Traditions and Customs
Unique traditions
For many years, St. Petersburg remains the most popular tourist center on a global scale. The cultural capital of the country attracts guests with a variety of places of interest, elite restaurants and a rich cultural life. One of the most favorite entertainments among travelers remains the observation of drawbridges, a spectacular sight is very popular among vacationers. In the evening, people begin to stay on the banks of the Neva river, you can admire drawbridges from any shore. At the height of the tourist season, street musicians and artists perform on the banks of the river, making entertainment even more enjoyable.
No less important event in the life of the city remains the home games of the "Zenit" football club, each game of the team is a real sporting event. On the day of the match, the whole city is colored in blue and white, everywhere waving flags with the symbols of the team can be seen and numerous fans dress up in original outfits. Sports lovers should definitely visit the game of the local football club, enjoy the noisy and fun atmosphere and buy souvenirs with football symbols as a memorable gift. It is worth noting that ticket prices for football matches in St. Petersburg remain the most expensive in the country, however, the high cost is more than paid off by the abundance of emotions received from the game. If the favorite team wins, the townspeople arrange a huge celebration on the streets. Until dawn, the sounds of football trumpets are heard, to the accompaniment of which fans sing the anthem of their favorite club.
Travelers who prefer cultural entertainment should visit St. Petersburg in May. Annually the "Night of museums" takes place in the city and the number of institutions participating in the festival only increases every year. The date of the holiday should be clarified in advance, it is also recommended that vacationers draw up an excursion route beforehand, since it is simply impossible to visit all the city's museums in one night.
It is not without reason that St. Petersburg is called the “cultural capital of Russia”: the number of theaters, museums, galleries and concert halls can be compared with the number of art cafes on Broadway in New York. And it is not surprising that one of the favorite festivals of local residents and tourists are events dedicated to theatrical art. First of all, it is worth mentioning a festival called "Theater All Day!" which is dedicated to the International Theater Day (celebrated on March 27). The venue for this outstanding event is the Museum of Theater and Music art, where you can see beautiful theater and dance performances, listen to various lectures and attend musical concerts. At the same time, thematic tours are held in the exhibition halls.
Following the aforementioned festival, another significant theatrical event, called "Meetings in Russia", takes place in the city. Its program includes conducting excellent theatrical productions, each of which is a premiere. It is worth mentioning that the festival is visited by troupes from the neighboring countries - Lithuania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Armenia, Estonia. Within the framework of the festival, conferences and meetings with directors and actors of the theater are held, and the venue for the event has been chosen accordingly: it is the "Baltic House" festival-theater. The middle of April is marked by the holding of the "Dance Open" festival dedicated to ballet. You can watch ballet, both classical and avant-garde, in Alexandrinsky Theater.
There is another interesting festival dedicated to art and it is poetic. The event is dedicated to the World Poetry Day (which is celebrated on March 21), and takes place in the last days of March. You can attend the event for free, there are several venues: firstly, it is the Mayakovsky Library Art and Music Center, where meetings are held with contemporary Russian authors, and secondly, at the Book House, where music concerts, poetry contests and competitions are held, as well as an interactive program for children and adults. At the end of March, St. Petersburg pays tribute to the influence of France on the city - for example, at this time the Francophonie Days are held at the French Institute. It offers film screenings of French films in the original language, musical performances in French. Like the poetic festival, Francophonie Days can be visited for free.
But the middle and end of March are not limited to theatrical and poetry festivals. Locals have long celebrated St. Patrick's Day, the time of which falls on the second Sunday of March. In the cultural capital of Russia, a special program is presented by the pubs of the city, where folk groups perform. The most large-scale action is considered to be a musical concert, which takes place in the "Aurora" concert hall. Its participants are the eminent domestic representatives of Celtic rock. Another festival that pays tribute to Celtic culture takes place in late October or early November, at that time the Celts traditionally celebrated Samhain, the "ancestor" of Halloween. At this time, the same not only Russian folk groups, but also foreign musicians perform in the "Aurora" hall.
The "Cultured Flea Market" is of interest to many tourists, the traditional venue of which is the Lenpolygraphmash technopark. At the end of March, you can buy valuable and unique items at competitive prices that will become a reminder of a wonderful trip to the northern capital of Russia.
Another fair opens during the St. Petersburg Fashion Week. The peculiarity of the fair is that money for the purchase of fashionable gizmos goes to the needs of charity. You can buy both vintage and trendy outfits here. People also bring clothes that they don’t wear - thus helping those in need. As for the Fashion Week, it takes place at the Alexandrinsky Theater, where couturiers present their design ideas not only from Russia, but also from other countries - Georgia, Belarus, Italy, Ukraine.
