The museum is located in the historical city centre and housed in two mansions built at the start of the twentieth century, one the mansion of Mariinsky Theatre prima ballerina Matilda Kschessinska, a pearl of St. Petersburg Art Nouveau (architect A.I. von Gauguin). In 1917 it served as the headquarters of the Bolshevik revolutionaries and was often visited by Lenin, Stalin, Zinoviev, and Sverdlov, among others.

The museum deals primarily with the major political, economic, and cultural transformations of the 19th-21st centuries, decisive moments in Russian history.

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The Peter and Paul Fortress is St. Petersburg’s oldest architectural monument. The date the foundation of the fortress was laid – 27 May 1703 – is considered the date of the foundation of the Northern Capital. The history of the city begins with it.

The main exhibition complex of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg is located within the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress. It includes the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the Grand Ducal Burial Cault, the Church House, the Botniy House, the Commandant’s House, the Engineering House, the buildings of the Trubetskoy Bastion Prison, bastions, curtain walls, ravelins, and many other interesting buildings and structures. The fortress became a museum in 1924.

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The exhibition will present St. Petersburg not only as the cultural capital of Russia, but also as the city where the women's movement was born, where women's organizations receive state support, the city for the glory and world recognition of which St. Petersburg women live and work.

The main elements of the exhibition: the exposition “Family - a stronghold for all times” (women's historical portraits), the exposition “Leningrad Madonnas”, the exhibition of paintings by St. Petersburg artists “St. Petersburg and St. Petersburg women”, the photo exhibition “Hero's Wife”, the photo exhibition “Strength of Spirit”, the traveling exhibition “My Petersburg” (the traveling exhibition gives visitors the opportunity to see the most interesting places of St. Petersburg, to get acquainted with the victories and achievements of St. Petersburg for the last five years, to see the faces of famous Petersburgers).

The grand opening of the exhibition will take place on 17.09.2024 at 18:00. On the opening day of the exhibition a concert program is planned (performances of laureates of international competitions, defile of women's costumes, the number “Dancing Petersburg”, etc.). Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg N.V. Chechina will take part in the opening of the exhibition.

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The Russian Museum of Ethnography is the country’s largest centre for preserving and studying the traditional cultures of more than 157 ethnic groups living in Russia and beyond. The museum was founded in 1902 by decree of Emperor Nicholas II. The building on Inzhenernaya Street was designed in the early 20th century especially for the museum by architect Vasily Svinyin. The museum collection contains more than half a million exhibits and includes items of material and spiritual culture, unique photographs of daily life and the celebrations and rituals of the many peoples of the former Russian Empire from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from reindeer herders in the Arctic tundra to the inhabitants of the mountains of the Caucasus and the nomads of Central Asia. The museum’s permanent exhibitions are dedicated to the peoples of European Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

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A fascination with the Middle Ages associated with the beginning of the Romantic movement in England spread quickly around the world, giving birth in the mid-18th century to the new style known as neo-Gothic. Alexandria Park’s main building, the Cottage, is an example of this neo-Gothic style.

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It took nearly a century and a half for the palace to acquire its eventual appearance. In the time of Peter the Great, it was a small two-storey building, known as the Upper or Hilltop Chambers, and served for receptions and festivities. The location and initial appearance of the palace was the idea of Peter himself and was realized by the architect Johann Friedrich Braunstein and such outstanding architects as J.-B. Leblon and N. Miketti.

A participant badge is required to attend the tour session, which will be held in Russian during scheduled hours.

Tour sessions for individuals:
10:30-12:00
14:30-16:00
16:45-17:45

Duration of the tour is 1.5 hours.

The Catherine Corps was built for Empress Elizabeth Petrovna by architect F. B. Rastrelli in the mid-18th century. The palace was decorated in Baroque style and intended for court balls, receptions, and banquets.

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The Chinese Palace is part of the grandiose ‘Own Dacha’ palace and park complex of Empress Catherine II’s personal residence.

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Tour sessions for individuals:
10:30–12:00
14:00–15:30
17:00–18:00

Duration of the tour is 1.5 hours.

