Saint Petersburg

Beautiful yellow palace that was once home to the wealthy and respected Yusupov family stands by the Moika River. It was also the site of Grigori Rasputin’s murder in 1916, a dark episode in Russia’s history. Let yourself be guided through this palace, the full story of the murder of Rasputin will unfold before you.

The State Museum of the History of Religion is one of the world’s few museums and the only one of its kind in Russia with its permanent exhibition featuring the origin and development of Religion. The Museum collection numbers about 200 000 exhibits. It houses a wide range of historical and cultural artifacts from various countries, ages, and peoples. The Museum keeps collections that cover a vast expanse of time from the Archaic (c. 6000 BC) and Ancient Egypt and Israel Times to the early Middle Ages in Europe; from the Ancient Greece and Rome to the present day. The history of Buddhism and Islam is also presented on the display.

St.Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music Art is located in the building of the former Imperial Theatres Management, erected in the 1st half of the 19 century by the great architect Carlo Rossi. This building remains one of the principal exhibits of the museum.

The Literary-Memorial Museum of Dostoevsky was opened on the 150th anniversary of his birthday in 1971. This house was his last apartment. The Brothers Karamazov novel was written in this house. The Dostoevsky's apartment was recreated for the most part from the memoirs of his wife Anna and of his contemporaries. The Dostoevsky Museum contains a theater for viewing performances and movies based on Dostoevsky's works, and for literary gatherings. Every year in November, when the writer's birthday is observed, the museum hosts an international scholarly conference "Dostoevsky and World Culture", and a journal of the same name is published with the conference proceedings. Exhibits by modern artists are always on display in the exhibition rooms. The museum has become an inseparable part of cultural life in St.Petersburg today.

Yelagin Island is a unique protected natural complex. It is the northernmost island in the Neva delta, laved with Big Nevka in the north, with Central Nevka in the south and south-east, and shooting out with the narrow cape into the Gulf of Finland. At one time a royal residence, Yelagin Island since the middle of last century passed into the possession of the state and became the Central Park of Culture and Recreation, and from this moment it opened its doors to all comers. Today Kirov Central Park is a dynamically developing cultural and recreational space, suitable for audiences of different age groups and interests. There is a small zoo for young visitors. In summertime you can rent a bike, roller skates, boat, waterbike. In wintertime you can rent the skates and go skating in the open skating rink. In the alleys of the park, you will meet squirrels that will take nuts from your hands.

We invite you to visit a world-renowned pearl of luxurious barocco on the left bank of the Neva river. Imagine you are among heavenly clouds. Do you feel these angel-like blue harmony and serenity? All visitors without any exception are bound to exclaim with admiration just as famous architect Quarenghi used to exclaim when he passed by it: "Ecco la chiesa!" (That's something like a church!)

The Bronze Horseman is an equestrian statue of Peter the Great Commissioned by Catherine the Great, it was created by the French sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet. The name comes from an 1833 poem of the same the name by Aleksander Pushkin, which is widely considered one of the most significant works of Russian literature. The statue is now one of the symbols of Saint Petersburg. The statue's pedestal is the enormous Thunder Stone, the largest stone ever moved by man. The stone originally weighed about 1500 tonnes, and was carved down to 1250 during transportation to its current site.

Pavlovsk is the palace-and-park ensemble and summer residence of Grand Prince Pavel (who became later the Emperor Pavel I). Pavlovsk Park was conceived by Cameron as a classic English landscape garden, an idealized landscape filled with picturesque pieces of classical architecture, designed to surprise and please the viewer. Pavlovsk Palace has state rooms designed by some of St. Petersburg's most famous architects, including Quarenghi, Rossi and Voronikhin, the first Russian-born architect to make a significant contribution to one of the Imperial palaces.

Museum of Feodor Chaliapin was open on April 11, 1975 in his last flat in St Petersburg. Here, at Aptekarsky island, 2–B Permskaya street (now Graftio St.), the great singer lived from 1915 to 1922, when he left this country for good. Letters and photos, show bills and programmes, personal belongings and houseware, paintings and drawings, theatre costumes and set designs of Chaliapin's performances tell about the main events of life and career of the great singer. The museum also stores collection of weapons, which Maxim Gorky presented to Chaliapin. Of particular interest are paintings of renowned artists A. Golovin, K. Korovin and A. Yakovlev depicting Chaliapin in ordinary life and on stage. Here one also can see the famous portrait by B. Kustodiev (1921). Chaliapin was fond of that work and took it with him abroad. His daughters Marfa and Marina had given the portrait to the Museum in 1968.

