Saint Petersburg Attractions, Russia

Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage Museum (Russian: Государственный Эрмитаж / Gosudarstvenniy Ermitaž) in Saint Petersburg, Russia is one of the largest, oldest, most important and famous art galleries and museums of human history and culture in the world. The vast Hermitage collections are displayed in six buildings, the main one being the Winter Palace which used to be the official residence of the Russian Tsars.
Strong points of the Hermitage collection of Western art include Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens, van Dyck, Rembrandt, Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Watteau, Tiepolo, Canaletto, Canova, Rodin, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Cezanne, van Gogh, Gauguin, Picasso, and Matisse. There are several more collections, however, including the Russian imperial regalia, an assortment of Fabergé jewellery, and the largest existing collection of ancient gold from Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

Winter Palace
Located between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, the Winter Palace (Russian: Зимний Дворец) in Saint Petersburg, Russia was built between 1754 and 1762 as the winter residence of the Russian tsars.
Designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the Rococo-style, green-and-white palace has 1,786 doors and 1,945 windows. Catherine the Great was its first imperial occupant.
The Palace is now part of a complex of buildings known as the State Hermitage Museum which holds one of the world's greatest collections of art. As part of the Museum, many of the Winter Palace's 1,057 halls and rooms are open to the public. The Military Gallery, opened in 1826, accommodates 332 portraits of military leaders of the Russian army during the Napoleon's invasion of Russia.
After the February Revolution in Russia, the Winter Palace was the headquarters of the Russian Provisional Government.
The assault of the Winter Palace by Bolshevik forces was the official milestone of the October Revolution.

Church birth Ioann Predtecha (Chesmenskaya)
Architect: Yu. Velten,
built 1777 - 80, restored in 1965 - 68
To the south from Frunze Street, between Moscow avene and Yury Gagarin avenue, there used to be a bog in the 18th century called "the frog bog" among Finns. A legend says that it was the place of meeting of Catherine II with a messenger who broke out news about the glorious victory of Russians over the Turkish fleet near Cesme in June 26, 1770. In honor of historical event the Empress ordered to erect a Palace on the place of meeting. A church was built near the palace a few years later.
Over the 200 years the Cesme Palace and the church have been rebuilt and restored many times and look different from the original. Now it is the Cesme Victory Museum, a branch of the Central Naval Museum.
The Cesme Church is one of the few buildings in Petersburg that have Gothic motifs in their design. The wall surface decorated with narrow vertical rods and plastic lancet arches is intersected with high lancet windows. The walls are topped with a parapet and pinnacle turrets. On the church territory the small Cesme Cemetery is located, where the Russian army veterans were buried who were staying at the hospice. During World War II the defenders of Leningrad were also buried here.

The Peter and Paul Fortress
The Peter and Paul Fortress is architectural and historical center of Saint-Petersburg. The fortress was designed to protect the Neva lands that were won from the Swedes during the Northern War (1700 - 21). Its powerful stone walls rising almost out of the water, and the cathedral spire soaring into the skies, make up a unique view opening from afar as a part of the wide Neva panorama.
The Peter and Paul Cathedral is a unique sample of Russian 18th-century architecture that has reached us. Its grand multi-tier belfry with a gilt spire is an architectural dominant of the city, an integral part of its silhouette. The Peter and Paul Cathedral had for almost two centuries served as a burial-place for Russian emperors. This was done at the order of Peter I, who is himself buried at the southern wall of the cathedral.
For a long time the cathedral had performed the functions of the museum of Russian military glory, where enemy banners, keys of the cities and fortresses captured by Russian troops were kept. In the early 20th century all the trophies were transferred to museums. The cathedral now holds replicas of captured Swedish and Turkish banners. The building, topped with a dome and a bulbous cupola is perceived as an integral part of the cathedral. In front of the entrance a fence was put up, designed on the model of the Summer Gardens railing.

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