A tourist program has launched in St. Petersburg, offering a worthy alternative to the usual, or perhaps boring, excursion routes. Now, thanks to the website opengorod.rf, you can sign up for excursions to previously inaccessible mansions, palaces and other famous historical buildings. The project was organized jointly by the city authorities and the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Monuments.
There are three types of excursions: walking, bus and tram. Participation in them is free, but you must first register through the website indicating reliable personal data – otherwise you may simply not be allowed into the facilities, many of which are classified as sensitive.
Interesting excursions from local residents in St. Petersburg
Photo: vk .com/nau_spb
Photo: vk.com/nau_spb
For example, the palace of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich Romanov, on the Promenade des Anglais, today bears a less poetic name – the House of Culture of the Deaf. The main leisure center for the hearing impaired in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region lives its own measured life and an ordinary city dweller is unlikely to be able to get here further than a souvenir shop. While the place is worthy of attention: from the facade the palace is quite modest, but inside it hides luxurious interiors and amazing details. Or, for example, the mansion of Alexander Polovtsov, Secretary of State during the times of Alexander III. This architectural monument does not have the status of a museum, but it has well-preserved original interiors of the second half of the 19th century. The Imperial Porcelain Factory, the Mariinsky Palace, where the city parliament meets, the Synod, where the Supreme Court is located, the apartment building of A.D. Muruzi, where Brodsky was born, the Admiralty Izhora factories, etc. – the list of the “Open City” includes more than 50 points on the map. Not every St. Petersburg resident has visited these historical buildings. It’s one thing to walk past monuments every day, another thing to visit inside accompanied by an experienced storyteller. It is not surprising that excursions are very popular among city residents.
Zinger Company House
Photo: Opengorod.rf, Silver Age Tram
Information about upcoming hikes appears approximately two weeks before the event. In November, for example, you can visit the Singer Company House. Yes, probably every tourist visits the legendary bookstore located in this building, but during the tour you can see the front and back staircases, preserved elevators, and the atrium made from the building’s courtyard. Poetry lovers are invited to the “Silver Age Tram”. The rare tram from the beginning of the 20th century will go to significant addresses for Russian poetry: where Zinaida Gippius and Alexander Blok met, where Osip Mandelstam and Vladimir Nabokov studied, where concerts, performances, and poetry readings were held. And during the autumn holidays, schoolchildren are invited to the Peter and Paul Fortress for a quest about the adventures of Baron Munchausen, who, as you know, served in Russia and visited St. Petersburg more than once.