Forum guests will visit the Apartment Museum of the artist Isaac Brodsky, located in the very centre of St. Petersburg, in Arts Square, in a house designed by C. Rossi and built in the 19th century. Isaac Brodsky is known as one of the first artists to work in the style of socialist realism. This outstanding artist and cultural figure was the first director of the Soviet Academy of Arts and a major collector who has undoubtedly left his mark on the world of art.
Memorial items, furniture, books, and autographed photographs of many famous individuals succeed in creating a unique and intimate atmosphere. During the tour you will visit the master’s workshop with his works; in the living room on the first floor you will see his unique collection of Russian art from the beginning of the 20th century, which includes the works of F. A. Malyavin, V. I. Surikov, I. E. Repin, K. A. Korovin, V. A. Serov, and many others; finally, you will learn more about the master’s artistic development and the many paradoxes of his difficult life.

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Forum participants can visit the Winter Palace State Rooms and take in the museum collections on display in the Small, Large, and New Hermitage.

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Tour guides are available for an additional fee.

Guided tours are available in Russian and English, with groups of up to 15 people touring 4 times daily. Tours last 1.5 hours.

The Literary Bridges Necropolis has been a branch of the State Museum of Urban Sculpture since 1939. It takes its name from one of the paths leading to the graves of famous 19th-century literary critics V. Belinsky, N. Dobrolyubov, and D. Pisarev.

The necropolis occupies the northern part of the Volkovskoe Orthodox Cemetery and is the final resting place of outstanding 19th and 20th-century writers and scientists and our own famous contemporaries. Buried here are famous literary figures I. Turgenev, M. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A. Blok, and O. Bergholz, brilliant scientists D. Mendeleyev, I. Pavlov, and A. Popov, theater and film stars N. Akimov, G. Kozintsev, V. Strzhelchik, and E. Kopelyan, composers V. Solovyov-Sedoy, V. Gavrilin, and many others.

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The State Memorial Museum in St. Petersburg is dedicated to the historical blockade and battle for Leningrad in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.
The official opening of the museum exhibition took place on 27 January 1946 and was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the lifting of the blockade. The museum’s first guests were eyewitnesses to those terrible events.
The museum’s 40,000 square meters house more than 30,000 exhibits related to the military operations of the Leningrad Front. The permanent exhibition tells the story of two significant events, the blockade and defense of Leningrad, through the objects collected in the museum: the documents and personal belongings of the city’s Heroes, banners and medals, military uniforms and fragments of guns and ships, and photographs and maps.

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The Lazarevskoe Cemetery, also known as the Necropolis of the 18th Century, is St. Petersburg’s oldest. It was founded in 1713 and takes its name from the Lazarus Burial Vault built in 1717 (reconstructed in 1835–1836, architect L. Tiblen). Since 1923 it has been an open-air museum, and it has preserved more than 1,000 tombstones from the 18th–20th centuries belonging to the contemporaries of Peter I, great figures of Russian history, science, and culture, and representatives of the nation’s most famous noble families: M. Lomonosov, D. Fonvizin, S. Witte, Admirals V. Chichagov and N. Mordvinov, the widow of A. Pushkin – N. Lanskaya, St. Petersburg architects I. Starov, A. Voronikhin, A. Zakharov, J. Thomas de Thomon, D. Quarenghi, K. Rossi, and many other famous residents of St. Petersburg.

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The Necropolis of Art Masters was created in 1937 on the territory of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra Tikhvin Cemetery, founded in 1823. Many outstanding statesmen, scientists, writers, and musicians are buried here. Unlike the neighboring Lazarevskoe Cemetery (Necropolis of the 18th Century), which became a protected site in 1923, Tikhvin suffered the fate of all the ancient cemeteries of Leningrad during the twenty years that followed the revolution: destruction, vandalism, and looting. The poet V. Knyazev records the desolation of the end of the 1920s: “All the tombs have been destroyed, plundered, robbed. The figures on the tombs are missing their heads. The marble is chipped. The icons have been broken and carried away”.

