248 Best Sights in Russia

The achievements of science and technology, including an awesome collection of early-20th-century Russian cars, fill an entire Moscow block. The monumental building that houses the museum was built in 1875 by Ippolit Monigetti, a Russian of Italian birth whose day job was designing annexes on the royal family's country estates. The endless series of exhibits—miners' lamps, Soviet televisions, even a full-scale replica of the USSR's first atomic bomb—can be overwhelming and esoteric, but kids love it. There are also many good temporary exhibits, as well as the movie museum (mostly Soviet animation films) and a small planetarium at the southern entrance.

A 10-minute walk from Gatchina Palace bring you to Black Lake and this white palace, a unique construction made of rammed earth (compressed clay, sand, and gravel, and other materials). It was built at the end of the 18th century by architect Nikolai Lvov, the first person in Russia to introduce cheap, fireproof, construction of this type. The palace was meant for the great French prior Prince Condé (though he never lived here). The southern part of the palace suggests a Gothic chapel, but the rest resembles a fortification. On the first floor are exposed samples of the rammed earth; the second floor has displays on the palace's construction. To reach the palace directly, you can take minibus 18 or 18a and get off at the bus stop for ulitsa Chkalova.

The town of Pushkin was a summer residence of the Imperial family from the days of Peter the Great to the last years of the Romanov dynasty. Pushkin was initially known as Tsar's Village (Tsarskoye Selo), but the town's name was changed after the Revolution of 1917, first to Children's Village (Detskoye Selo) and then to Pushkin, in honor of the great Russian poet who studied at the lyceum here. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Tsarskoye Selo was a popular summer resort for St. Petersburg's aristocracy and well-to-do citizens. Not only was the royal family close by, but it was here, in 1837, that Russia's first railroad line was opened, running between Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk, to be followed three years later by a line between here and St. Petersburg.

The poet Alexander Pushkin lived here with his bride, Natalya Goncharova, for several months in 1831, right after they were married. Experts have recreated the original layout of the rooms and interior decoration. The first floor presents various trinkets and poems, plus information on Pushkin's relationship with Moscow; the second floor is a reconstruction of a typical early-19th-century home. The apartment museum is one of several for the beloved Russian poet around Moscow.

Aleksandr Pushkin (1799–1837) never lived here and probably never even visited this fine yellow mansion built in the 19th century by architect Afanasy Grigoriev. Even so, several rooms surrounding a beautiful atrium showcase the author's sketches, letters, and personal effects.

The most popular meeting place in town is located at the intersection of ulitsa Tverskaya and the Boulevard Ring. Every evening in good weather you will see crowds milling by the bronze statue of Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837), which stands at the top of a small park. It's the work of Alexander Opekushin and was erected by public subscription in 1880. It is impossible to underestimate Russia's love for the poet, who is credited with founding modern Russian literature. One of his most famous lines, from his novel in verse Eugene Onegin (1823), is about Moscow: "Moscow, how many strains are fusing / in that one sound, for Russian hearts! / what store of riches it imparts!" Summer and winter, fresh flowers on the pedestal prove that the poet's admirers are still ardent and numerous. Also at this site is the country's first McDonald's, once the busiest in the world, and a restaurant and shop called Armenia, which sells that country's famed Ararat brandy and other delicacies.

These gates, which formed part of the Kitai Gorod defensive wall, were named for the icon of the Resurrection of Christ that hangs above them. However, the gates are truly "resurrection" gates; they have been reconstructed many times since they were first built in 1534. In 1680 the gates were rebuilt and a chapel honoring the Iberian Virgin Mary was added. In 1931 they were destroyed by the Soviets. Stalin ordered their demolition partly so that tanks could easily make their way onto Red Square during parades. They were most recently rebuilt in 1994–95. Today the redbrick gates with the bright-green-and-blue chapel are truly a magnificent sight and a fitting entrance to Red Square. The bronze compass inlaid in the ground in front of the chapel marks Kilometer Zero on the Russian highway system.

