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Flanking the former Stock Exchange (now the Naval Museum), the imposing Rostral Columns (1810) were designed as lighthouses by Thomas de Thomon. The enormous figures sitting at the bases of the two columns represent four of the country’s biggest rivers – the Neva, Volga, Dnieper and Volkhov. The columns are decorated in Roman style with ships’ prows jutting out from each side. Their gas torches are still lit up on special occasions.

While the Kunstkammer is notorious for Peter the Great’s bizarre collection of deformed foetuses, the museum is also home to an exhaustive Soviet-era exhibition on “The Peoples of the World” – an old-fashioned but informative display of comical waxworks and interesting artifacts. In the main part of the museum, look out for the heart and skeleton of Peter the Great’s personal servant, a 2.27-m (7.5-ft) giant, and a display of teeth pulled out by the tsar, who boasted dentistry as his hobby.

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.

Peter the Great was exceedingly fond of stuffed animals and biological mutations. This fine museum contains part of his taxidermical collection, including a horse that the tsar once rode into battle. The museum is one of the largest of its kind in the world, renowned for its stunning collection of mammoths.

This crumbling, yet impressive, former stock exchange, with its sculpture of Neptune being drawn in a chariot by sea-horses, was modelled on a famous Greek temple at Paestum in Italy. Transformed into a museum in 1940, it contains an extensive history of the Soviet and Russian navy – the majority of the displays date from the Soviet era.

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.

This Baroque palace (1720) was one of the first stone buildings in the city. Now a branch of the Hermitage , it houses an exhibition on 18th-century Russian culture which includes the opulent rooms of Prince Menshikov (1673–1729), who was later exiled to Siberia for treason. While living here, Menshikov entertained regularly and once organized a “dwarf wedding” as amusement for Peter the Great.

St Andrew’s highlight is its 18th-century iconostasis which includes some extremely rare icons. It stands on the site of a smaller, wooden church, which was destroyed in 1761 after being struck by lightning. During the WWII siege of the city, the church’s dome housed artillery units.

The baroque Twelve Colleges, built between 1722–42, was originally intended to house Russia’s 12 government bodies. In 1835 the building, by now empty, was turned over to St Petersburg University. Famous students here include Lenin and eight Nobel Prize winners. Just outside stands a bronze statue of Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–65), Russia’s premier Enlightenment scientist.

This pair of 15th-century BC sphinxes was discovered in Thebes in ancient Egypt in the mid-19th century and later brought to St Petersburg. A local landmark, the sphinxes’ faces are said to resemble Pharaoh Amenhotep II.