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Participants will visit the Catherine Palace Museum and learn about its more than 300 years of history, the work of the architects who built and decorated it in the 18-19th centuries, and the achievements of those who restored the palace in the aftermath of the Great Patriotic War.
The tour takes one hour.

A participant badge is required to access the site.

Participants with a badge enter through the main entrance.

Russian speakers have the choice of joining a Russian language tour group at the entrance to the museum.

An Audio Guide is available in English, German, Italian, French, and Chinese for those who don’t speak Russian.

A pioneer of the museum approach to photography in Russia, the Rosphoto Centre is concerned primarily with collections and research. The exhibition halls, housed in a beautiful Art Nouveau building on Bolshaya Morskaya, regularly host photo exhibitions on the history of photography and its current state. Barbara Klemm, Vladimir Antoshchenkov, Franco Fontana, and Boris Smelov are just some of the famous photographers whose works have been shown at Rosphoto in recent years. The exhibitions are often supported by an educational programme, and a visit to an exhibition often ends in the museum shop, where there is a good selection of books on the visual arts.

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It was here that Akhmatova lived between 1925 and 1952, except for during the siege of Leningrad, when she was evacuated from the city. The museum was established in the Soviet Union in 1989, on the centenary of her birth. Exhibits for the museum were sought all over Leningrad from anyone willing to share memorabilia associated with Akhmatova.

In 2003 it was decided to divide the museum exhibition into memorial and literary halves. The memorial exhibition includes the Punin-Akhmatova flat itself, which has been restored to the way it would have appeared in the 1920s-40s. The literary exhibition in the space next door is subject to the special logic of sub specie aeternitis (universal perspective) or, in Akhmatova’s own poetic formula, ‘I remember everything at the same time...’.

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The St. Petersburg State Museum and Institute of the Roerich Family is located on Vasilievsky Island, in 41/1 at the corner of Lieutenant Schmidt Embankment and Line 18, in the old mansion of Academician M. Botkin, a home N. Roerich was no stranger to. St. Petersburg is the Roerichs’ hometown. Nikolai Roerich spent most of his life and accomplished most of his work (42 years, including 30 years on Vasilievsky Island) in the capital on the Neva, Elena Roerich spent half of her life there (38 years), and the childhood and teenage years of the younger Roerichs – Yuri and Svyatoslav – were also spent there.

The Museum and Institute memorial exhibition is dedicated primarily to the legacy preserved by Ludmila Mitusova, a relative of Elena Roerich, and her family. Its current collection numbers approximately 15,000 items and includes the personal belongings of the Roerichs, manuscripts, paintings, decorative arts and crafts, archaeological finds, photographs, and other cultural treasures reflecting the broader context of the Roerich family’s life and work.

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The Raznochinny Petersburg Memorial Museum tells a different kind history of St. Petersburg. Roznochinny was used in pre-revolutionary Russia to refer to those whose social status did not fit into the strict framework of ‘hereditary nobleman’ or ‘prominent merchant’. It could apply to petty officials, retired soldiers, the serving class in all its variety, workers, and students.

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The Grand Menshikov Palace is the oldest building in Oranienbaum, and in the palace and its surroundings one can feel the spirit of the transformations and the struggle for access to the Baltic Sea that defined the times. Alexander Menshikov took part in the creation of the palace, begun in 1711 on his instructions along the natural elevation.

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Tour sessions for individuals:
12:00–13:30
15:15–16:45

Duration of the tour is 1.5 hours.

Of all the structures in Oranienbaum’s Upper Park, the Rolling Hill Pavilion is the most impressive. The pavilion is a part of an 18th-century amusement building that used to be even larger. After the completion of the Rolling Hill, Catherine would hold ceremonial dinners and receptions here, including for foreign ambassadors.

A participant badge is required to access the site.

Tour sessions for individuals:
12:00–13:30
15:30–16:40

Duration of the tour is 1.5 hours.

