Beyond the Hermitage, St. Petersburg keeps its own canon: the Russian Museum's icons and Suprematists, Petipa's stage at the Mariinsky, Akhmatova's communal flat, and cable factories turned galleries. Three days through the city's art, from rococo to nonconformist.
Mikhailovsky Palace holds the largest collection of Russian art anywhere — 400,000 works from 12th-century icons to Malevich's Suprematism. Repin's 'Barge Haulers' and Bryullov's 'Last Day of Pompeii' hang here. Open 10:00–18:00, closed Tuesdays.
Alexander II was assassinated on this spot in 1881, and the church built over it holds 7,500 sq m of mosaic — the largest mosaic interior in Europe, designed by Vasnetsov, Nesterov and Ryabushkin. Open 10:30–18:00, closed Wednesdays.
Antonio Rinaldi's 1785 palace, faced in 32 shades of marble, now hangs the Ludwig collection — Warhol, Rauschenberg and Russian nonconformists inside imperial staterooms. The Marble Hall itself is the finest room. Open 10:00–18:00.
Russia's largest private contemporary art museum: five floors of post-Soviet painting and sculpture on Vasilievsky Island, plus the 'U-Space' walk-in installation rooms you book by the half hour. Open until 22:00, closed Tuesdays.
The 1860 green-and-gold auditorium where Petipa premiered Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, and where Nijinsky, Pavlova and Nureyev danced. Guided tours run mornings; the glass-and-limestone Mariinsky II stands across the Kryukov Canal.
The Yusupovs' Moika mansion keeps a rococo private theatre seating 180, a Moorish drawing room, and the cellar where Rasputin was poisoned in 1916. The family owned four palaces in the city; this was the one they actually lived in.
The Shuvalov Palace on the Fontanka displays nine imperial Easter eggs — the Hen, Coronation and Lilies-of-the-Valley among them — bought back from the Forbes collection in 2004, alongside Russian enamel, silver and Fabergé jewellery.
The 1833 imperial theatre on Ploshchad Iskusstv keeps its own opera and ballet companies, with a repertoire built around Nacho Duato's choreography. Smaller and far less touristed than the Mariinsky, at comparable standards.
Akhmatova lived in a communal flat in the garden wing of the Sheremetev Palace for almost 30 years and wrote 'Requiem' here. The rooms are kept as she left them, down to the suitcase packed in case of arrest. Open 10:30–18:30.
A bookshop trading here since 1926, redesigned in 2018 into the city's literary hub — Russian small presses, translated fiction, a café on the upper floor and author readings most weeks. Staff handwrite shelf cards for every recommendation.
A 19th-century cable factory on the Gulf shore, converted in 2018 into the city's main creative cluster — galleries, design studios, a skate bowl and waterfront bars, with large photography and media-art shows in the brick halls.
Peter the Great's 1721 triangular shipyard island stayed closed to the public for three centuries, reopening in 2016 as a park with the restored circular Bottle House naval prison, a food hall in the forge, and open-air concerts.