Things to see and do Northwest

One, two, three. The heavy, richly decorated curtain rises at full speed. Tonight again, as they have for nearly 160 years, the musicians, singers and dancers of the Mariinsky will perform the show of life. This theater and ballet troupe has become the most famous in the world. Founded in 1860, opposite the great Kamenny Theatre and named after Empress Mary, wife of Alexander II, the Mariinsky Theatre was the first to present works by Glinka, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev... It has welcomed the greatest performers, including Rostropovitch and Richter, and the most famous Russian dancers, such as Istomina, celebrated by Pushkin, Pavlova, Nijinsky and many others.

From 1870, the Mariinsky's ballet troupe was directed by the French choreographer Marius Petitpa, to whom the Russian ballet school owes its formidable development, and whose work with the composer Tchaikovsky marked the history of ballet. In 1895, Swan Lake premiered to Tchaikovsky's music, with the same choreography that you will see tonight. It was followed by European tours, Diaguilev's famous Russian ballets, starring Nijinsky and the Pavlova. All this was before the difficult years of the USSR, when the Mariinsky became the Kirov and lost its prestige to the Bolshoi, the capital's theatre promoted by Soviet power. The flight to the West of the star Nureyev in 1961 during a tour in France also caused a resounding scandal.

Since the fall of the USSR, the illustrious conductor Valery Guergiev has restored an aura to the theatre and his company, but more so to operas. So make no mistake, if everyone is rushing to the sumptuous performances of 19th century ballets, don't hesitate to see the operas, especially Russian ones. The stagings are sublime, even if some will regret the academicism and classicism that Mariinsky is gradually trying to get rid of. Today, the theatre company is placed under the high patronage of the President of Russia. Grigorovitch worked there before leaving for the Bolshoi Theatre. The construction of a second stage of very contemporary design inaugurated in May 2013, but not to the taste of all the St. Petersburgers in the historic centre, marks a new stage in the long history of this world monument of music and dance.

From within. Russians love to dress up for shows, so take the opportunity to dress up too. Another great Mariinsky specialty is ice cream or champanskoe (local sparkling wine) with small sandwiches, which can be enjoyed during intermissions.

Mariinsky II Theatre (Ulitsa Dékabristov, 34). In May 2013, the Mariinsky Theatre was expanded with a new stage, Mariinsky II, inaugurated with great pomp by Vladimir Putin. This annex with its very contemporary architecture is connected to the existing theatre by a footbridge and can accommodate up to 2,000 people on 7 levels. This extension has caused controversy throughout Russia, but no one will question its exceptional acoustics.

The theatre is compared to a shopping centre by its detractors. It's up to you to make up your mind! No one, however, will question its exceptional acoustics

A little higher than the Museum of Art and History, in the Dona Tower. It is undoubtedly the number one attraction in Kaliningrad! Created in 1979, it exhibits more than 6,000 pieces: jewellery, decorative objects and copies of parts of the mythical "Amber Room" in the palace of Catherine the Great in St. Petersburg, the "8th wonder of the world", the original of which has been missing since the end of the Second World War. A rare opportunity to imagine, in life size, what it was like!

With a depth of 65 m, it is the main interest of Yantarny. While only 1,000 tons of amber were extracted during the Soviet period, today the mine has reached a production of 300,000 tons per year. 25 % of the extracted amber is used in the manufacture of jewellery. The rest is processed for use in welding, painting and medicine. More than 300 colours characterise Baltic amber and 1 ^{m3 of} amber can exceed one million dollars.