One of Uglich's most stunning architectural features, the Resurrection Monastery is a striking collection of whitewashed walls and towering spires with gold-shingled cupolas topped with crosses. Built from 1674–77, the complex houses a number of buildings, including a cathedral and a belfry.

Erected on strictly classical lines between 1783 and 1789, the original building of the Russian Academy of Sciences is considered to be Giacomo Quarenghi's grandest design, with an eight-column portico, a pediment, and a double staircase. The administrative offices of the academy, founded in 1724 by Peter the Great, were transferred to Moscow in 1934 and the building now houses the St. Petersburg branch of the academy.

Opened in 1814, Russia's first public library is still known fondly as the "Publichka." It holds more than 20 million books and claims to have a copy of every book ever printed in Russia. Among the treasures are Voltaire's library and the only copy of Chasovnik (1565), the second book printed in Russia. The main section, on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and ulitsa Sadovaya, was designed by Yegor Sokolov and built between 1796 and 1801. Another wing, built between 1828 and 1832, was designed by Carlo Rossi as an integral part of Ploshchad Ostrovskovo. The facade is adorned with statues of philosophers and poets, including Homer and Virgil, and the Roman goddess of wisdom, Minerva. Using the library requires a passport, registration note (a note from a hotel, in the case of tourists), and two photos, which can be taken during the registration in the library. You may be able to get in for a quick look if you show your passport and ask nicely.

Almost as interesting as the paintings, posters, flags, and porcelain tracing the history of Russia in the 20th century is the history of this elegant art-nouveau house itself, built in 1905 by Alexander Goguen. It was the home of Mathilda Kshesinskaya, a famous ballerina and the mistress of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, before he married Alexandra. Kshesinskaya left Russia in 1917 for Paris, where she married a longtime lover, Andrei Vladimirovich, another Romanov. One of Kshesinskaya's pupils was the great English ballerina Margot Fonteyn. The mansion served as Bolshevik committee headquarters in the months leading up to the October Revolution (an exhibit reconstructs Lenin's study from this period) and in 1957 was linked to the adjoining town house by a rather nondescript central wing and turned into the Museum of the Great October Socialist Revolution; it was given its current name in 1991.

Once called Biblioteka Imeni Lenina, or the Lenin Library, this is Russia's largest library, with more than 30 million books and manuscripts. The modern building was built between 1928 and 1940. Bronze busts of famous writers and scientists adorn the main facade. The portico, supported by square black pillars, is approached by a wide ceremonial staircase. A 12-foot statue of Dostoyevsky was erected in front of the library in 1997 in honor of the 850th anniversary of Moscow. The great novelist, sculpted by Alexander Rukavishnikov, sits where the Soviets once considered erecting a giant Lenin head. In theory, anyone can visit the library as a day visitor, but you need some persistence to fill in forms and deal with the bureaucracy (bring your passport). It's arguably worth it, though, to see the grand main hall.

Built between 1910 and 1914, the city's center of Muslim worship is designed after the Gur Emir in Samarkand (in modern-day Uzbekistan), where Tamerlane, the 14th-century conqueror, is buried. The huge dome is flanked by two soaring minarets and covered with sky-blue ceramics, and the inside columns, which support the arches under the dome, are faced with green marble.

The rooms of an 18th-century neoclassical mansion display works by some of the best and most controversial architects in Russia and around the world. Temporary exhibits focus on Moscow architecture from ancient through contemporary times. The museum also offers a varied selection of walking tours and lectures in Russian.

This charming apartment was the last home of composer Alexander Scriabin's (1872–1915), where he died of blood poisoning in 1915. The rooms are arranged and furnished just as they were when Scriabin lived here. Visitors are scarce because foreign tourist groups are not usually brought to the museum. Downstairs there's a concert hall where accomplished young musicians perform his music, usually on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

One of St. Petersburg's best-known landmarks, a gigantic equestrian statue of Peter the Great, dominates this square that from 1925 through 2008 was known as "Decembrists' Square," a reference to the dramatic events that unfolded here on December 14, 1825. Following the death of Tsar Alexander I (1777–1825), a group of aristocrats, some of whom were army officers, staged a rebellion on the square in an attempt to prevent the crowning of Nicholas I (1796–1855) as the new tsar, and perhaps do away with the monarchy altogether. Their coup was suppressed with much bloodshed by troops who were loyal to Nicholas, and those rebels who were not executed were banished to Siberia. Although the Decembrists, as they came to be known, did not bring significant change to Russia in their time, their attempts at liberal reform were often cited by the Soviet regime as proof of deep-rooted revolutionary fervor in Russian society.