Two unique events are held in the northern capital, in which people dressed as their favorite heroes take part. The first is called "Carnival of literary heroes" and takes place in mid-May in the historical district of the city near the Mikhailovsky Manege. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that the participants of the festival dress up in characters from childhood favorite fairy tales or heroes of classical literature, as opposed to many geek festivals where characters from anime, cinema and games are heroes. There is a competition for the best outfit, and visitors of the festival make their choice. The second unique event is the "Zombie Mob" carnival. As you might guess, the participants of this festival paint themselves in the manner of the “living dead” and in mid-August they organize a march along the main streets of the city.
Great gastronomic holidays are also held in St. Petersburg. One of the most famous is the "Smelt Festival", which opens the fishing season, taking place in mid-May at the Lenexpo Exhibition Center. Here you can not only try fish cooked in various ways, but also take part in various contests. A special program with funfair rides is organized for children, so a lot of people with children visit the festival annually.
Another culinary fest is dedicated to gingerbread and is called "Mir Pryanika" ("The World of Gingerbread"), it is celebrated at the end of November at the "Big Gostiny Dvor" shopping center. The most interesting event is considered to be the presentation of a huge Gingerbread city.
Museums
St. Petersburg is a city of incredible beauty and significance, one of the greatest in Russia and known throughout the world. To plunge into it entirely, you must visit its museums, which number more than two hundred. Of course, it is impossible to imagine the northern capital without visiting art museums. Here you can visit the huge Russian Museum with wide halls and corridors, which exhibited a collection of works of art by Russian masters, amazing in its scale and uniqueness, from the 11th century to the present day. Whatever you expect from St. Petersburg, no matter how much you read about museums and galleries, streets, canals, bridges, palaces, communal apartments, courtyards, wells - it all is nothing compared to a personal acquaintance with this amazing city.
Hermitage
The State Hermitage is the pride of Russia, the country's largest cultural and historical museum. The main expositions of the State Hermitage Museum are located in the Main Museum Complex, which is located in the historical center of St. Petersburg. It is formed by six buildings built in the XVIII-XIX centuries, the most significant of which is the Winter Palace - the former imperial residence. The Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the Old (Big) Hermitage and the New Hermitage present collections of cultural and art monuments of the ancient world, Western Europe, Russia, the East, archaeological and numismatic collections. The Main Museum Complex also includes the Hermitage Theater and the Reserve House. Today, the Hermitage has collected almost 3 million exhibits, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, objects of applied art, a collection of numismatics and archaeological sites.
The State Russian Museum
The Russian Museum is the world's largest museum of Russian art, a unique architectural and art complex in the historical center of St. Petersburg. Currently, the museum’s collection contains more than 320 thousand exhibits representing domestic art from the 11th century to the present day. The total area of the museum is currently more than 30 hectares. The collection is housed in buildings that are outstanding architectural monuments of the 18th-19th centuries: Mikhailovsky, Stroganovsky, Marble Palaces and Mikhailovsky Castle. The museum complex also includes the Mikhailovsky Garden, the Summer Garden with the Summer Palace of Peter I and the house of Peter I.
Tsarskoye Selo, Catherine Palace, Pushkin
Tsarskoye Selo - State Museum-Reserve on the territory of St. Petersburg. This is a major educational, tourist, military-industrial and scientific center, which is included in the list of monuments protected by UNESCO. The compositional center of the palace and park ensemble - the Great Tsarskoselsky (Catherine) Palace - is a magnificent example of Russian baroque. Luxurious decorations of the Great Hall and the Golden Enfilade of front rooms, including the world famous Amber Room are amazing.
Peterhof, Petrodvorets
Peterhof was a grand residence of Peter the Great, which has grown into a small town. Today it is the widely known as the largest palace and park ensemble in the world. Peterhof includes palaces, cascades, regular parks - each of them is a separate masterpiece of architectural and garden art. Palaces are the best examples of the architecture of the Petrine era. And the parks of Peterhof - are a real green kingdom, where the walls are the lush vegetation of shrubs with an emerald carpet of grass under the feet. But the main attraction here are the fountains - there are more than 150 of them in total on the territory of Peterhof. And each of them is original and unique.
Cruiser "Aurora"
"Aurora" is a first-rank cruiser of the Baltic Fleet of the "Diana" type. Named after the sailing frigate "Aurora", which became famous during the defense of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Crimean War. During the Russo-Japanese War, it participated in the campaign of the Second Pacific Squadron, ending with the Tsushima battle. It was the defender of Russia in two wars - in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 and in the First World War of 1914-1918, in which it participated in the brigade of cruisers of the Baltic Fleet.