The Arctic Circle is not far away, and this Arctic and Antarctic Museum, unique in the world and with its old-fashioned charm, will convince you of this by sharing with you the fascination of the ice pioneers who set out to conquer the ice pack from St Petersburg. Founded in 1930, its collections follow in the footsteps of simple walrus fishermen venturing into the icy horizons, then in the wake of the first polar ships, hardly more sophisticated, on which the scientists attracted by the North Pole embarked. You will see Amundsen's Gjoa or Nansen's Fram, or the Russian ships of Lomonossov or Rossanov. To reach the poles, man will have tried everything. This museum proves it to us with, for example, this curious device made of wood, metal and canvas suspended above the entrance, aboard which Paninin had the audacity to embark on the adventure. Finally, the visitor will learn that the North Pole is not only a land of adventure but an immense region inhabited by peoples with cultures rich in tradition; from the Nenets to the Yakuts, from the Tungus to the Chukchi, you will become familiar with the little-known art of the people of the Great Siberian North and their animal and plant environment. Not the most modern museum in the city, but its somewhat outdated setting gives it a touch of poetry. Don't miss the highlight of the show: every half hour, when the public is large enough, the museum employee in charge of looking after the collections gets up and turns off the lights. After a second of darkness, lights appear in a niche dedicated to this purpose: the Northern Lights. There is little information translated into English, so you have to go there with your eyes and mind wide open for non-Russian speakers, but it's a good opportunity to take the hand of your children or partner and go back to childhood.

Another interesting fact concerns the location of the museum, in the former Church of St. Nicholas, which was rebuilt in 1934-1936 and later turned into a museum. Even today, its curved ceilings and granite columns evoke mixed feelings. It must be said that the Russian Orthodox Church has not lost hope of recovering the building (as happened with St Isaac's Cathedral); the last request for restitution of the building and eviction from the museum was rejected in 2016. The battle is therefore won for the time being, but for how long?

The museum, absolutely striking, retraces the episodes of the Soviet victory over the German army in 1945. Built 7 m deep, 42 m long and 15 m wide, the bunker in which it is located was the German headquarters between March and April 1945. On April 9, 1945, the surrender of the German army was signed here.

Opposite it stands the statue of Immanuel Kant, next to a bookshop dedicated to his works.

Located on the island of Kneiphof, this Gothic red brick cathedral, dating from 1333, was the coronation place of the Prussian kings. Destroyed largely during the bombing of World War II, it was restored and recovered its clock and four bells in 1995, after more than fifty years of silence. In 1989, the cathedral was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. No information in English, only German speakers will find documentation. A visit to the museum inside the cathedral is of little interest, except for the 1613 plan of Königsberg. The cathedral at night, beautifully lit, is sublime.

On the northern outside of the cathedral, one can meditate for a moment on the tomb of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who was born and lived in Königsberg. It is possible to take a half-hour boat trip around the island. Of course the tour is in Russian, but the advantage is the discovery of the port and the state of the Russian fleet.

Even today, the shadow of the philosopher still hangs over the city: he is one of the main factors of Kaliningrad's influence, but his figure is widely decried by nationalists. For them, highlighting him and thus the city's Germanic heritage amounts to "russophobia": it has to be either one or the other. Fortunately, the majority of Russian citizens in Kaliningrad have a strong appreciation of the German history of their city.

"There's nothing more beautiful than the Nevsky prospect, at least in St. Petersburg. Here, it is the origin of everything. How brightly it shines, this street, the princess of our capital! "Nicolas Gogol (The Nevsky Perspective).

More than 4.5 km long, the Nevsky Perspective, the main street of the city, stretches between the Admiralty and the Holy Trinity Lavra-Alexander-Nevsky. It is the real backbone of St. Petersburg. Conceived by Peter the Great, its layout was developed and laid out as early as 1712. A walk along the Nevsky River shows the diversity of St. Petersburg's cultural life: museums, theatres, concert halls and cinemas, libraries and numerous art galleries line up here. The Nevsky Prospect, which was the road leading to Moscow, developed rapidly as early as 1720. Even today, walking the Nevsky Prospect, "the princess of our capital", is a journey through time and art that you can make in 2.5 hours, punctuated by canals and bridges.

Behind the n° 24  by the Malaya Konyushchennaya street, totally restored and transformed into a pedestrian zone, a statue of Gogol, very successful, sadly looks at the eternal movement of the heroes of a novel never written.

