Tour State Russian Museum

Mikhailovsky Palace can be considered as one of the most precious pearls in the architectural necklace of Saint-Petersburg, Russia. Now, the Russian Museum, the world’s largest collection of Russian art, is situated there. From a historical point of view this museum is rather young: it is slightly more than one hundred years old.

The palace is considerably older, for its construction was completed in the mid-1820s. The first owner of the Palace was the youngest, the fourth, son of Emperor Paul I, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, hence its name – Mikhailovsky Palace.

The “pre-museum” period in the history of the Mikhailovsky Palace began in 1825, when its owner and his family – Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich and his wife, Grand Duchess Yelena Pavlovna moved there. The first decades of the existence of the newly-built palace were marked with resplendent balls given there by this couple. After the death of Grand Duke in 1849 the period of salons of Yelena Pavlovna with their atmosphere of comfort and refined aristocratism started.

Only in 1895 in Mikhailovsky Palace was founded Russian Museum in honor of Alexander III.
Russian Museum collection includes over 400,000 artworks covering the complete history of Russian art, from 11th century to works by contemporary artists. It has one of the best collections of painting by Russian artists, the largest collection of sculpture in the country as well as examples of folk and decorative and applied art. Rare ancient Russian icons are also displayed here. But the pride of the museum is a representative collection of easel paintings from the 18th to 20th centuries containing portraits, landscapes, genre scenes and other significant works by famous Russian artists of various trends.

To begin the private guided tour of Russian Museum we will meet in the city center close to the museum. There the English-speaking professional guide of St Petersburg, Russia will run a very interesting tour for you for about 3 hours. When the tour is over we can take you to where you are staying or leave you in the center of our beautiful city. Book more than one tour with us to get a great discount!

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The price includes a professional English-speaking guide for three hours, tickets to Russian museum for everyone.

Group size (number of people). Price per person.