least one hint as to where and how Victor could live.

But if we go by the design of the room in the DVD/BluRay version then I have another compelling explanation for why this building is the right one. Look what’s at the ground floor of the building.

An antique shop. Which, coincidentally would be a great source of books, wouldn’t it? That’s what they mostly stock in this part of the world, as far as I’ve seen. (Russians are also apparently avid book readers and there are a ton of bookshops in St Petersburg so it’s all still making sense.)



The antique shop would also, at least partially, explain that statue that Victor brought to Hasetsu:



Who knows, maybe he wanted a piece of home with him? Apart from the matryoshkas, of course. And the antique shop is literally in the same building as his home so it doesn’t get homier than that.

But alright, that’s enough apartment building meta for now. Does the building I found seem plausible judging by the few little things we know? I think so.

But what about realistic distances? Would it make sense for Victor to live so far away from the rink?

Well, the question really is: Is it that far away from the rink?

The answer is: No, not really.

It’s about 4.2km away from the rink, which would make for a perfect 40 minute morning jog! We don’t see Victor jog in the anime, but we do in the official art that I attached above and- what do you know! One of the convenient routes actually passes right through the hermitage museum! It’s making perfect sense!

But I’m sure you still have doubts. The major one being “how do you explain the first scene in episode 2?”

This scene

in which Victor is first chased by Yakov and then says goodbye to him, as he heads down the bridge and away from the rink.



Why would Victor be crossing he bridge from the side of the rink if he lives in a completely different part of the city? And the airport isn’t anywhere near here?



Easy, my friends.

My answer? Yakov lives near the rink, and Victor went to see him one last time before saying goodbye and flying away. Why do you think Yakov was following him otherwise? His innate “Vitya is about to do something stupid” sense woke him up in the middle of the night and told him to go to the Tuchkov bridge?

Or maybe because Victor entered his apartment, said goodbye to him and then walked away, heading down the bridge, and Yakov simply chased him down? If he lives near the rink, he wouldn’t have to run far to catch up, so it’s plausible.

We can wonder what happens next because, like I mentioned earlier, the airport is 30km away from the rink and I’m not sure if Victor was planning to take a taxi or an uber or what have you but he wouldn’t be able to walk all the way over there for sure lol. (I totally bet Yakov begrudgingly drove him all the way to the airport though because of course he wouldn’t let his best skater just walk around in the cold at night like an idiot.)

So that indeed is my explanation of episode 2. All that’s left now, is episode 12, the final moments when we see Yuuri running up the bridge to meet Victor and Yurio.

As I mentioned at some point, Yuuri is not only running in Victor’s direction here, but also in the direction of the ice rink, which is a bit down the street if you turn right at the end of the bridge, looking from this persepctive.

The most common fandom interpretation of this scene is that Yuuri is running to practice in the morning and Victor and Yurio are waiting for him to join them because they’re early risers (and Yuuri definitely isn’t). I definitely agree with this interpretation and I’m actually quite impressed that it came to be even though I’m sure most of the fandom had no way of knowing that the rink is literally just around the corner.

This interpretation also fits my theory - Victor’s apartment would be just over 4km away from this place so jogging to it sounds like a plausible option, especially for Yuuri, who, as far as we know, often jogged from the hot springs to Ice Castle Hasetsu back in his hometown. Sure, he could have also taken the subway here because one of the exits is on the other side of the bridge, but his increased breathing seems to suggest to me that he’s been running for quite some time - our boy has the stamina of a horse, a little run wouldn’t tire him out this much. And of course, he’s accompanied by Makkachin, who would naturally follow him from home.

And if he really would go by subway - there’s an exit right by the rink, so they’d probably rather meet there because it’s way closer to, you know, their destination.



So in the end, is it plausible that Victor lives on the other side of the river and not anywhere near the rink? Yes, I think it’s very much plausible.

But, at the end of the day and this inappropriately long post, this is all just elaborate speculation because the few clues we get in the anime are hardly enough to lead us to Victor’s doorstep, contrary to Yuuri’s - whose house/inn is actually easy to locate if you know the name of the original hot springs. But that’s kind of inevitable - we see a lot of Hasetsu and very little of St Petersburg. If the sequels to the anime show more of St Petersburg, perhaps we will be able to precisely track down where Victor lives.

But for now, it’s all just speculation and my trying to make the best use of my St Petersburg trip haha.

If you have any more questions about St Petersburg, feel free to send them over! I was in the city for a week and I saw a shit ton of it (probably way more than I should, my legs still hurt on the memory of it) and utilized some of the public transport, saw most of the landmarks, the touristy locations and the less touristy locations and just got a good feel of the city so if there’s anything I could help with - practical and “boring” or romantic and abstract - I’d love to help!

