St Petersburg
Loud, lewd and lots of fun, this is the coolest gay place in town. Take your pick from the main bar, where the uninhibited crowd is often quite literally hanging from the rafters, the Priscilla Queen of the Desert karaoke bar, or the other upstairs bars and dancefloors.
Meaning Blue Oyster, the bar is named after the leather bar that featured in the 1980s Police Academy movies, but is as unlike it as vinyl is to velvet.
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The Hermitage fully lives up to its sterling reputation. You can be absorbed by its treasures for days and still come out wanting more. The enormous…
14.96 MILES
The Grand Palace is an imposing building, although with just 30-something rooms, it is not nearly as large as your typical tsarist palace. From the start…
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The east wing of this magnificent building, wrapping around the south of Dvortsovaya pl and designed by Carlo Rossi in the 1820s, marries restored…
15.16 MILES
One of the greatest attractions outside of St Petersburg is the jaw-dropping collection of gilded fountains, statue-lined lanes and picturesque canals…
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This spectacular palace on the Moyka River has some of the best 19th-century interiors in the city, in addition to a fascinating and gruesome history. The…
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The centrepiece of Tsarskoe Selo, created under Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine the Great between 1744 and 1796, is the vast baroque Catherine Palace,…
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The Mariinsky Theatre has played a pivotal role in Russian ballet ever since it was built in 1859 and remains one of Russia's most loved and respected…
15.22 MILES
Around the Catherine Palace extends the lovely Catherine Park. The main entrance is on Sadovaya ul, next to the Palace Chapel. The park extends around the…
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This charming footbridge is suspended by cables emerging from the mouths of golden-winged griffins. The name comes from the Assignment Bank (now a further…
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Opposite Gostiny Dvor, this palace (1749–57) is another noble town house by Rastrelli. From 1810 it was the most elite military school in the empire and…
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A landmark on the corner of Nevsky pr and Dumskaya ul is the clock tower of the former Town Duma (Town Parliament) which was the seat of the…
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This neoclassical cathedral, partly modelled on St Peter’s in Rome, was commissioned by Tsar Paul shortly before he was murdered in a coup. Its 111m-long…
5. Armenian Church of St Catherine
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Continuing with a tradition of non-Orthodox churches being built on Nevsky pr, the Armenian merchant Ovanes Lazarian paid for the city’s first Armenian…
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The former headquarters of the Singer sewing machine company, which opened a factory in the Russian capital in 1904, is one of St Petersburg’s most…
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Nevsky Prospekt is Russia’s most famous street, running 4km from the Admiralty to Alexander Nevsky Monastery, from which it takes its name. The inner 2…
8. Vaganova School of Choreography
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The Mariinsky Ballet’s training school, where Pavlova, Nijinsky, Nureyev and others learned their art. It's not open to the public.