St.Petersburg museums

Here in the city is situated one of the largest picture galleries in the world. The Hermitage museum can be compared with such eminent museums as Louver, Prado and Metropolitan museum. The museum is housed in a complex of buildings including the Winter Palace, the former official residence of Russian emperors. The immense collections of the Hermitage contain at about 3 000 000 objects of art.



In spite of the fact that only 7% are on display one should stay at the museum 11 years to see all the exhibits if he stood a minute only in front of each of them.

The city owes the exitance of such a jam to Catherine the Great who was fascinated with collecting objects of art and founded in 1764 a museum which was private at firs but later in the middle of the 19th century was turned into a national art gallery. The most interesting department of the museum is the one of European art. It contains real masterpieces of great Europeans like Leonardo Da Vinchi, Rafael, Titiano, Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh etc. The wonderful interiors of the museum serve a proper framing for the invaluable exhibits of the Hermitage.

It was here that the history of Saint-Petersburg starts. On the 16th of May of 1703 Peter the Great chose a small island named the Hare Island to found his new capital. It was a strong fortress that has never used for the war purposes. At the very beginning of its history it was turned into a political prison that existed till the days of the Revolution. Now almost all the building of the fortress house the collection of the State Museum of St.Petersburg History.

The main and the oldest construction on the grounds of the fortress is the Peter and Paul's Cathedral designed as the fortress itself by Domenico Treziny. Its golden spire dominates the Neva perspective being the highest architectural construction of Saint-Petersburg. By order of the founder of the city the cathedral became a burial place of Russian emperors. And all of them are here starting with Peter himself and up to the last Russian emperor Nicolas the Second executed together with all his family after the revolution.

The Russian museum was the first state museum of Russian art. It was an idea of Alexander the Third to found such a museum and it was called after him. Generally that period of time Russian people started paying great attention to their past discovering for themselves the forgotten world of Russian traditions and Russian ancient art. There appeared great interest for icons which till that time hadn't regarded as a work of art.

For the needs of the museum there was chosen a former palace of Grand Duke Michael, designed at the beginning of the 19th century. It was reconstructed to meet the requirements of a museum. The basis of the collections of the Russian Museum became the Hermitage collections of the works of Russian art, as well as the collections of the Academy of Arts and the collections of Tzars' residences located in the environs of the city. The new exhibits were purchased by the museum or donated to it.

At present, there are more than 320 thousand exhibits in the Russian Museum representing Russian art of various epochs, from the 11 th century to present time. Here you can see the works of such famous painters as Andrei Rublev, Karl Bryullov, Arkhip Kuindji, Vasily Surikov, Kazimir Malevich, Lev Bakst, Mikhail Vrubel, Mark Chagal, Vasily Kandinsky and many others.

The forth highest cupola construction in the world Saint Isaac's Cathedral was the principal Cathedral of the city. The tremendous building of the Cathedral dominates one of the 3 main squares of Saint-Petersburg. It is 101.5 m. high. The diameter of its huge golden dome is 21.8 m. Each of the grenite columns that decorate the cathedral outside weighs more than 100 ton and the hight is 17 m. It accommodates up to 14 000 people. It owes its interior decoration to the best Russian painters and sculptors.

The walls and pylons are adorned with about 20 kinds of decorative and semi-precious stones. The total area of mosaics is about 600 square metres. It took 40 years to construct the cathedral from 1818 to 1858 when it was consecrated to become the main church of the city. After the Revolution it was turned into a museum showing the history of its construction.

The colourful Cathedral of Our Savior on the Spilt blood is a kind of monument to Russian tzar Alexander the 2nd. It was constructed at the very spot where Alexander, one of the most liberal emperors of Russia was assassinated on March of 1881. To honour his father Alexander the 3d ordered a church to be build and there was announced a competition for the best design of the church. But the first one failed in spite oof the fact that a lot of eminent architects took part in the design tender. The tzar wanted the church to be a reminiscent of ancient Russian churches.

