Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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sky-blue mosaics covering the dome and minarets. Inside, columns of green marble break
up the vast prayer spaces.
Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt.
&
812/233-9819.
Free admission. Daily 10am-6pm, with major service on
Fri. Metro: Gorkovskaya.
Smolny Cathedral and Convent
(Smolny Sobor) You're unlikely to wander past
the vibrant robin's-egg blue walls of the Smolny complex, because of its distant location in
a barren district tucked in a curve in the Neva. But it's worth a visit if you have a guide who
can interpret its architecture and history, or if you can attend one of its organ and chamber
music concerts. The convent was originally designed in the 18th century for Peter the
Great's daughter Elizabeth, but she later abandoned her plans for monastic life and became
empress after a palace coup. It is one of the masterpieces of Italian architect Bartolomeo
Rastrelli, also responsible for the Winter Palace. Unfortunately, most of the grounds are
closed to the public (having been converted into insurance offices and city government
annexes) or under renovation. Allow a couple of hours if you have a guide.
3/1 Ploshchad Rastrelli.
&
812/314-2168.
Admission 200 rubles, 100 rubles students and children 7 and
over. Permission to take photos 30 rubles, video 50 rubles. Oct-Apr Thurs-Tues 11am-6pm; May-Sept
daily 10am-6pm. Concert tickets available at cathedral ticket office. Metro: Kropotkinskaya.
Synagogue
(Sinagoga) This Moorish temple was consecrated in 1893, during a lull
in the pogroms that were decimating Jewish populations elsewhere in Russia. Even more
remarkable than its construction was its survival throughout the next century, when athe-
ist (and anti-Semitic) Soviet leaders razed cathedrals and other architectural monuments
with impunity. The dome and corkscrew-like towers are covered with handmade carv-
ings. Services are held in the red-brick Small Synagogue (Malaya Sinagoga). The Grand
Synagogue (Bolshaya Sinagoga) is reserved for festivals, but through the doors you can
see its yellow-and-white interior. It's located in a neighborhood behind the Mariinsky
Theater called Kolomna, which housed many prominent Jewish families at the turn of
the 20th century. Only the most highly educated and professionally trained Jews were
allowed to live in St. Petersburg during that period; the rest were banished to the Pale of
Settlement, a zone stretching from Poland to western Russia. If you visit, skullcaps are
required for men, and are available at the shop at the entrance.
2 Lermontovsky Prospekt.
&
812/713-8186.
Free admission. Sun-Fri 9am-6pm; services at 10am.
Closed on Jewish holidays. Metro: Sadovaya.
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4
MAJOR MUSEUMS
Blockade Museums
Two exhibits, both of them eye-opening and tear-jerking, trace
the city's experience enduring 900 days of siege and isolation by Nazi forces from 1941
to 1944 (see the box “The Siege of Leningrad” earlier in this chapter). Try to squeeze in
an hour-long visit to one of these sobering museums. The
Memorial Museum of the
Leningrad Siege
is the more commonly visited, hosting tour groups in the afternoons
and Russian school groups in the mornings. The small two-story museum gets crowded
leading up to Victory Day on May 9, when Russians celebrate the victory over Nazism.
Less frequented but no less impressive is
“Leningrad During the Great Patriotic
Wa r”
, a permanent exhibit at the
St. Petersburg History Museum
in a riverside
mansion. The hall of children's photos and diaries is especially moving. The exhibits aren't