The former mansion of Counts Sheremetev is a unique historical and cultural monument, which represents rare for St.Petersburg pattern of an urban mansion. Up to 1917 the Palace and the land had belonged to the five generations of the senior branch - the Counts - of the old Russian family of Sheremetev. At present the majority of the Sheremetev halls, given to the museum in dramatic state, have been restored. The exhibition is arranged in three directions: a) The history of the Sheremetev family and life of Russian nobility in XVIII - XX cc. b) Open stores of the unique collection of musical instruments c) The exhibition of private collections. The permanent exhibition "The Sheremetev family and the Musical Life of the 18–20th cc." was organized in 1995 in collaboration with the State Hermitage, the Russian National Library, Pushkin House, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Ostankino Memorial Palace, the Russian Porcelain Museum in Kuskovo, as well as owners of private collections. Another notable exhibition is a private collection of A.M.Sarayeva–Bondar (wife of V.V.Strekalov–Obolensky - a Petersburg collector). The collection numbering over 700 works of fine and applied arts (18–20th centuries) is one of the most precious recent acquisitions of the museum. The permanent Musical Instruments Collection displayed at the Palace has three thousand exhibits. "The Open Stores" exhibition opened in the October of 1997 in the Gallery Wing of the Fountain House. Here one can hear the Russian bells, replicas of antique musical instruments, copied in the 19th century from authentic pieces, which had been discovered during the excavations of Ancient Etruria. The fancy shapes of the baroque instruments of the 17–18th centuries - the old harps, viols, harpsichords- go extremely well with the style of the Palace, the delicate design of the iron railings, the stucco moulding of the interiors. The famous collection, framed by the old baroque architecture, is perceived as a new page in the musical–historical annals of the Fountain House, in which there are the names of famous artists of the past, renowned historians, painters, architects. The museum has become a popular place for concerts. The principal exhibition projects initiated and carried out by the museum:

One of the oldest theaters in the country, bearing the proud name of the Russian State Academic Drama Theatre. Pushkin, better known as Alexandrinsky Theatre or Alexandrinka, has long been a favorite destination of cultural pastime among locals. Also a guests who had heard about the productions of theater, seeking to buy a ticket to the Alexandrinsky Theatre is still a couple of months before his arrival in St. Petersburg. Alexandrinsky Theatre is preparing for the anniversary of its artistic director Valery Fokin. In February 2016 Festival "Ten Valery Fokin" will be held in honor of the 70th anniversary of the director. The main event will be the premiere of "Today. 2016." This is the first work of the master on the new stage, and one of his tasks he sees the experience of subordination unique technical capabilities of this innovative platform artistic sense. The performance has no intermission Premiere - February 25, 2016

The Centre exhibits works of well known national and international masters of photography, as well as young talented artists working in the genres of contemporary art closely connected with photography: video-art, photographic installations, animation, experimental cinema. Over the last years centre has introduced to the audience such outstanding artists as Boris Savelyev, Sergey Falin, Boris Mikhalevkin (Russia), Deborah Turbeville (USA), Ara Guler (Turkey), Antanas Sutkus (Lithuania), John Johnsen (Denmark), Joachim Schmidt, Susanne Winterling (Germany), to name a few.

Take a Tourist tram and explore 500 sights and six bridges along the way. You will see Aurora, Mikhailovsky Castle, Peter and Paul Fortress, Field of Mars, Summer Garden and other tourist attractions. The tram is a replica of the famous American model LM-33, which carried the citizens of Leningrad from 1933 to 1979. The tram is equipped with Wi-Fi and audio guides.

Until 1956, the D-2 was part of the Baltic Fleet. Then it was decommissioned from the Navy and transformed into a damage control training station (UTS-6). Nowadays it is a memorial to the heroism of submariners. in the Baltic Fleet. Visitors can see authentic interiors and listento the history of Russian fleet.

Project 613 Soviet submarine, which was part of the Baltic Fleet, was converted into a museum ship in St. Petersburg.

It is a legendary place in the center of St. Petersburg where famous people such as Viktor Tsoi, Alexander Bashlachev, Svyatoslav Zaderi, Andrey Mashnin, Oleg Kotelnikov, Victor Bondarik and many others worked as firemen.Today Kotelnaya Kamchatka is both a museum and a music club. It connects the two eras, storing the personal belongings of Tsoi, Bashlachev, Mike, and providing the opportunity for young artists to play their music.

The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet , where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. Through most of the Soviet era, it was known as the Kirov Theatre. Today, the Mariinsky Theatre is home to the Mariinsky Ballet, Mariinsky Opera and Mariinsky Orchestra. Since Yuri Temirkanov's retirement in 1988, the conductor Valery Gergiev has served as the theatre's general director. The Mariinsky theatre invites you to the I International Choral Festival "SINGING MASLENITSA" (6 - 13 March 2016) and the XVI International Festival of Ballet "MARIINSKY" (31 March – 10 April 2016).

Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan or Kazan Cathedral is a cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church on the Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. One of the biggest cathedrals in St. Petersburg, located on the corner of Griboedova Kanal and Nevskiy Prospect. One of the biggest buildings in the city. The height is 71, 5 m