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Admiralty
Across the road from Dvortsovaya pl, the gilded spire of the old Admiralty is a prime St Petersburg landmark. It is visible from Gorokhovaya ul, Voznesensky pr and Nevsky pr, as all of these roads radiate outwards from this central point. Despite the spire's solid gold appearance, it's actually made from wood and was almost rotted through before restoration efforts began in 1996.
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Bell Tower
The 122.5m-high Bell Tower, in the grounds of Peter & Paul Fortress, remains the city's tallest structure. It offers a small exhibition about the renovation of the tower, as well as an up-close inspection of the bell-ringing mechanism. The main reason to climb all these steps is for the magnificent 360-degree panorama. The bell tower is open only with a guided tour, so call in advance or check the information office for the schedule, which is likely to change. Tickets are sold at the boathouse.
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Bronze Horseman
The most famous statue of Peter the Great was immortalised as the Bronze Horseman in the poem by Pushkin. With his mount rearing above the snake of treason, Peter's enormous statue stands at the river end of pl Dekabristov. The statue was sculpted over 12 years for Catherine the Great by Frenchman Etienne Falconet. Its inscription reads 'To Peter I from Catherine II - 1782'.
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Cathedral Of The Transfiguration Of Our Saviour
The interior of this marvellous 1743 cathedral, which has been beautifully restored and repainted both outside and in, is one of the most gilded in the city. The grand gates bear the imperial double-headed eagle in vast golden busts, reflecting the fact that the cathedral was built on the site where the Preobrazhensky Guards (the monarch's personal protection unit) had their headquarters. Architect Vasily Stasov rebuilt the cathedral from 1827 to 1829 in the neoclassical style.
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Catherine the Great Statue
An enormous statue of Catherine the Great stands amid the chess, backgammon and sometimes even mah jong players that crowd the benches of this airy square. The statue was created by Carlo Rossi in the 1820s and 1830s. At the Empress' heels are some of her renowned statesmen, including her lovers Orlov, Potemkin and Suvorov.
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Chesme Church
One of the city's most wonderful buildings, this red-and-white Gothic beauty looks not unlike a candy cane, with long, vertical white stripes giving the impression that it's rising straight up from the earth like a mirage and shooting upwards. Designed by Yury Felten, it was built between 1777 and 1780 in honour of the Battle of Chesme (1770).
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Church Of St John The Baptist
This extraordinary building has one of the most striking exteriors in the city - its Byzantine façade is totally incongruous with the rest of the street, although few people seem to notice it, hemmed in on both sides by other terraced buildings on ul Nekrasova. The church once had the whole building, but currently it shares the premises with a hospital. Go past the waiting patients to the 2nd floor where you can see the small church and chat with the charming nuns who look after it.
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Church Of The Assumption
When Tsarevich Nikolai (later Nicholas II, the last Romanov tsar) was attacked by a Japanese fanatic while on a tour of Asia in 1891, he sustained a serious blow to the head but miraculously survived. The customs officers of St Petersburg's docklands gathered money and constructed a bell tower in thanks for the survival of the heir to the throne.
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Church Of The Saviour On Spilled Blood
This multidomed dazzler, partly modelled on St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, was built between 1883 and 1907 in memory of reformist Tsar Alexander II. On this spot in 1881, a terrorist group known as the People's Will attempted to assassinate the tsar by blowing up his carriage, which did eventually result in his death. Officially called the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, it was intended as a private place of mourning for the life of the tsar.
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Dvortsovaya Pl (Palace Sq)
It is no secret where St Petersburg's heart lies. Although it's no longer the hub of the city, there can be little doubt that the vast expanse where Nevsky pr meets the Neva River and Dvortsovaya nab is simply one of the most striking squares in the world, still redolent of imperial grandeur almost a century after the end of the Romanov dynasty. For the most amazing first impression walk from Nevsky pr, up Bolshaya Morskaya ul and under the triumphal arch.
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Finland Station
Finland Station is where Lenin finally arrived in 1917 after 17 years in exile abroad. Here, in the square where his statue now stands, he gave his legendary speech from the top of an armoured car to a crowd who had only heard of but never seen the man. After fleeing a second time he again arrived here from Finland, this time disguised as a railway fireman, and the locomotive he rode in is displayed on the platform.
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Gostiny Dvor
The arcades of Gostiny Dvor department store stand facing the clock tower of the former Town Duma (Town Parliament) on Dumskaya ul, the seat of the prerevolutionary city government. One of the world's first indoor shopping malls, the 'Merchant Yard' dates from between 1757 and 1785 and stretches 230m along Nevsky (its perimeter is over 1km long). This Rastrelli creation is not as elaborate as some of his other work, finished as it was by Vallin de la Mothe in a more sober neoclassical style.