Clad in granite, with large showcases and bronze decorations, the House of the Book (also known as the Singer Company building)at the intersection of Nevsky Prospect and the Griboedov Canal Quay, houses the offices and headquarters of the famous social network VKontake (also known as the Russian Facebook). This sublime modernist building is one of the emblematic buildings of the Nevsky Prospect and the city, one of the favorites of the premises. It also houses the city's largest bookstore, Dom Knigi (the House of Books) with its huge shelves, a true invitation to daydream and read. Why not sit comfortably on a sofa in the Café Zinger on the ^2nd floor, with a cup of tea and a breathtaking view of Notre-Dame-de-Kazan Cathedral? For the anecdote, the globe on top of the building had no other purpose than to circumvent a law according to which no building should exceed the height of the Winter Palace. The ensemble, grandiose or disproportionate, depending on which side you look at, of Notre-Dame-de-Kazan Cathedral is on the other side. On the canal, the neo-Russian style of Notre-Dame-sur-le-Sang-Versé is reflected in the water. Spanning the canal, the Kazanski Bridge is the third largest in the city. The Catholic Church of Saint Catherine built in 1783  : transition between classicism and baroque.

Built on the other side of the Nevski perspective, the pentagonal clock tower was built in 1804 for the municipal Duma. At  48, the Passage is one of the oldest and one of the city's department stores. Here were tested several innovations techniques : the first elevator and the first pipe! On the right side of the avenue, at  35, the department store Gostiny Dvor (the hotel business) was built in 1761-1785. Almost a century before the creation of the Bon Marché in Paris, this shopping mall was truly revolutionary and marked an important evolution in the history of urban retailing.

On the square now called Ostrovsky Square stands the Monument to Catherine II with its two-storey composition. Behind the monument, at the end of the square, one can see the facade of the Pushkin dramatic theatre with its white colonnade and the Apollo chariot above it. At the corner of the Fontanka Quay and Nevsky Prospect is the Anitchkov Palace. Le palais was presented by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great, as a gift to her favourite and morganatic husband Count Razumovsky, a singer of peasant and Ukrainian origin. Placed at the corners of the bridge, the four horse tamers form a group of baroque-inspired male nudes. Similar sculptural groups were sent to Berlin to symbolize the friendship between the two capitals. At ^{XVIIIe siècle,} the Fontanka traced the border of the city whose gate was near the Anitchkov Bridge. À  The Nevsky perspective was largely built here during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

At Vosstaniya Square, the Nevskiy Perspective intersects the Ligovskiy Perspective. On the square was built one of the first metro stations, Ploschad' Vosstaniya. In the center of the square an obelisk was erected in 1985 celebrating the 40e anniversaire of the victory of the Great Patriotic War. The facade of the Moscow railway station (up to 1924  Nicholas station), from where the first Russian railway connecting the two capitals started 1851 le, overlooks the Vosstaniya square.

The Nevsky perspective continues beyond the square and forms a bend because the artery was built starting from both ends at the same time, but along different axes. The perspective ends at Alexander Nevsky Square. La partie south of the square is bordered by the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Starting from the Admiralty, a symbol of Russian maritime and military excellence, the promenade ends in front of one of the spiritual beacons of Russian Orthodoxy. You are now almost a St. Petersburger!

Practical: length 4.5 km, walking time 2.5 hours (without stops!).

Enclosed in the austere setting of the fortress of the same name, the Peter and Paul Cathedral contrasts the luxuriance of its Baroque lines with the military rigour of the adjoining buildings.

