Museum sights in St Petersburg
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State Hermitage Museum
There are art galleries, there are museums, there are the great museums of the world and then there is the Hermitage. An unrivalled collection of art treasures housed in the magnificent palace from which the Romanov tsars ruled the Russian Empire, the State Hermitage will inevitably be the focus of any first visit to St Petersburg, and rightly so. At the information kiosk of the State Hermitage Museum you can pick up a free colour map of the museum, available in most European languages. Immediately after ticket inspection you can hire an audio guide (R250) with recorded tours in English, German, French, Italian or Russian. Groups enter from the river side of the Winter…
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Mikhailovsky Castle (Engineer’s Castle)
A much greater Summer Palace used to stand at the south end of the Summer Garden. But Rastrelli’s fairy-tale wooden creation for Empress Elizabeth was knocked down in the 1790s to make way for the bulky Mikhailovsky Castle. The son of Catherine the Great, Tsar Paul I, was born in the wooden palace and he wanted his own residence on the same spot. He had the current edifice built complete with defensive moat as he (quite rightly) feared assassination. But this erratic, cruel tsar only got 40 days in his new abode before he was suffocated in his bedroom in 1801. The style is a bizarre take on a medieval castle, quite unlike any other building in the city. In 1823 it became…
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Geological Museum
Located in the upper floors of the geology faculty of the university, this huge room contains several kilometres of fossils, rocks and gems – a veritable treasure chest of geological finds. The precious and semiprecious stones will certainly have you gawking at Mother Nature’s handiwork: sparkling amethyst crystals (one from the Altai mountains that is 1.5m long!); huge chunks of malachite from the Urals; and a gorgeous gypsum ‘rose’ from Astrakhan. Also on display are prehistoric rocks and fossils, dinosaur fragments, animal skulls and mammoth tusks. The centrepiece of the museum is a huge map of the Soviet Union made entirely of precious gems. The winner of the Paris…
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Strelka
Among the oldest parts of Vasilevsky Ostrov, this eastern tip is where Peter the Great first wanted his new city's administrative and intellectual centre. In fact, the Strelka became the focus of St Petersburg's maritime trade, symbolised by the colonnaded Customs House (now the Pushkin House).
The two Rostral Columns, archetypal St Petersburg landmarks, are studded with ships' prows and four seated sculptures representing four of Russia's great rivers: the Neva, the Volga, the Dnieper and the Volkhov. These were oil-fired navigation beacons in the 1800s (their gas torches are still lit on some holidays).
The Strelka has one of the best views in the city, with the Peter &…
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Nabokov Museum
This lovely 19th-century town house was the suitably grand childhood home of Vladimir Nabokov, infamous author of Lolita and arguably the most versatile and least classifiable of modern Russian writers. Here Nabokov lived with his wealthy family from his birth in 1899 until the revolution in 1917, when they sensibly left the country. The house features heavily in Nabokov’s autobiography Speak, Memory, in which he refers to it as a ‘paradise lost’. Indeed, he never returned, dying abroad in 1977. There’s actually relatively little to see in the museum itself, save for some charming interiors (don’t miss the gorgeous stained-glass windows in the stairwell, which are not…
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Alexander Blok House-Museum
This museum occupies the flat where poet Alexander Blok spent the last eight years of his life (1912–20). The revolutionary Blok believed that individualism had caused a decline in society’s ethics, a situation that would only be rectified by a communist revolution. The 4th floor has been preserved much as it was when Blok lived here with his wife Lyubov (daughter of Mendeleev). After touring the simple but historic home, descend to the 2nd floor, where Blok’s mother lived. When the poet fell ill in 1920, his family moved into this apartment where he finally died a year later. Here, a literary exhibition demonstrates the influence of Blok’s work, as well as some original…
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Hermitage Storage Facility
In case you did not see enough stuff at the museum in town, the storage facility of the Hermitage provides a superb reason for dragging yourself out to northern St Petersburg. Inside the state-of-the-art complex you'll be led through a handful of rooms housing but a fraction of the museum's collection. This is not a formal exhibition as such, but the guides are knowledgeable and the examples chosen for display - paintings, furniture, carriages - are wonderful.
