Mariinsky Theatre
1, Teatralnaya Square
Tel. +7 (8) 12.326.4141
www.mariinsky.ru
Catch a different symphony, opera or ballet every night of the week during the summer. From Shostakovich symphonies to Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet, Mozart’s Requiem to The Nutcracker, the Mariinsky Theatre is high Russian culture at its finest.
State Hermitage Museum
2 Dvortsovaya Ploshchad (Dvortsovaya Square)
Tel. +7 (8) 12.571.3465
www.hermitagemuseum.org
Home to one of the world’s largest art collections (more than 3 million pieces), the Hermitage is the heart and soul of Russia’s aspiration to be on par with rest of Europe with regard to sophistication and high society. See the Winter Palace, home to Russian tsars in the 18th and 19th centuries. In all, the Hermitage constitutes six spectacular buildings along the River Neva.
Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood
Naberezhnaya Kanala Griboyedova 2
As for classic, onion-domed churches, this one is hard to top – at least in color and style. Although it is only 100 years old, it has a rich and full history, from its closure in the 1920s, to its use as a site for revolutionary propaganda, to its recent restoration. It is a miracle the church survived the period after the Revolution of 1917, during which time it was thought of as an “inappropriate symbol of Christianity" in a newly atheistic country. But lucky for visitors it survived, be cause its detailed mosaics, both inside and out, are a pleasure to behold. Closed by the Bolsheviks in the 1930’s, it was reopened in 1997 to all its former glory.