Dominating the citadel - and the whole of St. Petersburg - with its 122.5 m golden spire, it is the masterful expression of Peter I's dreams of grandeur, who laid the foundations but did not see it in its final form: begun in 1712 to replace a modest wooden church built in 1703, its construction by D. Trezzini was not really completed until June 28, 1733. The emperor's favourite architect, inspired by the Nordic Baroque, faithfully obeyed the imperial directives: the building breaks with the canons of Russian religious architecture, replacing the five traditional domes with a dome that crowns the nave; the nave is preceded by a double pediment façade with quadruple volutes and surmounted by the famous spire, which still today makes the cathedral the highest building in the city, as the tsar wanted it to be. Ended by a cross and a weather vane representing an angel, this spire has been resting on a metal frame since the fire of 1830; the little story tells that Nicolas I rewarded the intrepid roofer, Telushkin, by guaranteeing him the right to drink free of charge in all the inns of the empire, a rather poisonous gift!

The interior, which gives the same feeling of elevation, is just as impressive with its triple nave, separated by a double marble colonnade, and its golden panelling running along walls in pastel pink and green tones. The almost Rococo decor is reminiscent of a church in Vienna or Prague, if not for the rich iconostasis by Ivan Zaroudni (1722-1726).

The collegiate church, a veritable necropolis of the Romanov dynasty, houses the tombs of Tsarevich Alexis and the children of Peter the Great, who died while still young, those of Catherine I, Anna Ioannovna, Elizabeth Petrovna, Peter III, Catherine II, Paul I, Alexander I, Nicholas I, Alexander II and Alexander III. Only Peter II and Ivan IV (the Terrible, buried in the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael in the Kremlin) are absent. It was of course Peter the Great who inaugurated the posthumous imperial residence in 1725; his white marble tomb is to the right of the south entrance, a site he himself had chosen. There are a total of 36 white marble tombs, decorated with golden crosses and double-headed eagles for those of the Romanovs who ruled. Manufactured at the Peterhof factory, the funeral monuments of Alexander and his wife Maria Alexandrovna are monoliths of Ural green jasper and pink quartz. The iconostasis, carved and gilded by Moscow masters between 1722 and 1729, is a masterpiece of Russian Baroque.

The October Revolution, which transformed the place into a museum in 1923, put an end to the crypt's funerary vocation. The collapse of the Soviet system, returning the cathedral to worship - only for very solemn liturgies - also reconciled it with the afterlife. Thus the descendant of the Romanovs, Duke Vladimir, who died in April 1992, was buried in the Chapel of the Grand Princes alongside 13 members of the Romanov dynasty, buried before 1917 in this annexed chapel built by the architect D. Grimm in 1887 for members of the imperial family. As for his great uncle, Tsar Nicholas II, and part of his family, Alexandra Fedorovna, his wife, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia, they were buried here in 1998, 80 years after their assassination in Ekaterinburg on the night of 17-18 July 1918. Their bones, discovered in 1989, were identified in early 1998 after undergoing the infallible DNA test. The remains of Mary and Tsarevich Alexis have not been found. In 2006, the ashes of Empress Maria Fedorovna (1847-1928), wife of Alexander III, were transferred from Denmark.

House of Engineers. If you take the central alley of the fortress, you will see, on the left, the Injenerny (Engineers') house, built in 1748-1749 for the engineers in charge of the maintenance work of the fortress. The Injenerny house now exhibits objects from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century and their copies as souvenirs. The exhibition begins with plans of the town from the 18th and 19th centuries. Many paintings, lamps, porcelain, and interior reconstructions from the 19th century.

Commander's house. Behind the execution square, the Komendantski house is a light pink building, once inhabited by the fortress commanders, but also housing the chancellery and the court of justice. Of the 32 commanders of the fortress, 19 are buried in the cemetery located in front of the west façade of St. Peter and Paul's Cathedral, including the Scotsman Bruce, a close friend of Peter. In 1917, this commandery served as the headquarters of the city's revolutionary committee. It was converted into community apartments after the Second World War. Today it houses an exhibition on the history of St. Petersburg.

The ground floor mainly retraces the construction of the city, with models and maps. You can also see excerpts from excavations dating back to medieval times that were carried out in the region. A model reproduces the room where the Decembrists and the Petrashevsky circle were questioned and judged, in the presence of Nicholas I, who dictated the sentence.

