Russian Academy of Fine Arts Museum
St Petersburg
Art lovers should not bypass the museum of this time-tested institution, which contains work by academy students and faculty dating back to its foundation…
Must-see attractions in Russia
St Petersburg
Nevsky Prospekt is Russia’s most famous street, running 4km from the Admiralty to Alexander Nevsky Monastery, from which it takes its name. The inner 2…
Moscow
Moscow's first new park in 50 years, Zaryadye was inaugurated in 2017 and occupies a prominent site along the Moscow River, wedged into historic Kitay…
Jewish Museum & Centre of Tolerance
Moscow
Occupying a heritage garage, purpose-built to house a fleet of Leyland double-deckers that plied Moscow's streets in the 1920s, this vast museum, filled…
St Petersburg
Centred on the famed statue of the Bronze Horseman, this square is listed on city maps as Senatskaya ploshchad (Senate Sq). Its dominant feature is the…
St Petersburg
On eastern Aptekarsky (Apothecary) Island, this was once a garden of medicinal plants – founded by Peter the Great himself in 1714 – that gave the island…
St Petersburg
Leningrad party boss Sergei Kirov was one of the most powerful men in Russia in the early 1930s. His decidedly un-proletarian apartment is now a…
St Petersburg
The city's oldest park, these leafy, shady gardens can be entered either at the northern Neva or southern Moyka end. Early-18th-century architects…
St Petersburg
The elegant Style Moderne Kshesinskaya Palace (1904) is a highly appropriate location for this excellent museum – one of the city's best – covering…
St Petersburg
Built by Giacomo Quarenghi between 1806 and 1808 as a school for aristocratic girls, the Smolny Institute was thrust into the limelight in 1917 when it…
St Petersburg
If baroque is your thing, then look no further than the sky-blue Smolny Cathedral, an unrivalled masterpiece of the genre that ranks among Bartolomeo…
St Petersburg
This fantastic conversion of the former Smolninsky Bread Factory has plenty to keep you interested, including many of the original factory fittings…
Moscow
This glass-dome pavilion was the first element of Park Zaryadye to open to the public. A creation of Sergei Kuznetsov, the pavilion was designed as an …
Vladivostok
A fully militarised zone for most of the past 150 years, this big island just offshore has been reinvented as a business and academic centre and is home…
St Petersburg
Designed by Vasily Stasov, the striking Grand Choral Synagogue opened in 1893 to provide a central place of worship for St Petersburg’s growing Jewish…
Moscow
A pet project of the ubiquitous artist Zurab Tsereteli, this museum is housed in a classical 18th-century merchant’s home, originally designed by Matvei…
St Petersburg
Catherine the Great had this baroque palace built in 1783 for Grigory Potemkin, a famed general and her companion for many years. Today it is home to the…
Museum of Decorative & Folk Art
Moscow
Just beyond the Garden Ring, this museum showcases centuries-old arts-and-crafts traditions from around Russia and the former Soviet republics. Of the 40…
St Petersburg
A branch of the Russian Museum, the castle is worth visiting for its temporary exhibits as well as a few finely restored state rooms, including the lavish…
St Petersburg
Between the cemeteries and the main church, you'll pass a ticket kiosk with a separate admission to the old Annunciation church, aka the…
Moscow
With its two golden domes rising above the eastern side of Sobornaya pl, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower is the Kremlin's tallest structure – a landmark…
Moscow
At the northern end of Red Square, the State History Museum has an enormous collection covering Russian history from the time of the Stone Age. The…
St Petersburg
Following a move to this beautifully repurposed building opposite the former shipyard of New Holland, the Central Naval Museum has moved into the 21st…
St Petersburg
History buffs should not miss this oft-overlooked but superb local museum. Part of the State Museum of the History of St Petersburg, the mansion contains…
Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad
St Petersburg
Due south of the House of Soviets, on Moskovsky pr is this awe-inspiring monument. Centred around a 48m-high obelisk, the monument, unveiled in 1975, is a…
St Petersburg
Another in the city's collection of grand religious buildings is this beautiful functioning datsan (temple) where respectful visitors are welcome. The…
St Petersburg
This 19th-century townhouse was the suitably grand childhood home of Vladimir Nabokov, infamous author of Lolita and arguably the most versatile of 20th…
St Petersburg
Splendid wrought-iron gates facing the Fontanka River guard the entrance to the Sheremetyev Palace (built 1750–55), now a branch of the State Museum of…
St Petersburg
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 Rodion…
Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines
Moscow
Growing up in 1980s USSR was a peculiar, but not necessarily entirely bleak experience. Here is an example – a collection containing dozens of mostly…
Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory
St Petersburg
Run as an outpost of the Hermitage, this superb museum has a stellar display of the various designs the factory has produced over the centuries and will…
St Petersburg
This neoclassical cathedral, partly modelled on St Peter’s in Rome, was commissioned by Tsar Paul shortly before he was murdered in a coup. Its 111m-long…
St Petersburg
Century-old dacha (country cottages) and mansions, inhabited by very wealthy locals, line the wooded lanes that twist their way around Kamenny (Stone)…
St Petersburg
This charming log cottage, protected within a stone building, is St Petersburg’s oldest surviving structure. The wooden cabin itself was supposedly built…
Moscow
Complete with stone lions, this opulent mansion was built to host the English Club – a venue favoured by Anglophile gentlemen and native Brits in tsarist…
St Petersburg
This fabulous and fully restored mansion on the Moyka River belonged to Grand Duke Alexey, the son of Alexander II. The wrought-iron-and-stone fence is…
St Petersburg
Completed in 1744 and marked by a statue of scientist-poet Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–65), the 400m-long Twelve Colleges is one of St Petersburg’s oldest…
St Petersburg
The gilded spire of the Admiralty is a prime St Petersburg landmark, visible from Gorokhovaya ul, Voznesensky pr and Nevsky pr, as all of these roads…
St Petersburg
This fantastic, five-domed cathedral, ascribed to Domenico Trezzini, is the namesake of this neighbourhood. Incorporating both baroque and neoclassical…
St Petersburg
This light-blue baroque cathedral dates from 1740, and having been repainted and restored to its original glory both inside and out, glistens like a pearl…
