English for tourism and cultural science - страница 17

The experts say that if you were to spend a minute looking at each exhibit on display in the Hermitage, you would need 11 years before you’d seen them all.

Open: Tuesday-Sunday from 10.30 am to 5.00 pm.

Russian Museum

The State Russian Museum is the world’s largest museum of Russian art. It is located in the very center of St Petersburg, just of the city’s central magisterial, Nevsky Prospect. The museum is housed in the former Mikhailovsky Palace, a stunning monument of Empire architecture.

The collection of the Russian Museum numbers some 400,000 works and covers the entire history of Russian fine art from the 10^>th century to the present day. It reflects virtually every form and genre of art in Russia, including a unique collection of Old Russian icons, works of painting, graphic art and sculpture, decorative and applied art, folk art and numismatics, as well as the world's finest collection of Russian avaunt-garde.

If you walk from the main building up to Nevsky Prospect and then turn to the right, you can see the plastic front of the oldest Stroganov Palace, named after its owners, the Stroganov family.

Then you can have a wonderful trip upon embankment of the Moika river. When you come to Mars Square, you can see to the left the Marble Palace, built in the late Neoclassicism style. And to the right you can see the romantic silhouette of St. Michael's (Engineers) Castle.

Open: Wednesday – Monday from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm.

Kazan Cathedral

The cathedral is named after the miracle-working icon of Our Lady of Kazan – the protectress of the Imperial House of Romanov – which was kept here. The cathedral was put up in 1811 by architect Andrey Voronikhin on Nevsky Prospect – the main street of the city.

It was conceived as a replica of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. It has the colonnade that is similar to that of Bernini. But there are certain differences between the two constructions and Kazan Cathedral has its own inimitable charm and brilliance. In 1811-1858, Kazan Cathedral was the main cathedral of the city. In front of it there are two monuments to the field marshals who defeated Napoleon in fearless battles – Kutuzov and Barklay de Tolly. Mikhail Kutuzov is buried inside the cathedral.

After 1932, when the cathedral was closed, the building housed the Museum of the history of Religion and Atheism. In 1991, services have been resumed. Now it is an acting Orthodox church.