Top Museums in St Petersburg

Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad

Leningrad's experience of WWII was unimaginably harsh. Hitler was intent on nothing less than the extermination of the city's population by starvation and ceaseless bombing. This imposing monument commemorates the siege of Leningrad and can be found on the main road into the city. A wide concrete staircase flanked by heroic bronze figures leads up to a 48-meter column of red granite. Beyond stands a lowered circular basin where an eternal flame burns. From here, you can enter the unsettling underground Memorial Hall.

Domik Petra Pervogo (The Cabin of Peter the Great)

Hidden behind a cluster of trees on the banks of the Neva is the oldest building in St Petersburg. This is a three-room log cabin, which was home to the city's founder, Peter the Great. He lived here in 1703 while supervising the construction and development of the city and the nearby Peter and Paul Fortress. It is a timber cottage that resembles a Russian farmhouse—with the exception of its large windows. It was erected in fewer than three days. Although the cabin houses some of the tsar's personal items as well as furniture, it is hard to imagine a leader of any country living in such a tiny dwelling.

Marble Palace

Over 32 types of marble were used to create the interior and exterior of this unique stone residence designed by architect Antonio Rinaldi and built between 1768 and 1785. The palace was one of many gifts bestowed by Catherine the Great on her long-term lover Grigory Orlov. Unfortunately for him he died before the building's completion. It later became home to a range of Grand Dukes, one of whom was the popular Silver Age poet, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov. In 1937 the palace became the official branch of Moscow's Central Lenin Museum and exhibits in over 34 rooms were devoted to the life of the Communist leader. Today the palace is part of the State Russian Museum, and an exhibition "Foreign Artists in Russia" is on permanent display.

Ermitazh (The Hermitage)

It was Catherine the Great who was responsible for creating the celebrated Hermitage museum within the walls of her glorious Imperial residence, the Winter Palace. At the time of her death the collection contained nearly 4,000 paintings. Today there are more than three million items making the Hermitage one of the largest and most prestigious museums in the world. Visitors can be forgiven for being unsure where to begin, coronation carriages, the Malachite Room, centuries old porcelain and antiques, Faberge, Rembrandt, Raphael, DiVinci, Michelangelo, and Van Gogh, Matisse, Renoir, Degas, and Rodin, and all that just for starters. It can take a complete day to see the highlights, but investigating every corner in each of the five linked buildings could take years.

Museum of Russian Political History

The building was formerly the home of Petersburg's most famous ballerina before the Revolution. Subsequently appropriated by the Bolsheviks, it eventually became the museum of the 'Great October Socialist Revolution'. Now containing a range of exhibits, including photos and paintings from Nicholas II's rule, the Civil War, the Second World War, perestroika and the pro-democracy movement, the tone is now very much anti-Soviet and the guides will cheerfully denounce prominent Communist figures as they take you around the rooms. Uniforms of both the Red and White armies of the Civil War stand off against one another in glass cabinets, original manuscripts arguing for insurrection by the likes of anarchist Bakunin and posters celebrating victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War, are some of the highlights in a must-see museum for anyone interested in some of the most turbulent times in Russia or anywhere.

Gramophones Museum

The museum is based on the collection of the Honoured Russian Art Worker Vladimir Deriabkin. With over 400 seperate examples of musical equipment, this is one of the biggest collections of musical equipment in the world. There are no restricted areas or signs everywhere saying "do not touch". The staff are a friendly bunch, and will offer you tea and cookies as well as a more serious chat. And, of course, gramophones playing different melodies from the past provide background listening. You'll hear an old circus march, or the voice of the famous Russian singers Shaliapin or Kamarinskaia. The museum also hosts various music and literary events.

Apartment Museum of N.A. Rimskii-Korsakov

This museum is the preserved interior of the apartment Rimskii-Korsakov lived in for the last fifteen years of his life between 1893 and 1908. Eminent composer, professor at the St Petersburg Conservatory for thirty-seven years of his life, and mentor to other Russian greats such as Stravinskii and Prokofiev, a tour of the apartment gives one a real glimpse into the career and private life of the man. A studious air very much lingers here and a painting of Rimskii-Korsakov at work at his desk takes pride of place in the first room of the exhibition. Here's how the guide explains the composer's working methods to you: he wrote viscerally, straight from heart and soul to score sheet, and a reflective, noiseless calm is almost palpable in the place, which was essential for him to embark on the less peaceful creative struggle he'd set himself. A sense of an intimate family life as well as close collaboration with other musicians and artists pervades the flat: a present of an ornamental baton inscribed with the names of other composers gives us a hint of the latter.

Vladimir Nabokov Museum

Although this was the childhood home of Lolita's famous author, the rest of his life was spent well away from the place, after his well-to-do family fled the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. Only recently re-opened to the public, the museum,  if you can call it that,  doesn't have a lot to offer the visitor. Apart from a grand piano in the large entrance hall and a couple of chairs taken up by attendants, there is as yet no furniture and no genuine taste of a pre-revolutionary bourgeois lifestyle. The place is worth popping into as there may be an exhibition by a local artist on display. Alternatively, you can scan some photos depicting hotels and regions Nabokov stayed in whilst in France, which are of mild interest. A history of the house since the revolution can be read in another room, but unfortunately only in Russian.

D-137

"D-137" gallery was founded in 1996. In the exhibition halls the collections of pictures, graphic art, sculpture and photos by contemporary Russian and foreign artists are on display ( Ovchinnikov, Lukka, Figurina and others). The gallery participates in international art and culture projects and activities with the help of museums and galleries. "D-137" provides the documentation for taking the works abroad.

ESG 21

The Experimental Sound Gallery (ESG - 21) in the renowned Pushkinskaya 10 arts center is the place where diverse music from ethnic to industrial to noise plays. It also offers experimental music, jazz and occasional rock concerts, film screenings and philosophical readings. ESG-21is also a cool place for some coversation and coffee.