There is a legend that Archimandrite Ignaty dreamed of the church and described it to the architect Parland and it became the winning entry of the competition.

The project was based compositional structures taken from 16-17th provincial churches of Moscow and Yaroslavl. That's why it strongly resembles the Saint Basil's Church in the Red square. Inside the cathedral is richly decorated with superb mosaics, Italian marble and semi-precious stones. The fragment of pavement where the emperor's blood has spilt is crowned with a canopy made of gray and violet jasper.

The world famous palaces, parks and architectural ensembles of Petrodvorets are excellent examples of the Russian art of the 18-th -19-th centuries. Every year, more than three million people visit "the Capital of Fountains" –  the town of Petrodvorets . The world famous palaces and parks of Petrodvorets (until 1944 – Peterhof) located 29 kilometers away from St. Petersburg are among the masterpieces of Russian culture. This is an example of a wonderful combination of architecture, sculpture, landscaping and engineering.

Founded at the beginning of the 18 th century on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, Petrodvorets became a kind of monument to Russia 's victory in the Northern War and gaining access to the Baltic Sea. The idea and original design of this unique architectural ensemble were those of Peter the Great. At present, Peterhof with its beautiful fountains, parks and palaces, became the most attractive palace ensemble located in the environs of the Northern Capital of Russia. You are sure to enjoy a visit to Peterhof and to admire its magic beauty.

A small farm called Saaris moisio (which means "a farm on a hill" in Finnish) was located on the place of today's Tsarskoye Selo. In Russian, the name of the farm was pronounced as "Saritskaya (or Sarskaya) myza". In 1710-1720, a summer residence of the Czar was constructed on the place of the former farm. In 1719-1720, near the farm, on the place where the town would be constructed, a settlement of Czar's servants appeared, and, as the construction of the Czar's palace was continuing, this settlement gradually became a small town called Saarskoye Selo and later Tsarskoye Selo (which means "Czar's Village" in Russian). For two centuries, Tsarskoye Selo was a summer residence of Emperors. Its construction, to a great extent, depended upon the tastes and, sometimes, even whims of the Royal owners. Hundreds of talented architects, artists and gardeners implemented their fantasies and projects. Here, in a quiet place, near St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia at that time, the Emperor's family was not only a monarch's family living within the frameworks of the State policy, but just a numerous family, with interests and joys typical of all human beings. The quiet and picturesque parks and the historical landmarks make the town of Pushkin not only a historical and cultural treasury, but also "the Town of Muses". For two centuries, the town developed as a Czar's residence, and it became a wonderful example of Russian architecture and the 18-th -century landscaping. At the same time, the town is also famous for generations of poets, writers and other prominent figures of Russian culture who lived in this town or visited it. The great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, Anna Akhmatova and Alexei Tolstoy. spent his childhood and youth here. He was one of the pupils of the Lyceum – a privileged educational institution for children of noble families. Since that time, the town has always been associated with the name of this poet. Among other poets and writers whose lives and works were connected with this wonderful town were Nikolai Karamzin, Vasily Zhukovsky, Fyodor Tyutchev, Sergei Yesenin, Inokenty Annensky

The excellent palace and park of the late 18-th century – early-19 th century in Pavlovsk is a real masterpiece of Russian architecture. It was the summer residence of Emperor Paul I and his family. There is one of the biggest landscape parks in Europe . Every year, about 1.5 million tourists visit the State Museum and National Preserve of Pavlovsk. Pavlovsk is on the UNESCO list of towns to be under special protection as valuable architectural landmarks.

The Palace preserves the original interiors of 19 – early 20 centuries. The motives of various historical styles were used for the palace halls’ design: for example, the Home Theatre reveals the baroque spirit, the Turkish Room boasts oriental style, the Reception-rooms are decorated in Empire, part of the rooms of the ground floor got the decor of neoclassicism. The halls amaze with their magnificence: paintings, fretwork, marble, mirrors, glittering with gold chandeliers, expensive silk, refined furniture.