SUMMER GARDENS
The centre's own peaceful haven of park and palaces..

FIELD OF MARS
Once the epitome of militarism, now a place of romance.

PISKARYOVSKOYE
A cemetery recalling wartime losses and horrors.

MUSEUM OF NON-CONFORMIST ART
Rebels for freedom.

NABOKOV HOUSE
Remembering the man at the crossroads of cultures.

OPEN BRIDGES
When day closes, a different city shows its face.

other places to see

Like Rome, Paris or London, St Petersburg has countless sights that would take weeks to explore. Some of the finest buildings, like Peterhof and the Catherine Palace, are out of town and best visited on an organized excursion.

Here, instead, is a brief selection of downtown highlights.

SUMMER GARDENS
One of the city's oldest and most beautiful palace and park complexes, this is a peaceful, aesthetic haven in the very centre.

The gardens were created at the beginning of 18th century, under the personal guidance of Peter the Great. They may not strike Europeans as particularly original, but that's because they were intended as a copy of the best of Europe.

Summer Gardens
Open daily	10:00 - 22:00 (10 pm)

They contained the first sculptures and fountains in the new city. The fountains were destroyed by a great flood in 1977 but the unique collection of park sculptures by Italian masters of the 17th and 18th centuries is still on show. Access to the area is rather easier than 300 years ago, when visitors needed an invitation from the Tsar to get in.

The walk from the Winter Palace along Palace Embankment (Dvortsovaya Nab.) to the Summer Gardens (Letniy Sad) is spectacular.It is a distance of about 2 km (1.2 miles) but be prepared for a round trip because there is no nearby metro station, and bus and trolley routes are not very convenient, either. You can return via the nearby Field of Mars.

FIELD OF MARS
The Field of Mars is a beautiful square that was, until the 18th century, an open field used for public entertainment and fireworks. During the time of the Russian Empire, it was the main venue for military parades According to a popular saying of the time, Moscow's day begin with church bells but Petersburgers wake to the roll of a drum.

The militaristic spirit diminished at the end of the 19th century and the square again became a place for open air public amusements. It is a romantic place to visit in evening twilight. From the 1970s, it became a tradition for new married couples to bring flowers to the eternal flame that burns here.

In the square between the Field of Mars and Trinity Bridge is a monument to Russia's greatest general, Suvorov. He is remembered, not only for never having lost a battle, but also for his maxim: "Sacrifice yourself and save your comrade." Today the square is a place of remembrance for all those fallen in war.

PISKARYOVSKOYE MEMORIAL CEMETERY
The graveyard has a special place in recent history, commemorating the citizens of St Petersburg who died during the siege of World War Two.

Piskaryovskoye Cemetery
Address	74 pr. Nepokorionnykh
Nearest metro station (2 km - 1.2 miles)	Square of Courage (Pl. Muzhestva)
Open daily	10:00 – 18:00 (6 pm)

For 871 days, from September 1941 to January 1944, the city was almost entirely cut off. Millions of the inhabitants of then-Leningrad suffered from hunger and cold. More than half a million died.

There was no opportunity to bury all the dead but those who had the strength brought the bodies of their relatives and friends to waste ground at Piskaryovska.It became the world’s largest wartime cemetery.

MUSEUM OF NON-CONFORMIST ART
After a political thaw in the 1960s, underground culture in what was then the Soviet Union became far more visible. In this context, underground means everything that did not conform to "Socialistic Realism", the criteria of official art.

Strong resistance to it developed everywhere but in St Petersburg it took on a special shape of decadent creativity, in painting, literature, theatre and music, particularly rock music.The city became the home to the most influential rock club in the Soviet Union and the cradle of several rock stars.

In the 1990s a new centre of underground culture was born in Pushkinskaya Street. It was an abandoned building in the centre of the city, occupied by artists and used as studios, galleries, rehearsal rooms. It even had a bar.

Museum of Non-Conformist Art
Address	53 Ligovskiy prospekt
Open Wed-Sun	15:00-19:00 (3-7 pm)

Part of it has been turned into a museum for non-conformist art, exhibiting Russian work from 1950 to 1980 and modern art officially unrecognised by the former authorities. Insurrection Square (Ploshchad Vosstaniya) metro station on Nevskiy Prospekt is only 100 meters (yards) away.

NABOKOV HOUSE
The author of “Lolita”, famed Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov was born in St Petersburg in 1899 and lived for 18 years until November 1917 in the house at number 47, Bolshaya Morskaya.

Nabokov House
Address	47 Bolshaya Morskaya
Tue - Fri	11:00 – 18:00 (6 pm)
Sat - Sun	12:00 – 17:00 (5 pm)
Last admission 1 hour before closing

Here Vladimir met artists and teachers. From these windows he saw revolutionaries on the street in February and October 1917. The house is near St Isaac's Cathedral and the Admiralty.

Many famous Russian poets and writers - Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Blok - are connected with St Petersburg, but Nabokov is particularly symbolic for the turn of epoch, a man at the crossroad of cultures. His noble father was an Anglophile who taught his son English even before he had learned to write Russian.

OPEN BRIDGES
During the season when ships can navigate the Neva, usually from April to November, its drawbridges open during the night to allow them to pass. This is the time to take a stroll along the embankments, in the company of insomniacs, romantic couples and those who have accidentally left it too late to get to the other side where they live.

The views on warm summer evenings are magnificent. Many of the bridges and embankments are illuminated. The best time is around Midsummer.

Each bridge has its own timetable. The first few open around 1:30, the last close just before six. A few bridges close briefly around 4:00 before opening again but, for several night hours, the north bank, the south bank and Basil Island are completely cut off from each other. Even the metro doesn't run through the night. For people with jobs in the late evening, it is not funny at all.