In the center of the square is the grand statue called the Medny Vsadnik (Bronze Horseman), erected as a memorial from Catherine the Great to her predecessor, Peter the Great. The simple inscription on the base reads, "To Peter the First from Catherine the Second, 1782." Created by the French sculptor Étienne Falconet and his student Marie Collot, the statue depicts the powerful Peter, crowned with a laurel wreath, astride a rearing horse that symbolizes Russia, trampling a serpent representing the forces of evil. The enormous granite rock on which the statue is balanced comes from the Gulf of Finland. Reportedly, Peter liked to stand on it to survey his city from afar. Moving it was a Herculean effort, requiring a special barge and machines and nearly a year's work. The statue was immortalized in a poem of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, who wrote that the tsar "by whose fateful will the city was founded beside the sea, stands here aloft at the very brink of a precipice, having reared up Russia with his iron curb."

What was once the Nobles' Club before the revolution is now home to the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Its main concert hall, the Bolshoi Zal, with its impressive marble columns, has been the site of many celebrated performances, including the premiere (in 1893) of Tchaikovsky's Sixth (Pathétique) Symphony, with the composer conducting. (This was his final masterpiece; he died nine days later.) More recently, in 1942, when Leningrad was completely blockaded, Dmitri Shostakovich's Seventh (Leningrad) Symphony premiered here, an event broadcast in the same spirit of defiance against the Germans in which it was written. Later the concert hall was officially named for this composer.

This bridge spanning the Moika River is so wide (about 325 feet) and stubby that it seems not to be a bridge at all but rather a sort of quaint raised footpath on St. Isaac's Square. The "Blue Bridge" is named for the color of the paint on its underside.

Someone mentioning the Smolny may be referring to either the beautiful baroque church and convent or the classically designed institute that went down in history as the Bolshevik headquarters in the Revolution of 1917. The two architectural complexes are right next door to each other, on the Neva's left bank. Construction of the Smolny convent and cathedral began under Elizabeth I and continued during the reign of Catherine the Great, who established a school for the daughters of the nobility within its walls. The centerpiece of the convent is the magnificent five-domed Cathedral of the Resurrection, which was designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli and which is, some historians say, his greatest creation. At first glance, the highly ornate blue-and-white cathedral seems to have leaped off the pages of a fairy tale. Its five white onion domes, crowned with gilded globes supporting crosses of gold, convey a sense of magic and power. Begun by Rastrelli in 1748, the cathedral was not completed until the 1830s, by the architect Vasily Stasov. Few traces of the original interior have survived. It's currently used for concerts, notably of Russian sacred music, and rather insignificant exhibits.The cathedral tower offers the highest viewing point in the city.

This grand example of classical architecture is one of the largest museums on the Black Sea coast. The halls exhibit artifacts and paintings from the times of antiquity to the present, though the main emphasis is on Russian and Soviet painters, especially the evolution of Russian academic painting of 19th and 20th centuries. The museum takes pride not only in some paintings of the Russian masters known all over the world but also in a historic collection of Russian graphics covering a span of 150 years.

For those who have had enough of the beach and sea views and want to retreat into forested groves, this is the place to visit. Here, the winding paths of the park, lined with yew and box trees, offer a literal breath of fresh air. The grove is part of Sochi National Park and the only place in Europe where box and yew trees grow over a vast territory. The park is also known as the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve.

