DK Travel : St Petersburg : Places of interest

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Academy of Arts

The Neo-Classical Academy of Arts (1788) was the birthplace of the Russian Realist art movement, whose founders became known as The Wanderers. The group formed in 1863, when 14 discontented students walked out of their exams in protest against the strict conservatism of their lecturers. The academy’s students include painter Ilya Repin, and architects Andrey Zakharov and Andrey Voronikhin. Look out for the conference hall’s magnificent ceiling painting by Vasiliy Shebuev.
Admiralty Gardens

In winter, the Admiralty Gardens are transformed into a winter wonderland, with mounds of snow filling the pretty ornamental fountain. In summer they are full of relaxing office workers, students and chess players. The gardens look directly onto the Admiralty , and are full of busts of famous Russian composers and writers, including the ubiquitous Gogol , and the 19th-century composer, Mikhail Glinka.
Aleksandrovskiy Park

The one-time cultural centre of the Petrogradskaya area, this park was home to varying forms of entertainment during the 20th century, including performances in the Opera House (1911) and clown and animal acts in the People’s House, which was founded by Nicholas II in 1900. The park still draws crowds today. It is home to the zoo, the planetarium and the Music Hall, formerly the Opera House, which hosts pop concerts.
Alexander Nevskiy Monastery

This sprawling monastery-complex was founded in 1710 by Peter the Great on the supposed site of the 1240 battle between Russia and Sweden. It contains the early 18th-century Cathedral of the Annunciation, as well as the twin-towered and domed Neo-Classical Holy Trinity Cathedral, home to the remains of Nevskiy, a revered 16th-century saint of Russia. The monastery is also home to two cemeteries, Lazarus and Tikhvin, the latter containing the graves of Dostoevsky and the 19th-century composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
Armenian Church

While today a beautifully decorated building, during the Soviet era and the period immediately after perestroika, the Armenian Church lay in ruins, abandoned to the elements. It was handed back to the Armenian community in the mid-1990s. With the help of funds from the vast Armenian diaspora as well as local donations, it was not long before the church was restored to its former glory. The courtyard outside houses a tiny shop selling Armenian snacks.
Artillery Museum

Along with the Kunstkammer , this is one of St Petersburg’s oldest museums, with plans for its foundation dating from the construction of the city in 1703. The museum contains hundreds of weapons, many of them dating back to medieval times; a majority of the exhibitions are connected in some way with Russia’s victorious 1812 war against Napoleon. Built between 1849–60, the museum is housed in a horseshoe-shaped, red-brick building designed by the Russian architect, Pyotr Tamanskiy.
Arts Square

Arts Square is a showpiece for the city’s cultural institutions and a patch of green amongst the canals and grand constructions of Gostinyy Dvor. Designed by Carlo Rossi in the early 19th century, it is not far from the Philharmonia Concert Hall, the Russian Museum, the Circus and Mikhaylovskiy Castle. Just opposite is Mikhaylovskiy Garden, and the two areas together form the favourite haunt of lunching office workers and romantic couples.
Avtovo Station

The Avtovo station, like the vast majority of metro stations in Russia, was constructed during the Soviet period. It opened in 1955 and was intended to act as one of many “Palaces for the People”. Complete with chandeliers and marble columns, this station reveals a fascinating part of the city’s history. The station’s Woman with Child mosaic is topped with the words “Peace to the World”.
Baltiskaya Station

Another Line One metro station dating from 1955, Baltiskaya Station features a large image of Baltic socialist revolutionaries from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, hoisting the red flag of socialism aloft in victory. Its exterior is a massive Socialist Realism construction typical of the period.
Blagoveshchenskiy Bridge

Originally known as the Nicholas Bridge, this bridge (1850) underwent reconstruction work in 1936–8, when it was renamed Lieutenant Shmidt Bridge in honour of the leader of a doomed sailors’ uprising in the Black Sea in 1905. It got its current name after extensive renovation work in 2007.