Explore the treasures of Russian painting, sculpture and folk art in this magnificent museum boasting one of the richest collections of Russian art in the country. The museum retraces the spectacular history of Russian art through its different movem..

The Peterhof was the Nordic rival of Versailles, from which it took its inspiration and which it surpasses in the ingenuity and profusion of its fountains. Standing on top of a hill with its fabulous gardens on the Baltic, it seems like a vision in a..

Like its model Versailles, which made a huge impression on Peter the Great, the Grand Palace boasts walls decorated with fine gold, polychrome ceilings, precious wood panelling, draperies, mirrors and paintings. Elizabeth embellished it even further,..

The Lower Park occupies the northern part of the Peterhof estate with alleys extending all the way to the Baltic on either side of the Maritime Canal, affording an extraordinary view of the estate and the sea. Explore its pavilions (the Hermitage to ..

Peter the Great was fascinated by Versailles. So it comes as no surprise that he hired Frenchmen to design the waterworks at the Peterhof. The most spectacular one is the Great Cascade, with 37 gilded bronze sculptures and nearly 142 water jets! In t..

Five waterfalls and no less than 150 fountains make Peterhof Park an enchanting setting. All these waterworks, connected by miles of pipes, function solely due to the differences in level! Note the Chessboard Waterfall with its winged dragons spitt..

The splendour of imperial Russia, Tsarskoye Selo is in a way the domain of the empresses. Catherine I, the wife of Peter, got it all started when she had a small palace built here in 1711, which her daughter Elizabeth had transformed by Bartolomeo Ra..

The quintessentially Baroque Catherine Palace unfurls its vast sky-blue façade, supported by powerful atlantes, on a hilltop surrounded by gardens. With its lavish interior, including the dazzling Amber Room, probably the most extraordinary of all, i..

Pavilions, “follies”, baths, antique statues and monuments to the glory of Russia are scattered throughout the Old Garden and the Landscaped Park on the Tsarskoye Selo estate. The former, designed in 1720, was beautified by the famous architect R..

The Grand Palace contains the collections that Paul Petrovich and Maria Feodorovna brought back from Europe, including French bronzes, Jacob furniture, Gobelin tapestries and Sèvres porcelain. From the ceremonial rooms to the private apartments, disc..

Antonio Rinaldi devoted six years of his life to building the Chinese Palace, a Rococo gem. The Middle Kingdom is honoured here from the floor to the ceiling teeming with Chinese motifs. The particularly remarkable Bead Room shimmers with panels of g..

GUM was the state department store. This building constructed in the late 19C, crisscrossed with passageways connecting its galleries and topped by luminous glass ceilings, is now a temple of triumphant capitalism. Over a thousand international shops..

Bordered by Red Square, the Moskova and the Alexander Gardens, the Kremlin fortifications form a triangle and extend 2 235m along their imposing brick wall, 6m thick in places and punctuated by 20 towers. The view of the whole complex from the opposi..

Dating from 1491 and built by Solari, this is the Kremlin’s main tower, through which high dignitaries and ambassadors entered the fortress. Built with double walls, Savior Tower was enlarged in 1624 with a complex crown composed of a drum( tchetveri..

At a distance from the surrounding walls, to which it is connected by a ramp straddling the Alexander Gardens, the delightful Koutafia Tower is now the entrance for visitors to the Kremlin. Topped since 1685 by an elegant decorative crown, this 13m-h..

Through its collections of objects, furniture and costumes, the Patriarchs’ Palace attests to the life of 17C Russian dignitaries and patriarchs. It was the Patriarch Nikon who had this building erected next to the Church of the Twelve Apostles bet..

The Deposition of the Robe, an Orthodox feast day on 15 July celebrating the transfer of the Virgin’s robe from Palestine to Constantinople, lent its name to this private chapel of the patriarchs. In the exterior gallery, note the icons in bas-relief..

The Ivan the Great Bell Tower, built between 1505 and 1508 by Italian Bono Friazine, is white and topped by a gilded onion dome. Tsar Boris Godunov had it raised a century later, and since then it has stood at a height of 81m, making it the highest c..

The great princes of Vladimir and Moscow were placed under the protection of St. Michael. The cathedral, a royal necropolis built between 1505 and 1508, thus bears the name of the archangel. From Ivan Kalita buried here in 1340 to Ivan V, who died in..

The sumptuous Palace of Facets, built between 1487 and 1491 by Marco Friazine and Pietro Antonio Solari, is not open to the public (what a pity!). Its ceremonial hall occupying the entire first floor was used as a throne room for the tsars residing i..