Thematic tours Saint Petersburg Secrets of Palaces and dungeons ~

Meeting the guide in the lobby. St. Petersburg City Tour. Discover St. Petersburg’s iconic highlights on this 3-hour tour with our professional guide. You will travel around the city in a comfortable air-conditioned vehicle, making photo stops by major attractions, including the Peter and Paul Fortress, Palace Square, St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. Enjoy the sweeping views that open from the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, and see the Winter Palace, Nevsky Prospect, and other world-renowned sights, as your guide recounts the bewildering events that shaped Russia’s history and culture. Visit the State Hermitage, one of the largest museums in the world that houses an outstanding collection of three million objects of Western European, Oriental, Ancient Roman, Greek, and Egyptian art. Overnight at the hotel.

Meeting with the guide in the lobby. Visit to the Yusupov palace. The Yusupov Palace is a unique architectural ensemble of XVIII-XX centuries. Cultural monument, acclaimed as an “encyclopedia” of St. Petersburg aristocratic interiors. The palace and manor complex were built over two centuries and features the work of prominent Russian and foreign architects. Today, the Yusupov Palace is one of the few aristocratic mansions where you can experience the atmosphere of luxurious life of the Yusupov family, and admire its exuberant interiors. Lunch. A walk to the Smolny Cathedral Bell-Tower viewpoint – the one in the city.
Return to the hotel.
Overnight at the hotel.

Meeting with the guide in the lobby. Departure to the trip along the St. Petersburg Dam to Kronstadt. The St. Petersburg Dam complex is intended to protect the city
from storm surges by separating the Neva Bay from the rest of the Gulf of Finland. Historically, the storm surges from the gulf had caused over 300 floods in the city, several of which had a massive devastating effect. Kronstadt is the capital of the Russian Navy and is located on a big island in the Gulf of Finland. The Kronstadt fortress used to be one of the most powerful ones in the world. Kronstadt is a real pearl of Russia’s war history. Founded by Peter I the Great as a maritime fortress and a naval base, Kronstadt might once have become the capital of the Russian Empire during the Great Northern War with Sweden. Visit to the famous St. Nicolas Naval Cathedral, its magnificent exterior and interior bearing no resemblance to any other Saint Petersburg’s church or cathedral. It was built in 1903–1913 as the main church of the Russian Navy and was dedicated to all fallen seamen.
Lunch.
Departure to the Krasnaya Gorka Fortress. Krasnaya Gorka Fortress is the heroic place in the history of WWII. Visit to the Fort’s dungeons and museum. Fort Krasnaya Gorka is a coastal artillery fortress on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, opposite Kotlin Island and the Baltic Fleet’s base at Kronstadt. That was the first place where the German army stopped during the WWII. There are huge artillery train, large dungeons and a museum.
Return to hotel.
Overnight at the hotel.

Free day for rest and walking.

Meeting the guide in the lobby. Departure for an excursion to the border between Russia and Estonia. Visit to the ancient Russian Ivangorod fortress, built in the XVth century. At present, Ivangorod is a small town, situated right at the Russian border with Narva, Estonia. It is the only place in the world where two enemy castles (one on the Russian side, one on the Estonian side) stand at an arrow flight distance. Lunch.
Transfer to the ancient Russian Koporie Fortress, built in the XIIIth century, its former owners being ancient Rus’ and Sweden’s knights and crusaders.
Return to the hotel. Overnight at the hotel.

Departure for an excursion to the Chamber of Curiosities (the Kunstkamera). Peter I the Great’s Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Chamber of Curiosities, or the Kunstkamera) celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2014. It is one of the richest ethnographical museums in the world, and a scholarly center of an international fame. The museum’s unique collections, acquired with the efforts of thousands of people, participants of the great academic expeditions, circumnavigations of the Russian fleet, and numerous donators, are rightfully admired both in Russia and abroad.
Lunch. Visit to the Faberge museum. The Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg was founded to preserve, study, and promote Russia’s cultural heritage as well as
to develop the city’s extensive network of museums. It is the world’s largest collection of works by Carl Fabergé, including nine of the famous Imperial Easter Eggs, regarded not only as the finest works of jewellery art, but as unique historical artifacts. The museum’s collection also includes decorative and applied works by the Russian masters of the late XIXth – early XXth centuries. The museum is located in the Shuvalov Palace on the bank of Fontanka River – one of the most beautiful palaces in St. Petersburg.
Return to the hotel. Dinner at the hotel.

Free day. Checkout. Meeting the guide in the lobby. Departure to the airport.