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Grand Choral Synagogue
Designed by Vasily Stasov, the striking Grand Choral Synagogue opened in 1893 to provide a central place of worship for St Petersburg's growing Jewish community. Its lavishness (particularly notable in the 47m-high cupola and the decorative wedding chapel) indicates the pivotal role that Jews played in imperial St Petersburg. The synagogue was fully revamped in 2003 with money donated by an American benefactor.
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House Of Soviets
No building in the city can compare in terms of sheer staggering bombast to this Stalinist beauty (or beast, depending on your take). Planned to be the central administrative building of Stalin's Leningrad, it was built with the leader's neoclassical tastes in mind. Begun by Noi Trotsky in 1936, it was not finished until after the war, by which time Trotsky had been purged.
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Kazan Cathedral
Atypical of St Petersburg churches, the neoclassical Kazan Cathedral was commissioned by Tsar Paul shortly before he was murdered in a coup. It reflects his eccentric desire to unite Catholicism and Orthodoxy in a kind of 'super-Christianity' as well as his fascination with the Knights of Malta, of which he was a member. The cathedral's great, 111m-long colonnaded arms reach out towards Nevsky pr, encircling a pleasant garden that is studded with statues.
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Marble Palace
Between Mars Field and the Neva, the Marble Palace is an architectural gem by Antonio Rinaldi, who used 36 kinds of marble and took pains to make them bleed seamlessly into one another. It was built between 1768 and 1785 as a gift from Catherine the Great to Grigory Orlov for suppressing a Moscow rebellion.
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Mariinsky Theatre
The pretty green and white Mariinsky Theatre has played a pivotal role in Russian ballet ever since it was built in 1859. Outside performance times you can usually wander into the theatre's foyer and maybe peep into its lovely auditorium. To organise a full tour, fax a request to Dr Yury Schwartzkopf and call for an answer.
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Moscow Gates
About 4km south of Sennaya pl, the iron Triumphal Arch looks much like Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, though it is somewhat less than grand in its surroundings. The arch was built by Vasily Stasov in 1838 to mark victories over Turks, Persians and Poles. Demolished in 1936, it was rebuilt between 1959 and 1961.
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Narva Gates
Just outside the Narvskaya metro station, the Narva Gates were built between 1827 and 1834 by Vasily Stasov as a tribute the defeat of Napoleon in 1812. Standing proudly at one of the city's old gates, this 12-columned monolith is crowned with an angel of victory and decorated with an assembly of valiant warriors.
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Pl Dekabristov (Decembrists' Sq)
Pl Dekabristov (Decembrists' Sq) is named after the first attempt at a Russian revolution - the Decembrists' Uprising of 14 December 1825 - and is home to the enormous bronze statue of Peter the Great (immortalised as the Bronze Horseman in the poem by Pushkin), which stands at the river end of pl Dekabristov. The Decembrists were young officers who were inspired by radical ideas from France during the Napoleonic campaigns and wanted to introduce constitutional monarchy.
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Pl Iskusstv (Arts Sq)
Just a block east of the Griboedov Canal is the quiet pl Iskusstv (Arts Sq), named after its cluster of museums and concert halls. In the 1820s and 1830s, Carlo Rossi designed this square and the lovely Mikhailovskaya ul, which joins it to Nevsky pr. A statue of Pushkin, erected in 1957, stands in the middle of the tree-lined square.
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Pl Ostrovskogo (Ostrovsky Sq)
Ringed with important cultural institutions, pl Ostrovskogo is named for Alexander Ostrovsky (1823-86), a celebrated 19th-century playwright. An enormous statue of Catherine the Great (1873) stands amid the chess, backgammon and mah-jong players that crowd the benches here. At the Empress' heels are renowned statesmen of the 19th century, including her lovers Orlov, Potemkin and Suvorov.
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Sennaya Pl
St Petersburg's Haymarket was the city's filthy underbelly immortalised by Dostoevsky, who lived in the neighbourhood and set Crime and Punishment here. Until a recent face-lift, the square was overloaded with makeshift kiosks and market stalls, which made it a magnet for the homeless, beggars, pickpockets and drunks. Despite a big clean-up effort by city authorities in time for the tercentennial in 2003, Sennaya pl retains a fundamental insalubriousness. Be on your guard walking around here at night.
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Sheremetyev Palace
Splendid wrought-iron gates facing the Fontanka River guard the entrance to the Sheremetyev Palace (1750-55), now a branch of the State Museum of Theatre & Music, which has a collection of musical instruments from the 19th and 20th centuries. The Sheremetyev family was famous for the concerts and theatre performances they hosted at their palace, which was a centre of musical life in the capital in the 18th century.
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Singer Building
Opposite the Kazan Cathedral stands one of St Petersburg's most marvellous buildings, the headquarters of the Singer sewing machine company which opened a factory in the Russian capital in 1904. The building also housed the American consulate for a few years prior to WWI. These days, the Singer Building provides a home to St Petersburg's premier bookstore, Dom Knigi, and an uninspiring coffee shop.