Kunstkamera
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences is one of the largest and oldest ethnographic museums in the world, with collection funds of over 1.2 million items. It is the successor to the first Russian state public museum, the famous Petrovsky Kunstkamera, founded by Peter I in 1714. The collection consists of expositions on the culture and life of the people of the world, but most of all it is famous for its collection of "freaks" - anatomical rarities and anomalies.
Saint Isaac's Cathedral
St. Isaac's Cathedral is the largest Orthodox church in St. Petersburg. Located on St. Isaac's Square. It used to be the Cathedral of the St. Petersburg Diocese from 1858 to 1929. Since 1928 it has the status of a museum. There is a colonnade at a height of 43 meters above the ground around the dome. Two spiral staircases of 200 steps lead to the colonnade and a beautiful panorama of the city opens from there.
Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood
The Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ on Spilled Blood, or the Cathedral of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg - is the Orthodox memorial church in the name of the Resurrection of Christ. It was erected in memory of the fact that Emperor Alexander II was mortally wounded in this place as a result of an attempt on his life. The temple was built as a monument to the Tsar-martyr with funds raised throughout Russia. Currently, the Museum of Stone is open in the sacristy of the temple.
Theaters
Theaters of St. Petersburg are a world-wide phenomenon: they are known, loved and revered not only in Russia, but also all over the world. St Petersburg is the birth place of the professional Russian theater. On August 30, 1756, Empress Elizaveta signed a decree on the opening of the Alexandrinsky Theater. Now more than 180 theaters are open in St. Petersburg, where outstanding directors and actors work, high-profile ballet, opera and theater productions of foreign and Russian classics are held and premieres by contemporary authors are being staged.
Mariinsky Theatre
The State Academic Mariinsky Theater is an opera and ballet theater in St. Petersburg, one of the leading musical theaters in Russia and the world. The troupe, which was founded in the XVIII century, worked under the direction of the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters before the revolution.
For two centuries now, the Mariinsky Theater has been giving incredible performances to its viewers. Here you can see the performances of symphonic groups from abroad, debuts in opera, ballet performances. Great singers and artists worked here: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Fedor Chaliapin, Sofya Preobrazhenskaya, Matilda Kshesinskaya and others. The theater got its name in honor of the wife of Alexander II, Empress Maria Alexandrovna.
The Alexandrinsky Theater
The Alexandrinsky Theater is one of the oldest drama theaters in Russia, preserved to our time. The theater is named after the wife of Emperor Nicholas I, Alexandra Fedorovna. The decoration of the theater deserved special respect and admiration. A peculiar, unusual complex of buildings, a five-tier auditorium, a huge stage, a grand foyer, a divine facade. The walls of the legendary theater were visited by great figures of the Russian state, politicians, military leaders, and cultural figures. Numerous premieres of works by Russian dramatic classics took place here.
The Mikhailovsky Theater
The Mikhailovsky Theater is an opera and ballet theater in St. Petersburg, one of the most important musical theaters in Russia. It was opened in 1833. The theater was erected by architect A. Bryullov. He added the building in the already built architectural ensemble of Arts Square. All the wealth of the imperial theater is concentrated inside: velvet, mirrors, crystal, silver, stucco molding. The imperial family came here, and all the secular people of St. Petersburg. German and French troupes performed on stage.
The Hermitage Theater
The Hermitage Theater is located in a building that is an outstanding work of architecture, the Winter Palace of Peter the Great used to be in its place. The theater building was constructed in 1783-1787. The architectural structure was erected in the style of antiquity under the leadership of architect Giacomo Quarenghi. In 1785, the theater opened with its first premiere of a comic opera. It made a huge contribution to the development of theatrical culture of the 18th century. Balls, masquerades, and performances were held here. The Hermitage Theater has become the leading popular stage venue in the city.
Comedy Theater named after Akimov
The theater is located in the building, which was used by the trading company "Brothers Eliseev" in 1904. Throughout the years, the theater only specialized in the genre of comedy. The name and popularity of the theater was brought by Nikolai Akimov. Nikolai Pavlovich was an innovative director, writer, stage designer and artist. He had to work in difficult circumstances, because the theater was closing down. A year later, the building on Nevsky Prospect became a favorite place for residents and guests of St. Petersburg. Under Akimov, the theater was distinguished by the brilliant productions and irony. Subsequent theater directors continued to develop the theater according to Akimov’s plan.
