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Nikolsky Cathedral
This ice-blue cathedral is one of the most picture-perfect in the city, it is surrounded on two sides by canals, and the baroque spires and golden domes make the Nikolsky Cathedral one of the city's best-loved churches. It was one of the few that continued to work during the Soviet era when organised religion was effectively banned.
Nicknamed the Sailor's Church (Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors), it contains many 18th-century icons and a fine carved wooden iconostasis.
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Palace Of Grand Duke Alexey Alexandrovich
This fabulous derelict mansion at the very far end of the Moyka River belonged to the son of Alexander II. The wrought iron and stone fence is one of its most stunning features, with the Grand Duke's monogram adorning the central gates. The palace was built in 1895 by Maximilian Messmacher, and each façade represents a different architectural style, perhaps reflective of the character of Grand Duke Alexey himself. The interior is equally diverse, although it is not open to the public.
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People's Will D-2 Submarine Museum
Opened as a fun, unique museum, the People's Will (Narodovolets) D-2 Submarine was one of the first six (diesel-fuelled) submarines built in the Soviet Union. It was in action between 1931 and 1956, and proudly sank five German ships. Mandatory tours (in Russian) depart on the hour to take you through the sub to see how the crew of 53 lived and worked.
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Peter & Paul Fortress
Tiny Zayachy Island contains the oldest building in town - the Peter & Paul Fortress. It was built in 1703 while Peter the Great was still roughing it in a log cabin overlooking his golden embryonic city (the cabin is preserved as a shrine-like museum), and designed according to plans by the man himself.
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Peter's Cabin
In a patch of trees east of the Peter & Paul Fortress is a little stone building known as Peter's Cabin, St Petersburg's oldest surviving structure. This log cabin was supposedly built in three days in May 1703 for Peter to live in while he supervised the construction of the fortress and city. During Catherine the Great's time, the house was protected by a bricklayer.
The cabin has always been a sentimental site for St Petersburg.
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Petrodvorets
Most European rulers had at least one Versailles, and Peter the Great was no exception. He built a series of palaces on the site now known as Petrodvorets. Fountains play a very large part in its grandeur. Petrodvorets' other charms include the Grand Palace, enlarged for Empress Elizabeth and later remodelled by Catherine.
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Piskaryovskoe Cemetery
It's hard work getting to this rather remote cemetery, but as the main burial place for the victims of the Nazi blockade in WWII, it is a poignant memorial to the tragedy.
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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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Planetarium
The Planetarium has 50-minute shows throughout the day, as well as an observatory and several different halls.
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Popov Communications Museum
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).
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Pushkin Flat Museum
Pushkin died in this house by the Moyka River in 1837, after a duel with French soldier of fortune Baron d'Anthes, who had been publicly chasing Pushkin's beautiful wife, Natalia. The museum includes a Russian-language tour (English tours can be arranged in advance). The apartment has been reconstructed to look exactly as it did in the poet's last days.
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Pushkin House
The old customs house, topped with statues and a dome, is now home to the Institute of Russian Literature. Fondly called Pushkin House, the handsome building contains a small literary museum with dusty exhibits on Tolstoy, Gogol, Lermontov and Turgenev, as well as a room dedicated to the writers of the Silver Age. Call in advance for an English-language tour.
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Pushkinskaya 10
This legendary locale is a required stop for anyone who is interested in the contemporary art and music scene in St Petersburg. The former apartment block - affectionately called by its former street address - contains studio and gallery space, as well as the cool music clubs Fish Fabrique and Experimental Sound Gallery (GEZ-21) and an assortment of other shops. It offers a unique opportunity to hang out with local musicians and artists, who are always eager to talk about their work.
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Railway Museum
This quirky museum near Sennaya pl houses a collection of scale locomotives and model railway bridges, often made by the same engineers that built the real ones. The oldest such collection in the world, the museum dates to 1809 - 28 years before Russia had its first working train! It includes models of the Yenisey Bridge, the ship that once carried passengers and trains across Lake Baikal.
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Raskolnikov House
This innocuous house on the corner of Stolyarny per (called 'S… lane' in the book) is one of two possible locations of the attic apartment of Rodyon Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment . Those who claim that this is the place go further, saying that Rodyon retrieved the murder weapon from a street-sweeper's storage bin inside the tunnel leading to the courtyard.
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Rimsky-Korsakov Flat-Museum
Home of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for the last 15 years of his life (1893-1908), this is where he composed 11 of his 15 operas, including the Fairytale of the Tsar Sultan and the Golden Rooster . The memorial flat (a branch of the State Museum of Theatre & Music) includes four rooms that have been lovingly restored to their original appearance, including the composer's study.
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Rumyantsev Mansion
History buffs should not miss this oft-overlooked but superb local museum. It is housed in the majestic 1826 mansion of Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev, a famous diplomat, politician and statesman, as well as an amateur historian. His personal research library became the basis for the Russian State Library in Moscow. The history of the mansion and its owners is fascinating in itself.
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Russian Museum
Often overlooked by visitors in favour of the Hermitage, the extensive Russian Museum is a must for anyone interested in Russian art and culture. The building is most impressively viewed from the back, during a late-night stroll through the pleasant Mikhailovsky Gardens. The illuminated palace by night is a perfect backdrop for romantic assignations.
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Sampsonievsky Cathedral
This fascinating pea-green baroque cathedral dates from 1740 and is a beautiful highlight of a remarkably dull industrial area of the Vyborg Side - it's well worth the trip out here. It is believed to be the church where Catherine the Great married her one-eyed lover Grigory Potemkin in a secret ceremony in 1774.
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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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Sigmund Freud Museum Of Dreams
An odd conceptual exhibition - based on abstractions and ideas, not artefacts - this unusual museum is an outgrowth of the Psychoanalytic Institute that houses it. The two-room exhibition aims to stimulate your subconscious as you struggle to read the display symbolising what Freud himself would have dreamt. Illustrations to Freud's patients' dreams and other quotations line the dimly lit, incense-scented hall.
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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.
