St Petersburg
The Hermitage fully lives up to its sterling reputation. You can be absorbed by its treasures for days and still come out wanting more. The enormous…
Must-see attractions in St Petersburg
Around St Petersburg
The Grand Palace is an imposing building, although with just 30-something rooms, it is not nearly as large as your typical tsarist palace. From the start…
St Petersburg
The east wing of this magnificent building, wrapping around the south of Dvortsovaya pl and designed by Carlo Rossi in the 1820s, marries restored…
Around St Petersburg
One of the greatest attractions outside of St Petersburg is the jaw-dropping collection of gilded fountains, statue-lined lanes and picturesque canals…
St Petersburg
This spectacular palace on the Moyka River has some of the best 19th-century interiors in the city, in addition to a fascinating and gruesome history. The…
Around St Petersburg
The centrepiece of Tsarskoe Selo, created under Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine the Great between 1744 and 1796, is the vast baroque Catherine Palace,…
St Petersburg
The Mariinsky Theatre has played a pivotal role in Russian ballet ever since it was built in 1859 and remains one of Russia's most loved and respected…
Around St Petersburg
Around the Catherine Palace extends the lovely Catherine Park. The main entrance is on Sadovaya ul, next to the Palace Chapel. The park extends around the…
St Petersburg
Focusing solely on Russian art, from ancient church icons to 20th-century paintings, the Russian Museum's collection is magnificent and can easily be…
St Petersburg
This triangular island was closed for the most part of the last three centuries, and has opened to the public in dazzling fashion. There's plenty going on…
Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art
St Petersburg
Erarta's superb hoard of 2800 pieces of Russian contemporary art trumps its somewhat far-flung location. Housed in an ingeniously converted neoclassical…
St Petersburg
Housing a cathedral where the Romanovs are buried, a former prison and various exhibitions, this large defensive fortress on Zayachy Island is the kernel…
Church of the Saviour on the Spilled Blood
St Petersburg
This five-domed dazzler is St Petersburg’s most elaborate church, with a classic Russian Orthodox exterior and an interior decorated with some 7000 sq…
St Petersburg
The Alexander Nevsky Monastery – named for the patron saint of St Petersburg – is the city's most ancient and eminent monastery. Peter the Great made a…
St Petersburg
The golden dome of St Isaac’s Cathedral dominates the St Petersburg skyline. Its obscenely lavish interior is open as a museum, although services are held…
Around St Petersburg
Peterhof's uncontested centrepiece is the Grand Cascade, a symphony of over 140 fountains and canals partly engineered by Peter himself. To see the…
Vyborg
Rising stoutly from an islet in Vyborg Bay, this castle was built by the Swedes in 1293 when they first captured Karelia from Novgorod. Most of it now…
Vyborg
Housed in a wing of a striking building designed by Finnish architect Uno Ulberg in 1930, this small museum hosts themed exhibitions that are curated from…
St Petersburg
Guided tours of the Hermitage’s state-of-the-art restoration and storage facility are highly recommended. This is not a formal exhibition as such, but the…
St Petersburg
It's well worth the effort making the trip out to see this magnificent collection of street art set inside a former 11-hectare industrial site. You'll…
St Petersburg
The magnificently restored Shuvalovsky Palace is home to the world's largest collection of pieces manufactured by the jeweller Peter Carl Fabergé …
St Petersburg
Also known as the Museum of Ethnology and Anthropology, this is the city’s first museum, founded in 1714 by Peter himself. It is famous largely for its…
Around St Petersburg
The classical Alexander Palace, built by Quarenghi between 1792 and 1796 for the future Alexander I, is surrounded by the charming Alexander Park…
St Petersburg
Facing Millionnaya ul, the New Hermitage was built for Nicholas II in 1852, to hold the growing art collection and as a museum for the public. Designed by…
St Petersburg
This stunning mint-green, white and gold profusion of columns, windows and recesses, with its roof topped by rows of classical statues, was commissioned…
St Petersburg
The classical Small Hermitage, which evolved from a series of buildings constructed between Palace Sq and the Neva between 1764 and 1769, was used by…
St Petersburg
Facing the Neva, this section of the museum (also known as the Large Hermitage) dates from the time of Catherine the Great. It mainly houses Italian…
Anna Akhmatova Museum at the Fountain House
St Petersburg
Housed in the south wing of the Sheremetyev Palace, this touching and fascinating literary museum celebrates the life and work of Anna Akhmatova, St…
St Petersburg
This vast expanse is simply one of the most striking squares in the world, still redolent of imperial grandeur almost a century after the end of the…
Around St Petersburg
Shaped in a graceful curve around a central turret, the Gatchina Great Palace certainly lives up to its name – its enormous (if surprisingly plain) facade…
St Petersburg
The elegant Style Moderne Kshesinskaya Palace (1904) is a highly appropriate location for this excellent museum – one of the city's best – covering…
St Petersburg
This fantastic conversion of the former Smolninsky Bread Factory has plenty to keep you interested, including many of the original factory fittings…
St Petersburg
Following a move to this beautifully repurposed building opposite the former shipyard of New Holland, the Central Naval Museum has moved into the 21st…
Around St Petersburg
Menshikov’s impressive palace underwent a full restoration and reopened its state rooms in 2014. Most of the interiors are restorations of the 19th…
St Petersburg
Russia in all its grit and glory – from the industrial sprawl of Magnitogorsk to the glittering domes of Moscow – is on full display at this vast…
St Petersburg
This eastern tip of Vasilyevsky Island is where Peter the Great wanted his new city’s administrative and intellectual centre to be. In fact, it became the…
St Petersburg
In a once-industrial part of the city, Lumiere Hall hosts large-format multimedia exhibitions – basically massive 3D projections in a 360-degree space,…
Vyborg
A must-see for architecture fans is the beautifully designed public library, one of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto's iconic designs. After years of…
St Petersburg
The Russian Museum's exhibitions of 20th-century works are held in this building's 1st floor, which is connected by stairs to the main collection in the…
St Petersburg
All of Russia's prerevolutionary rulers from Peter the Great onwards (except Peter II and Ivan VI) are buried inside this cathedral. The magnificent…
