St Petersburg
Russia’s poetic genius, Alexander Pushkin, was fatally wounded in a duel here with the Frenchman Georges d’Anthès on 8 February 1837. A granite monument marks the alleged spot, today a small park surrounded by fast-moving traffic.
From the metro station at Chyornaya Rechka, walk down Torzhkovskaya ul and turn left at the first light on Novosibirskaya ul. Walk straight to the end of the road, cross the train tracks and enter the park.
3.7 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…
15.69 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…
3.92 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…
15.8 MILES
One of the greatest attractions outside of St Petersburg is the jaw-dropping collection of gilded fountains, statue-lined lanes and picturesque canals…
4.57 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…
19.55 MILES
The centrepiece of Tsarskoe Selo, created under Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine the Great between 1744 and 1796, is the vast baroque Catherine Palace,…
4.8 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…
19.66 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…
1.04 MILES
Catherine the Great built the big, classical Kamennoostrovsky Palace for her son. Today it's a government building that remains closed to the public.
1.05 MILES
Century-old dacha (country cottages) and mansions, inhabited by very wealthy locals, line the wooded lanes that twist their way around Kamenny (Stone)…
1.43 MILES
Opera buffs will want to visit this house–museum where the great singer Fyodor Chaliapin (1873–1938) lived before fleeing the Soviet Union in 1922. The…
1.54 MILES
The Yelagin Palace was built for his mother by Tsar Alexander I, who had architect Carlo Rossi landscape the entire island while he was at it. The palace,…
1.54 MILES
According to legend Kamenny Island was the site where Peter the Great planted an oak tree, which stood proudly over many years. The old oak, however, died…
1.54 MILES
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…
8. Petersburg Avant-garde Museum
1.7 MILES
Also known as the House of Matyushin, this small museum occupies a charming grey-painted wooden cottage dating from the mid-19th century that was once the…