The highlight is undoubtedly the gorgeous wool and silk embroidered Turkish ceremonial tent, presented to Catherine the Great by the Sultan Slim III in 1793. Beside it stands an equally impressive modern diplomatic…
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Winter Palace of Peter I
Opened as a part of the Hermitage in 1992, this palace on the Neva was the principal residence of Peter the Great, and he died here in 1725. When Giacomo Quarenghi built the Hermitage Theatre on this site between 1783 and 1789, he preserved parts of the palace and grounds. Between 1976 and 1986, excavations beneath the theatre stage uncovered a large fragment of the former state courtyard, as well as several suites of palace apartments. Today, the courtyard is used to display Peter’s official carriage and sledge. Some of the chamber rooms have been restored to their appearance during Peter’s era, complete with Dutch tiles and parquet floors, and are used to exhibit some…
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AS Popov Central Museum of Communications
Housed in the fabulous 18th-century palace of Chancellor Bezborodko, this brand new museum of communications is the perfect addition to Pochtamtskaya ul (Postal St). It is named for Professor AS Popov, inventor of the radio, and it covers all manner of communication, from the Pony Express up through the modern era (on-site computers offer internet access to all museum guests). Exhibits are interactive and interesting, including an antique telephone switchboard that still works; the first civil communications satellite Luch-15, which occupies a prominent place in the atrium; and plenty of multimedia explanations of how things work. Stamp collectors will have a field day…
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Museum of Anthropology & Ethnography
The city’s first museum was founded in 1714 by Peter himself. It’s infamous for its ghoulish collection of monstrosities, notably preserved freaks, two-headed mutant foetuses and odd body parts, all collected by Peter with the aim of educating the common people against superstitions. Sadly, most people rush to see these sad specimens, largely ignoring the other interesting (though not well displayed) exhibits on native peoples from around the world. Here you’ll also find an exhibition devoted to the scientist and renaissance man Mikhail Lomonosov (whose statue stands beside the nearby Twelve Colleges building of the city university) with a recreation of his…
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Museum of Political History
Way more interesting than it sounds, the Museum of Political History occupies two elegant, connected Style Moderne palaces – one of them once belonged to Matilda Kshesinskaya, famous ballet dancer and one-time lover of Tsar Nicholas II. The Bolsheviks made it their headquarters and Lenin often gave speeches from the balcony. Although the main exhibit details Russian politics (with English captions) to the present day, you’ll also come across some of the best Soviet kitsch in town and incredibly rare satirical caricatures of Lenin published in magazines between the 1917 revolutions (the same drawings a few months later would have got the artist imprisoned, or worse).
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Museum of Railway Transport
Every trainspotter’s dream is realised at the Museum of Railway Transport. This fascinating collection features scale locomotives and model railway bridges that were often made by the same engineers who built the real ones. The oldest such collection in the world (the museum was established in 1809, 28 years before Russia had its first working train!), it includes models of Krasnoyarsk’s Yenisey Bridge, the ship that once carried passengers and trains on the trans-Siberian route across Lake Baikal, and a sumptuous 1903 Trans-Siberian wagon complete with piano salon and bathtub. To see full-sized vintage trains, visit the Museum of Railway Technology.
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Blockade Museum
Next door to the Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts is the grim but engrossing Blockade Museum, opened just three months after the blockade was lifted. At that time it had 37,000 exhibits, including real tanks and aeroplanes, but three years later, during Stalin’s repression of the city, the museum was shut, its director shot, and most of the exhibits destroyed or redistributed. It reopened in 1989 and the displays now contain donations from survivors, including propaganda posters from the time and an example of the sawdust-filled tiny piece of bread Leningraders had to survive on. Book in advance for English excursions.
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Museum of the History of Political Police
In the very same building that housed the tsarist and the Bolshevik secret police offices, this small museum recounts the history of this controversial institution. An annexe of the Museum of Political History, it includes one room that recreates the office of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka (Bolshevik secret police). Each of the remaining three rooms is devoted to the secret police during a different period of history: the tsarist police, the Cheka and the KGB. Exhibitions are heavy on photographs and documents, but some of them are fascinating. Some explanatory materials are available in English.
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General Staff Building
The western wing of this magnificent building on Dvortsovaya pl was formerly used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including private apartments for the minister himself. The fabulous Carlo Rossi–designed interiors have been meticulously maintained, and today house exhibition hallsdisplaying items from the Hermitage collection. Here, the art of 20th-century French painters Pierre Bonnard and Maurice Denis is on permanent display. Monarchists will appreciate the ‘heraldic eagle’, also featured in 600-plus examples of graphics, paintings and applied arts from Russia and Western Europe.