The first floor is particularly interesting with a series of rooms depicting the daily life of the Russian nobility in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fashion, first of all, with a host of luxurious outfits and accessories. But also the home, with furniture ranging from simple desks to cars, stoves, kitchens and bathrooms with a host of beauty products from Paris.

The Troubetskoï bastion. The bastion reopened after a period of restoration.

Crossing the square diagonally from the chapel to the Neva River, you come to the Troubetskoy bastion of sad memory. The prison of the Troubetskoy bastion was transformed into a museum in 1924, a museum whose exhibition evokes one of the most terrible political prisons in the country. Built in 1870-1872, the building was converted into a gaol by Alexander II. It soon became the main interrogation and detention centre for hundreds of revolutionaries and overly liberal personalities. Kropotkin, Figner, Ulyanov, Gorky, Trotsky and the ministers of the provisional government were detained there among many others. Tsarevich Alexis, son of Peter I, was sentenced to death.

You visit the gloomy cells of the bastion, but even worse cells exist against the ramparts. The constant dampness and cold made tuberculosis almost inevitable. You will also see the corridor lined to muffle the sounds and prevent prisoners from communicating with each other, and the bath house where each prisoner engaged from time to time in exercises and ablutions.

Boat house (Botny Domik). This small ochre pavilion with porticoes with white columns was built from 1761 to 1766 by the architect Viste. It houses a replica of the small boat of Peter, nicknamed "the grandfather of the Russian navy", on which the young czar was introduced to the subtleties of navigation on the Yaza River near Moscow. The original of this modest boat is on display today in the Naval Museum. In front of the Mendeleevskaya pavilion you can see a Navigation, an allegorical work by the sculptor Ienson (1891). In the small courtyard of the little house, the Bolsheviks shot four grand dukes and a few hostages captured at the beginning of the Great Red Terror on 27 January 1919. They sentenced them to death in retaliation for the murder of Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknicht in Berlin.

The Mint. Facing the cathedral, leaning against the walls of the citadel, stands the yellow and white building of the Mint. It was built at the end of the 18th century by the architect Porteau, in a neoclassical style. Before that, coins were minted in the Naryshkin and Trubetskoy bastions. Its activity began in 1811, and the Mint continued to operate until the end of the Soviet era. Today its activity is limited to commemorative coins and decorations, especially military ones. You can buy replicas in the shop next to the exhibition on the history of coinage. Not very spectacular, this one displays coins from different periods.

The statue of Peter I. The monument of Peter the Great, installed here in June 1991, is the work of Mikhail Shemyakin. The monument does not depict the emperor or the warlord, let alone the reformist statesman, but just a man with his passions and weaknesses, simply sitting in an armchair. The thinning of his silhouette as one climbs from head to toe is perhaps explained by the fact that he could only be seen on his knees... The fact remains that the head was made from an authentic mask of the Tsar (now in the Hermitage), who, although claustrophobic, agreed to stay for hours under layers of plaster... out of simple curiosity.

The Narychkin bastion. An alley, which runs along the wall to the east of the Komendantsk house, leads to the Nevsky gates, the Komendantskaya quay and the Narychkin bastion. The latter is surmounted by an octagonal turret from which a cannon is fired every day at noon. This is a custom inherited from the 18th century, when few people had watches. It is also fired on other occasions: to celebrate the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad on 27 January, or to signal a flood. Fireworks on major national holidays are also fired from this bastion.

The Museum of Astronautics and Rocket Construction. To the left of the Saint-Jean gate, as you leave the fortress, this incongruous little museum proves to be fascinating. Opened in 1973, it retraces the history of the Soviet space program, from Sputnik to the Mir station. It was built here on the site of what was once a rocket research laboratory in the 1930s. You'll see jet engines, Sputnik models, space suits and even the authentic Soyuz 16 spacecraft.

The beach. At the foot of the ramparts, the people of St. Petersburg do not hesitate to bathe, in summer... as in winter! Fishing is also practiced.