The Museum of Urban Sculpture New Exhibition Hall opened in 2002 and immediately made a name for itself as a cutting-edge exhibition venue. It regularly hosts thematic exhibitions drawn from the Museum’s collection and private collections as well as exhibitions of Russian and foreign artists, sculptors, and contemporary art. Presentations, masterclasses for children and adults, film screenings, and lectures are all held as part of the exhibitions.

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As the name suggests, the museum is dedicated to Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov, the first person in Russia to have a memorial museum built in his memory. Emperor Nicholas II gave permission for a “monument temple” to be erected in 1901–1904 on the corner of Kirochnaya and Tavricheskaya Streets with donations collected from the military and civilian communities, and it was officially inaugurated on the 175th anniversary of the commander’s birthday.

Since first being founded, the museum has undergone many changes: it was closed during the revolution, listed as a military history museum, closed for a long time for restoration, and finally reopened as a temple of Russian military glory and a memorial to Suvorov on 8 May 1998.

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The M.K. Anikushin Memorial Workshop is a branch of the Museum of Urban Sculpture, and in the past, the workspace of the famous Leningrad sculptor Mikhail Anikushin (1917-1997). Famous monuments were once born here, and now the place is open to anyone who would like to see the side of monuments usually hidden from view, from the first sketch on paper to the finished model on its way to the factory for casting in bronze.

The size of the building – the enormous hall, 15-meter ceilings, window almost half the wall – is truly impressive. It is the only monument workshop of its kind in St. Petersburg and a very specific architectural space. The tools and equipment – a metal sculpture stand, once the base of a construction crane, a clay pit, and a dotting machine – remain in the Workshop.

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The Samoilov Actors Memorial Museum Apartment in 8 Stremyannaya St. opened in January 1994 as the fifth branch of the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatrical and Musical Art, joining the ranks of the so-called ‘lesser museums’ of St. Petersburg. What made the new museum unique was that in addition to the Samoilov actor memorial rooms, the exquisite interiors also housed a cosy musical lounge, exhibition halls, and an exposition dedicated to the St. Petersburg theatre culture of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The museum is part of the Corinthia Nevsky Palace Hotel architectural complex, which lent its appearance the feel of a European salon.

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The Rimsky-Korsakov Memorial Apartment Museum is currently the only museum dedicated to the composer in St. Petersburg. It is located in the back wing of 28 Zagorodny Ave, where Rimsky-Korsakov spent the last 15 years of his life, from 1893 to 1908. 11 of the composer’s 15 operas were composed here, including: ‘Sadko’, ‘The Tale of Tsar Saltan’, ‘The Tsar’s Bride’, ‘Kashchey the Immortal’, and ‘The Golden Cockerel’.

After the death of the composer and his wife, the flat served as a communal flat for 50 years, though the composer’s descendants managed to preserve the original household items and furniture. On 27 December 1971, on their initiative, a memorial museum was opened in the Zagorodny flat, which, in terms of the authenticity of interiors, is in no way inferior to the greatest composer museums in Russia: the Tchaikovsky House Museum in Klin and the Scriabin Memorial Museum in Moscow.

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In addition to being a unique historical and architectural monument in its own right, the estate of the Sheremetevs also houses the State Collection of Musical Instruments. Peter the Great granted the plot on the Fontanka to Field Marshal Count B. Sheremetev in 1712. The palace, which exists to this day, was built in 1750 (architect S. Chevakinsky). The architects F. Argunov, I. Starov, G. Quarenghi, and A. Voronikhin participated in the creation of the interiors of the palace and manor buildings.

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The St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Musical Art was founded in 1908 and is one of the largest theatre museums in the world. Its collection is almost unparalleled in terms of historical coverage, diversity, and the value of the exhibits. More than 450,000 items span the entire history of drama, opera, and ballet in Russia.

A special place among the museum exhibits is occupied by a unique collection of musical instruments with more than 3,000 items on a par with the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Music in Paris and a collection of stage costumes (more than 3,000) that was the former wardrobe of the Imperial Theatres of Russia.

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Most of Dostoevsky’s life and work is connected to St. Petersburg.

