The elegant Monument to Peter I greets the visitors at the entrance of the majestic St Michael's Castle situated in the city of Saint Petersburg. The bronze sculpture was created at the behest of Peter the Great, the ruler of Imperial Russia. It dates back to 1747, and is the creation of Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli, a renowned Italian sculptor and architect. The monument was installed at its current location in the year 1800.
The Naval Cathedral is a magnificent cathedral associated with the Moscow Patriarchate, and is situated in the municipal town of Kronstadt. The opulent structure dates back to 1913, and is the principal house of prayer of the Russian Naval Force. It is the magnum opus of Vasily Antonovich Kosyakov - a renowned Russian architect who pioneered the unique Neo-Russian and Neo-Byzantine architectural form in Russia.
Catherine the Great was a passionate art collector. She laid the foundation stone for today's Hermitage, one of the most famous, oldest and largest art museums in the world, which is also on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. More than a thousand halls in five historic palaces present over 60,000 works including the area of visual arts to 1917 as well as archaeology. The most well known exhibition pieces are by Rembrandt, Gauguin and Rubens.
Alexander III had the brightly coloured church built in honour of his murdered father.