Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been open to the public since 1852. The collections occupy a large complex of six historic buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace, a former residence of Russian emperors and main museum complex, named Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre, are open to the public.
Kremlin and Red Square
The Kremlin stands on the west side of the massive, bricked Red Square, which separated the fortified stronghold from the city at large. The square area has served as a marketplace, festival ground, gathering place and, during the Soviet era, a parade ground for displaying the might of a military superpower. The former leader Lenin’s tomb lies along the Kremlin side of Red Square. The closest stations to the Kremlin are Borovitskaya and Biblioteka imeni Lenina.
St Basil’s Cathedral
At the southern end of Red Square stands the St Basil’s Cathedral. Created from 1555 to 1561, this masterpiece has become the ultimate symbol of Russia. The cathedral’s apparent anarchy of shapes hides a comprehensible plan of nine main chapels. Many muddles of colors, patterns and shapes is the specialty of this Cathedral and it shows the style and uniqueness of Russian architecture.
Peterhof Palace
The Peterhof Palace is a series of palaces and gardens located in Petergof, Saint Petersburg, Russia, laid out on the orders of Peter the Great. These palaces and gardens are sometimes stated as the “Russian Versailles”. Representing nearly two centuries of European aristocratic fashion finished to the highest standards, Peterhof is like a fact file of park design through the age of empire.
The Peter and Paul Fortress
This original fortress of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 on small Hare Island by the north bank of the Neva River, the island of the Neva delta. It was built according to Domenico Trezzini’s designs from 1706-1740. From around 1720, the fort served as a base for the city garrison and also as a prison for high-ranking or political prisoners. Today it has been adapted as the central and most important part of the State Museum of Saint Petersburg History.
Tretyakov Gallery
The State Tretyakov Gallery possesses a unique collection of Russian art which includes masterpieces which span a period of a thousand years. The Gallery was founded by a Russian merchant and patron of the arts Pavel Tretyakov. He donated his collection to the city of Moscow in 1892. The State Tretyakov Gallery has since become a world-famous museum. Nowadays it contains more than 170,000 works by Russian artists from early religious paintings to modern art.
Kolomenskoye
Kolomenskoye is a former royal estate situated several kilometers to the southeast of the city center of Moscow, Russia, on the ancient road leading to the town of Kolomna. This is a one of the most ancient places of human habitation within modern Moscow. Archaeological items discovered in its locality witness Stone Age (V-III millennium B.C.) settlements once existing here. This museum grown up overtime into a complex Kolomenskoye art and architectural museum-reserve with a total area of 254.6 hectares. The unique landscape of Kolomenskoye bears traces of many generations’ life and activities.
Mamayev Kurgan
The southern Russian city of Stalingrad, later renamed Volgograd, witnessed one of the bloodiest battles in the history of war. The heavy losses incurred by the German army broke the initiative they had in the East, making the Battle of Stalingrad the most tactically crucial battle of World War II, and a significant turning point in the war. Particularly merciless was the fighting on and around Mamayev Kurgan, a prominent hill above the city.
Fallen Monument Park
Also known as Art Museum or Park of the Fallen Heroes, as well as those of Lenin and a statue of Dzerzhinsky, the founder of what became the KGB. There’s a massive Soviet emblem, and clusters of modern art contrasting with the very non-conceptual Communist monuments. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the thousands of Soviet statues were destroyed or dispersed. Some ended up here in the Fallen Monument Park.
The Bolshoi Theatre
The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The company of the Bolshoi was originally founded in 1776 by Prince Peter Urusov and English impresario Michael Maddox as the Moscow Public Theatre. The building itself is one of Moscow’s most symbolic sites, a truly impressive example of Russian Classical architecture that faces the Kremlin walls, and some fairly tacky open air bars and restaurants, with proud indifference. The Bolshoi is the second biggest opera house in Europe.
The Yusupov Palace of Moika River
The Moika Palace or Yusupov Palace was once the primary residence in St. Petersburg, Russia of the House of Yusupov. This is one of two surviving St. Petersburg residences of the monumentally wealthy Yusupov family. The Yusupov Palace on the Moika River is perhaps most famous as the scene of the assassination of Grigory Rasputin, and is one of the few aristocratic homes in the city to have retained many of its original interiors.