If you are in the mood for a long stroll, go down to the Sochi Seaport, which is filled with shops and restaurants, vacationers and fishermen. Some of Sochi's most famous landmarks are here, including the Soviet-era Seaport Terminal building, the Olympic Countdown clock, the Festival Hall, and the Mayak Aquapark. The port is undergoing a major expansion as part of the Olympic reconstruction of the city.

The yellow neoclassical mansion behind the iron gate is the residence of the American ambassador. It was built in the early 20th century for a wealthy merchant. The building's front looks on a small square between Arbat and Novy Arbat that features an undersized statue of Pushkin in the center and is a pleasant place to take a break.

If you stand in front of the magnificent State Museum of Russian Art and turn to survey the entire square, the first building on your right, with old-fashioned lanterns adorning its doorways, is the Mikhailovsky Theatre of Opera and Ballet. Bordering the square's south side, on the east corner of ulitsa Mikhailovskaya, is the former Nobles' Club, now the Shostakovich Philharmonia, home to the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. The buildings on the square's remaining sides are former residences and school buildings.

Moscow's only Anglican church, built in 1884, served the British-expatriate community for more than 40 years, including a mass for Queen Victoria after her death in 1901. No bells were rung then, however, because only Orthodox churches were allowed to have them. Instead the tower was used as a strong room for British merchants. The 1917 revolution ended both spiritual and secular functions, however, and the church was closed. The pews are believed to have been burned in the harsh winters of the early 1920s, and the stained glass was replaced when the building was converted into a recording studio. Today the Church of England has reacquired the property, and it's again a vibrant, working church and a gathering place for the community. Regular services include morning prayer on Sundays at 8 a.m. and evening prayer on Wednesdays and Sundays at 6:30 p.m.

In the center of this square in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral stands the Nicholas Statue. Unveiled in 1859, the statue of Tsar Nicholas I was commissioned by the tsar's wife and three children, whose faces are engraved (in the allegorical forms of Wisdom, Faith, Power, and Justice) on its base. It was designed, like St. Isaac's Cathedral and the Alexander Column, by Montferrand. The statue depicts Nicholas mounted on a rearing horse. Other engravings on the base describe such events of the tsar's reign as the suppression of the Decembrists' uprising and the opening ceremonies of the St. Petersburg–Moscow railway line.

Dominating the ensemble along the lakefront and southwest of the kremlin is the huge Romanesque Dmitriyev Church, crowned by a large spherical central dome and four smaller corner domes. The monastery was founded in 1389. Take the guided tour for access to the premises of the working monastery.

This turquoise-and-white extravaganza of a Russian baroque cathedral was designed by S.I. Chevakinsky, a pupil of Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli. It's a theatrical showpiece, and its artistic inspiration was in part derived from the 18th-century Italian prints of the Bibiena brothers, known for their opera and theater designs. Canals and green spaces surround the wedding-cake silhouette, a forest of white Corinthian pilasters and columns and flanked by an elegant campanile. Inside are a lower church (low, dark, and warm for the winter) and an upper church (high, airy, and cool for the summer), typical of Russian Orthodox sanctuaries. The interior is no less picturesque than the outside. This is one of the few Orthodox churches that stayed open under Soviet power.

The city hall under the tsars has a notable red-and-white clock tower, meant to resemble those in Western European cities and erected by Ferrari between 1799 and 1804. It was originally equipped with signaling devices that sent messages between the Winter Palace and the royal summer residences.The tower looks particularly beautiful when illuminated.

Tsar Alexander I founded this university in 1819, and today it's one of Russia's leading institutions of higher learning with an enrollment of more than 20,000. Russian president Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev graduated from the university's law faculty. Much of the campus dates to the 18th-century reign of Peter the Great. The bright red baroque building on the right (if you're walking west along the embankment) is the Twelve Colleges Building, designed by Domenico Trezzini and completed in 1741. The next building in the university complex is the Rector's Wing, where a plaque attests that the great Russian poet Alexander Blok (d. 1921) was born here in 1880. The third building along the embankment is a former palace built for Peter II (1715–30), Peter the Great's grandson, who lived and ruled only briefly.