Created before the end of World War II, this unique museum opens just three months after the end of the blockade of Leningrad. It was closed in 1949 by the Stalinist authorities who wanted to hide the consequences of the terrible blockade. The museum's staff were imprisoned, the director was executed, and many objects were destroyed. The museum reopened in 1989. It is an important testimony to the almost 900-day siege during which the Wehrmacht (with the help of the Finnish army and Spanish volunteers) starved and pounded the city night and day in order to bring it down, in vain. A siege that claimed more than 1,000,000 victims and remains unknown in Western Europe. The museum includes a large exhibition hall, with an area devoted to wartime posters. There is also an exhibition on artistic life during the blockade. Despite the terrible lack of resources, especially during the winter of 1941-1942, many concert halls and theatres continued to function. The focus of the exhibition is a reproduction of an apartment from the time of the Leningrad blockade, with caulked windows, smoke-blackened walls, and furniture reduced to the bare minimum as most of the furniture was burned for heating. After the restoration in 2018, the museum inaugurated a new space dedicated to the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. In the course of the work, old ceramics from the Crafts Museum, located there before the Revolution, were found.

Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Russia's third most important holy place, concludes the Nevsky perspective as sumptuously as the Winter Palace inaugurates it. The monastery complex, which consists of several churches behind a pink plastered enclosure wall enhanced by a rich decoration of white pilasters, statues and colonnades, still looks good, despite the ravages of time. In 1710, Peter the Great ordered the construction of a monastery dedicated to the great Russian prince Alexander Nevsky, who defeated the Swedes in 1240, on the supposed site of his victory. The hero takes his name from the great river of St. Petersburg, on the banks of which he accomplished his exploits. Alexander Nevsky is thus Alexander of the Neva. His relics were transferred from Vladimir (near Moscow) to the monastery in 1724. The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Sviato-Troitsky), built in 1790, with the sacred mission of collecting the silver shrine containing the relics, is the most grandiose of the ensemble.

In order to make this new capital a spiritual beacon of Holy Russia, Peter the Great made the monastic complex a "Lavra", in the same way as those of Moscow and Kiev. Alexander Nevsky Lavra is a kind of open-air pantheon: two cemeteries, where personalities dear to the hearts of the people of St. Petersburg are buried, extend over its territory. The Russians spend five minutes there to meditate or a whole day to pray, creating a permanent movement around the churches and the monastery park.

Saint Lazarus Cemetery (Lazarevskoye): the path leading to the monastery is bordered on the left by the oldest cemetery in Saint Petersburg; since 1710, it has been the burial place of architects from the former capital, both Russian and foreign: the Italians Quarenghi and Rossi, the Frenchman Thomas de Thomon and the Russian Stassov rest there next to the great 18th-century Russian scholar Lomonossov.

Our Lady of Tikhvin Cemetery (Tikhvinskoye): dating from 1823, also known as the "artists' cemetery", it ensures the eternal rest of Dostoyevsky, Karamzin, Zhukovsky, the composers Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin or Glinka, and the French choreographer Marius Petitpas.

Finally, the Lavra remains a centre for the spread of Orthodox faith and theology, since it houses behind its walls the Spiritual Academy, the Patriarchate's higher education establishment.

The first square built on the edge of the Hermitage in 1700, it has been the preferred venue for parades and events of all kinds since that time. The staff building opposite the palace is a masterpiece by Rossi built between 1819 and 1829. The triumphal arch, with its chariot of Glory celebrating the victory over Napoleon's troops, cuts the building in its centre. In the centre, the Alexander Column, erected in 1830, is the largest of its kind in the world.

This commemorative site extends into a large park near the city centre on a huge esplanade. We come here to a family and this is an opportunity to put in front of a collection of Red Army tanks, vehicles and planes. The soldiers are of course glorified and the monument to the dead is still flowery. At the same time as a renewal of religion is observed, Russians remain very respectful of the sacrifice of the generations of World war II, the so-called patriotic war.