Considered one of the best military museums in the world, the display starts right outside, in the courtyard, where heavy artillery such as tanks, missile launchers, and 18th century military vehicles “welcome” the visitor.
Step in and you’ll be transported back at least 500 years. From the early battles that employed stone and lead cannons to the weaponry and ammunition that got the soldiers through the 1812 War and the four years of the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany, this museum has it all.
Large displays of military trophies, uniforms and art fill the museum thirteen halls.
The Summer Palace of Emperor Peter the Great
The palace is a modest two-storey, 14-room building on the bank of the Fontanka River, built between 1710 and 1712 as a summer residence for the Emperor and his family. Peter lived in the first floor, and Catherine and their children occupied the second. Rooms have been restored to their former glory, with walls covered in oak panels and filled with period furniture, tapestries, period paintings, and china. The kitchens (one on each floor) are the only rooms that have been kept almost intact since their early construction.
The gardens surrounding the palace are filled with marble statues, fountains, and a pond. Destroyed over and over again by floods, wars, and plain recklessness, the gardens lack the luxury that made them legendary, but it’s still a sight worth seeing.
Church of Savior on the Spilled Blood
Closed in the early 1920 for obvious political reasons, it underwent a 27-year long restoration and it’s now again open to the public as a museum. Foreigners are charged a fee to access it. A magnificent interior pattern of marble and unpolished mosaics reflects sunlight and transforms the walls into a mouth-dropping work of art.
Alexander Nevsky Monastery
Seventeen of the oldest churches in the city stood on the property at one point, of which only five are left today, a sad reminder of the looting and destruction that tore this place apart during the Revolution years. The Holy Trinity Cathedral, located in front of the cemetery grounds, holds the remains of Alexander Nevsky, a saint to the Russian Orthodox Church.
It’s the cemetery grounds that attract the most visitors. Some of Russia’s most celebrated artists are buried here, including Dostoevsky, Rubinshteyn, and Tchaikovsky.