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Loft Project ETAGI
Creating the biggest buzz in St Petersburg’s thriving contemporary art scene recently has been the complex Loft Project Floors. Hidden away, off the main road, in the former Smolensky Bread Bakery, Floors consists of four large and industrial-looking gallery spaces, the main one being Globe Gallery on the fifth floor where the complex’s creators, architects Savelij Arkhipenko and his brother Egor also have their design office. At the time of research there were plans to create a summer café and viewing space on the roof and to install a wine bar at the rear of the gallery.
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Mikhailovsky Castle
Rastrelli’s fairy-tale wooden creation for Empress Elizabeth was knocked down in the 1790s to make way for the bulky Mikhailovsky Castle. The pale-orange-painted building was briefly home to Paul I, who was suffocated in his bed only a month after moving into the castle. Later it became a military engineering school (hence its more common name Engineers’ Castle). Inside are some finely restored state rooms, including the lavish burgundy throne room of the tsar’s wife Maria Fyodorovna and some of the original statues from the Summer Garden.
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Academy of Arts Museum
Guarded by two imported Egyptian sphinxes said to be about 3500 years old, the Academy of Arts Museum is certainly worth a look if you are interested in Russian art. Inside are works done by academy students and the faculty since its founding in 1775, including many studies and temporary exhibitions. Boys would live in this building from the age of five until they graduated at age 15 – it was an experiment to create a new species of human: the artist. With graduates including Ilya Repin, Karl Bryullov and Anton Losenko, something must have worked.
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Guvd Museum
For police enthusiasts, the great but little-known GUVD Museum chronicles the history of criminality and law enforcement by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Leningrad/St Petersburg. This balanced, fascinating exhibition, featuring photos, costumes and weapons in several large halls, will acquaint you with interesting titbits about gang bosses and the Mafia’s reign of terror in the 1920s through the fight to control illegal abortions and alcohol production. You’ll need to get a guided tour for this, so you will want to book in advance.
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Brodsky House-Museum
This is the former home of Isaak Brodsky, one of the favoured artists of the revolution (not to be confused with Joseph Brodsky, one of the least favourite poets of the same regime). Besides being a painter himself, Brodsky was also an avid collector, and his house-museum contains his collection of thousands of works, including lesser-known works by top 19th-century painters such as Repin, Levitan and Kramskoy. Occasional concerts and contemporary art exhibitions are also held at the museum, which is administered by the Russian Academy of Arts.
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Anna Akhmatova Museum at the Fountain House
Reached from Liteyny pr, is the charming Anna Akhmatova Museum at the Fountain House. Even if you know little about this celebrated early-20th-century poet, you will find yourself moved by the lovingly curated exhibits here. The evocative apartment on the 2nd floor is filled with mementos of the poet and her family, all of whom were persecuted during Soviet times. Outside, in a corner of the quiet garden, is a video room where you can watch Russian-language documentaries on her life.
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Suvorov Memorial Museum
Laying claim to being the first museum in Russia dedicated to the memory of an outstanding individual, the Suvorov Memorial Museum celebrates Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov (1729–1800), one of Catherine the Great’s most illustrious soldiers. Stylistically modelled after an old Russian fortress, the handsome building is notable for its large exterior mosaics and its collection of military memorablia inside, including Suvorov’s personal effects. There’s no English labelling.
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Arctic & Antarctic Museum
Learn all about Soviet polar explorations at the Arctic & Antarctic Museum. Apart from stuffed polar bears and the like, the most impressive exhibit is a wooden boat plane hanging from the ceiling. Check out the informative website, though, for details of Vicaar, an Arctic expedition and tourism agency linked to the museum. The exterior of the former Old Believers’ Church of St Nicholas in which the museum is based has been recently restored to its former glory.
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World of Water Museum
The handsomely restored brick complex of 19th-century buildings between the Tauride Gardens and the Neva River house St Petersburg’s water treatment company, Vodakanal, and its World of Water Museum. The view from the top of the water tower is grand and, if you can read the Russian-only captions, the slick, modern displays elsewhere in the museum are informative. Otherwise you can admire antique water pipes, commodes and photos of luxurious long-gone banya.
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Toy Museum
Since 1997, this privately run museum has been collecting toys from all over Russia and presenting them in three sections – folk toys, factory toys and artisanal toys. Examples of the latter include toys made in Sergiev Posad, home of the ubiquitous matryoshka (nesting doll), a creation often assumed to be far older than it is, being created for the first time only in the 19th century. The Toy Museum is charming and often has very interesting temporary exhibitions too.
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