Historical places for visitors

Peter and Paul Fortress
Metro station: «Gorkovskaya»

Peter and Paul Fortress is the historical center of St. Petersburg . Around this center, one of the biggest Russian cities grew within a few decades. The construction of the fortress was completed in the first half of the 18-th century. Several buildings were constructed in the fortress, including the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul dominating over this architectural ensemble and playing a very important role in the panorama of the banks of the Neva .

The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in the Peter and Paul Fortress as you can see it today is an architectural landmark of "Czar Peter's Baroque" and the principal symbol of St. Petersburg. It was designed by the architect Domenico Trezzini and constructed in 1712-1733. On June 8, 1712, the first stone was placed in the foundation of the Cathedral by Peter the Great, the second stone – by Empress Catherine. The subsequent stones were placed by all highest officials present at the ceremony. The dominating part of the Cathedral is the bell tower adjoining its western facade. The bell tower is crowned with a high gilded spire with a weathercock shaped like a flying angel. There is also a clock on the bell tower. The bell tower is 122.5 meters high.

www.spbmuseum.ru
http://www.spbcity.info/eng/statiy/cathadral-peter-paul.htm

http://www.spbcity.info/spb

The State Hermitage Museum
Address: 2, Dvortsovaya Ploshchad (Dvortsovaya Square) 190000, St Petersburg
Metro Stations: "Kanal Griboyedova", "Nevsky Prospekt", "Gostiny Dvor"

Opening Hours: Tuesdays – Saturdays 10.30 - 18.00
Sundays 10.30 - 17.00
Closed Mondays

Ticket windows shut one hour before the museum closes

The history of the Hermitage Museum that was started in the 18th century as a private collection of Empress Catherine II and in the 20th century became one of the largest museums in the world. The State Hermitage occupies six magnificent buildings situated along the embankment of the River Neva, right in the heart of St Petersburg. The leading role in this unique architectural ensemble is played by the Winter Palace, the residence of the Russian tsars that was built to the design of Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1754-62. This ensemble, formed in the 18th and 19th centuries, is extended by the eastern wing of the General Staff building, the Menshikov Palace and the recently constructed Repository.

www.hermitagemuseum.org

Russian Museum
Address: 4 Inzhenernaya street
Metro Stations: "Kanal Griboyedova", "Nevsky Prospekt", "Gostiny Dvor"

Carl Rossi’s original interiors have been preserved in the main entranceway and the White Room on the first floor of the Mikhailovsky Palace. The rest was refashioned and adapted for the exhibitions of Russia’s oldest arts museum at the beginning of the 20th Century. The briefest of trips through the collection – a couple of minutes in each of the rooms, from a pre-Mongolian icon to Malevich and Filonov – will end up taking you at least three hours. The strongest impressions are to be had in the two purple Academic Rooms, which hold the “Last Day in Pompei” by Bryullov and “The Ninth Barrage” by Aivazovsky, and the magnificent room of portraits from the second half of the 19th Century, with its gray-blue walls and gilded panels. Further on, the exhibition moves into the Rossi and Benois wings, which present art from the second half of the 19th Century to the beginning of the 20th Century.

www.rusmuseum.ru

St. IsaacCathedral

1 St. Isaac’s Sqaure
Metro Stations: "Kanal Griboyedova", "Nevsky Prospekt"

The largest place of worship in St. Petersburg, with a height of 101.5 meters and a capacity of 14,000. It was built over a period of 40 years. Each of the granite columns weighs 114 tons. The bell was poured from old copper five-kopeck coins, and the structure is topped by a vast gilded cupola. Several different types of marble have been employed in the interior - light Italian, yellow Sienna, green Genoan and grey Finnish – along with malachite, azure, gilded bronze and mosaics. Frescoes were created by Karl Bryullov, Fyodor Brun and other luminaries of the academic school. In 1928 the cathedral was closed, with regular services only being reintroduced in 2002.

www.st-petersburg.ru/

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