Today the fortress is one of St. Petersburg’s major tourist attractions and has become the emblem of the city.
Open: Thursday-Monday from 11.00 am to 5.00 pm, Tuesday to 4.00 pm.
Church Tour (by bus, with a guide/interpreter; duration – 3 hours).
During this tour you will get acquainted with the most famous cathedrals and churches of the city starting with St Isaac's Cathedral.
It was originally the city's main church and the largest cathedral in Russia.
It was built between 1818 and 1858, by the French-born architect Auguste Montferrand, and became one of the most impressive landmarks of the Russian Imperial capital. One hundred and eighty years later the gilded dome of St. Isaac's still dominates the skyline of St. Petersburg.
The cathedral's facades are decorated with sculptures and massive granite columns (made of single pieces of red granite), while the interior is adorned with incredibly detailed mosaic icons, paintings and columns made of malachite and lapis lazuli.
Open: Thursday-Monday from 11.00 am to 5.00 pm.
The next stop will be at the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood (or just the Church on the Blood).
This marvelous Russian-style church was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated on March 1, 1881. Constructed between 1883 and 1907, the church was designed in the spirit of the 16>th and 17>th century Russian architecture, inspired particularly by St Basil's Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow.
The interior of the church, a memorial to the late Emperor Alexander II, was decorated with different shades of marble and several thousand square yards of mosaic.
This has to be one of the city's most beautiful sights and a great spot for taking pictures.
Open: Friday-Tuesday from 11.00 am to 6.00 pm.
Dostoevsky tour (by bus, with a guide/interpreter; duration – 4 hours).
Dostoevsky Walk. You will see ‘the other side’ of St. Petersburg – old slum areas around the Hay Market, a maze of small lanes and courtyards, straight out of the writer’s novels. Sites from “Crime and Punishment”.
Dostoevsky Museum. Arranged according to the original interior design of the great writer’s last apartment. On display there are documents, photographs and personal belongings of the writer. The exhibition outlines Dostoevsky’s life and work.