The museum exhibition consists of the writer’s memorial apartment, where the setting for Dostoevsky’s life has been recreated, and a literary exposition: two exhibition halls where art exhibitions are held and a theatre for literary evenings and performances of different kinds.

The memorial apartment consists of 7 rooms: a dining room, a living room, the room of Anna Grigoryevna, Dostoevsky’s wife, the writer’s study, a nursery, a bathroom, and an entrance hall. The room furnishings were meticulously recreated from photographs, drawings, and the recollections of contemporaries. The exhibition centres around the writer’s study, where he died. Items collected here include drafts and books from the personal library, a fountain pen, a medicine box, and a wallet, all lying on the writer’s desk. And the list of memorial items Dostoevsky himself used could go on.

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The Narva Triumphal Arch is a grand monument to Russia’s victory against Napoleon. It was built in 1834 according to the design of V. Stasov on the site of the original wooden arch erected by the architect G. Quarenghi for the victorious Russian soldiers returning from Paris in 1814. Architect V. Stasov built on his predecessor’s achievement while creating a new project for a triumphal arch out of brick covered with copper. The whole decorative arch cries out in victory: the Russian heroes of old in chain mail and helmets in niches; reliefs with banners and victory trumpets along the frieze; gilded inscriptions on the attic and sides of the arch naming the battles; crowned by a chariot and six horses bearing Nike. The decorative work involved the best sculptors of the Academy of Arts: V. Demut-Malinovsky, S. Pimenov, P. Clodt, M. Krylov, N. Tokarev, and I. Leppe.

A participant badge is required to access the site.

Participants will visit the Conference Hall where students continue to present thesis work; they will visit the Academic Museum exhibition, with the work of Western European masters that served as models for the students of the Academy, as well as the best educational and retirement works of the Academy’s famous alumni: A. P. Losenko, K. P. Bryullov, A. A. Ivanov, I. E. Repin, V. D. Polenov, and more; they will get the opportunity to take in the singular collection of architectural models made under the guidance of such great masters as F. B. Rastrelli, A. Rinaldi, A. Montferrand; finally, they will get a look into the unique Cast Gallery of plaster copies of ancient masterpieces.

The tour lasts one hour and fifteen minutes and will take place in Russian.

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The Palace and Park ensemble of Pavlovsk was created in the late 18th – early 19th centuries, the heyday of Russian classicism, by a brilliant cast of world famous architects and decorators: C. Cameron, V. Brenna, D. Quarenghi, P. Gonzago.

The halls of the palace are home to works of art purchased or commissioned by the owners of Pavlovsk and gifts received from European monarchs during their travels in 1781–1782. A huge collection of paintings, porcelain, bronzes, furniture, carpets, and sculptures are on display in the Palace. Among the masterpieces are works by P. Rubens, C. Van Loo, I. Martos, and G. Robert.

Pavlovsk combines the best of man and nature and has been enchanting people with its harmony and serenity for more than two centuries. This world heritage masterpiece enjoys the protection of UNESCO. The tour includes the Pavlovsk Palace State Rooms and museum collections.

The tour can accommodate up to 20 EWF participants and will take place in Russian at the scheduled time. A badge is required to attend.

Duration of the tour is 1.5 hours.

Mikhailovsky Palace is the main building of the Russian Museum. The tour will acquaint participants with the history of Russian art, from iconography to the paintings of the late 19th century. The museum’s permanent exhibition features works by K. Bryullov, I. Aivazovsky, I. Repin, V. Surikov, and A. Kuindzhi among many others.

2 groups of 15 people from EAWF participants by badge.

Duration of the tour is 1 hour.

Participants are responsible for purchasing their own ticket.

Participants are responsible for purchasing their own ticket.

Participants are responsible for purchasing their own ticket.

Participants are responsible for purchasing their own ticket.

A Gala Concert featuring Mariinsky Opera and Ballet Theatre soloists.Participants need a ticket to attend.

Participants are responsible for purchasing their own ticket.

Participants are responsible for purchasing their own ticket.