St Petersburg
This beautiful working mosque (built 1910–14) was modelled on Samarkand’s Gur-e Amir Mausoleum. Its fluted azure dome and minarets are stunning and surprisingly prominent in the city’s skyline. Outside of prayer times, if you are respectfully dressed (women should wear a head covering, men long trousers), you can walk through the gate at the northeast side and ask the guard for entry – the interior is equally lovely.
If you are allowed in, remove your shoes, do not talk and do not take photos.
0.96 MILES
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…
15.29 MILES
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…
1.13 MILES
The east wing of this magnificent building, wrapping around the south of Dvortsovaya pl and designed by Carlo Rossi in the 1820s, marries restored…
15.45 MILES
One of the greatest attractions outside of St Petersburg is the jaw-dropping collection of gilded fountains, statue-lined lanes and picturesque canals…
2.03 MILES
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…
16.69 MILES
The centrepiece of Tsarskoe Selo, created under Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine the Great between 1744 and 1796, is the vast baroque Catherine Palace,…
2.26 MILES
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…
16.8 MILES
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…
1. Museum of Political History
0.02 MILES
The elegant Style Moderne Kshesinskaya Palace (1904) is a highly appropriate location for this excellent museum – one of the city's best – covering…
0.22 MILES
This leafy park, laid out in 1845, wraps in an arc around the Kronwerk moat and Artillery Museum. It's too close to traffic to ensure a peaceful escape…
0.24 MILES
This charming log cottage, protected within a stone building, is St Petersburg’s oldest surviving structure. The wooden cabin itself was supposedly built…
0.34 MILES
Inside the Peter & Paul Fortress, a separate ticket gives you access to both a walkway that goes along the walls and leads to the Naryshkin Bastion. The…
0.37 MILES
Housed in the fort’s original arsenal, across the moat from the Peter & Paul Fortress, this fire-powered museum chronicles Russia’s military history, with…
0.43 MILES
All of Russia's prerevolutionary rulers from Peter the Great onwards (except Peter II and Ivan VI) are buried inside this cathedral. The magnificent…
0.43 MILES
The Cathedral's 122.5m-high bell tower is the second structure in St Petersburg after the television tower. At the base there is a small exhibition about…
0.43 MILES
A crowdpleaser with the under-12 crowd, the planetarium has shows that explore the wonders of outer space.