Quay with Sphinxes

The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy of the Three Noblest Arts. Elizabeth of Russia renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned a new building, completed 25 years later in 1789 by the Neva River. The academy promoted the neoclassical style and technique, and sent its promising students to European capitals for further study. Training at the academy was virtually required for artists to make successful careers. Formally abolished in 1918 after the Russian Revolution, the academy was renamed several times. It established free tuition; students from across the country competed fiercely for its few places annually. In 1947 the national institution was moved to Moscow, and much of its art collection was moved to the Hermitage. The building in Leningrad was devoted to the Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, named in honor of one of Russia's foremost realist artists. Since 1991 it has been called the St. Petersburg Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

Saint Petersburg Repin Academy of Arts (Russian: Санкт-Петербургская академия художеств имени Ильи Репина) is an art academy in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The Rumyantsev Obelisk (Russian: Румянцевский обелиск) is a granite obelisk located in Saint Petersburg. It is at the centre of Rumyantsev Square, on Vasilyevsky Island, between the Menshikov Palace and the Saint Petersburg Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The obelisk commemorates the victories of Count Pyotr Rumyantsev during the Russo-Turkish War between 1768 and 1774, and his service in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792. The idea for a monument originated late in the reign of Empress Catherine the Great, and was realised by her son and successor, Emperor Paul I, in 1799. Paul had attempted to persuade Rumyantsev's heirs to accept the offer of a palace built at public expense in place of the monument, but was turned down. The monument was built to the design of Vincenzo Brenna and was initially sited on the Tsaritsyn Meadow, later the Field of Mars. It was moved twice over its existence, to a new site on the Tsaritsyn Meadow after the Suvorov Monument was unveiled there, and then to Vasilyevsky Island after 1818, where it remains. The square it sits on was landscaped with gardens after 1867, and after a period being renamed after Taras Shevchenko during the Soviet era, had its original name, Rumyantsev Square, restored in 2001.

The Annunciation Bridge (Благовещенский мост - Blagoveshchensky most; from 1855 to 1918 Nikolaevsky Bridge, Николаевский мост; from 1918 to 2007 called Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge, Мост Лейтенанта Шмидта) is the first permanent bridge built across the Neva River in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It connects Vasilievsky Island and the central part of the city (Admiralteysky raion). The bridge's length is 331 meters and the width was 24 meters. The original name of the bridge was Nevsky Bridge. It was later renamed Blagoveshchensky Bridge. After the death of Tsar Nicholas I, it was named Nikolaevsky Bridge in his honor, and in 1918 it was renamed for Lieutenant Schmidt. In 1727 a temporary bridge was built at the location of the modern bridge. The place was chosen by Menshikov whose palace is located at the opposite bank. This bridge, named Issakievsky, existed until the current bridge was built, at which time it was moved to the location of where Palace Bridge is located today. The bridge was built in 1843-1850. It was designed by Stanisław Kierbedź, a Polish engineer working in Russia. The architect Alexander Brullov participated in the decoration. The design was a cast iron bridge with twin parallel swing sections at its northern end. At the time, it was the longest bridge in Europe. According to the legend, the Russian Tsar, Nicholas I promised to Kierbedź to give him a promotion for every completed span. After the bridge was completed with eight spans total in it, Kierbedź was promoted to the rank of General, but actually when he started the construction he already had a rank of Podpolkovnik (i.e. lieutenant colonel). The bridge was formally opened on November 12, 1850. Since it was close to Blagoveshchenskaya (Annunciation) Square, it was called Blagoveshchensky Bridge. In 1855 it was renamed Nikolayevsky Bridge in memory of Emperor Nicholas I. In 1918, after the revolution, it was renamed again, this time in memory of Pyotr Schmidt, a leader of the Sevastopol Uprising during the Russian Revolution of 1905. In 2006 a reconstruction of the bridge began. Since it would be completely closed to traffic for over a year, a temporary bridge was constructed between September 2005 and May 2006. During the reconstruction all traffic, both pedestrian and motorized, moved across the temporary bridge. In May 2006 the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge was closed to traffic, and the dismantling of the spans, and then, of bridge supports began. The reconstruction was completed on August 15, 2007, slightly over two years after work began. During reconstruction the deck was widened from 24 m to 37 m. After reconstruction, the bridge was renamed Blagoveshchensky Bridge.

The English Embankment (Russian: Англи́йская на́бережная; Angliyskaya Naberezhnaya) or English Quay is a street along the left bank of the Bolshaya Neva River in Central Saint Petersburg. It has been historically one of the most fashionable streets in Saint Petersburg, and in the 19th century was called by the French term, Promenade des Anglais. It was from the English Embankment that at 2 AM on October 25, 1917, the gunshot from the Aurora sent the signal to storm the Winter Palace during Russian Revolution.The English Embankment runs perpendicular to the south end of the Annunciation Bridge and spans between the Novo-Admiralteysky Canal and the Decembrists Square, where it becomes the Admiralty Embankment.

On 2 April 2023, a bombing occurred in the Street Food Bar №1 café on Universitetskaya Embankment in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, real name Maxim Fomin, died as a result of the explosion and 42 people were injured, 24 of whom were hospitalized, including six in critical conditions.Russia accused Ukraine of being behind the attack and labelled it a "terrorist act", while Ukraine blamed the attack on "domestic terrorism". The National Republican Army also claimed responsibility for the attack.

Nicholas Palace (Russian: Николаевский дворец, Nikolayevsky dvorets) was one of several St Petersburg palaces designed by Andreas Stackensneider (1802–65) for the children of Nicholas I of Russia. The palace of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaievich of Russia forms part of a sprawling complex incorporating a palatial church, a manege, and several outbuildings separated from Labour Square by a cast-iron fence. In 1894 the edifice reverted to the crown and was transformed into the Kseniinsky Institute for Noble Young Ladies (Russian: Ксенинский институт благородных девиц, Kseninskii institut blagorodnykh devits). It was described by E. M. Almedingen in her memoirs:At certain functions in the great paneled white hall it was easy to imagine yourself plunged into the court life of the late eighteenth century. ... The palace, for all its enormous size, was beautiful. The sweep of that regal, gray marble staircase, curving off to the right and the left, must have been an architectural marvel. We played in halls, their high ceilings supported by Corinthian pillars, their walls covered with most exquisite paneling. We read and studied in rooms with lovely mirrors, framed in the scrolled and carven fantasies of great artists. We slept in dormitories, their walls covered by delicate frescoes. ... The exquisite staircase... swept down to a hall where a gigantic Cerberus of a porter, magnificent in scarlet and gold, stood on duty. The great front doors, splendid with carved wood and panes of cut glass, were nearly always closed. The Bolsheviks renamed it Palace of Labour (Russian: Дворец труда, Dvorets truda) and handed it over to the trade unions, who destroyed some parts of the original eclectic interiors in order to adapt the palace for their own headquarters. As of 2004, the trade unions are leasing a large part of the edifice to commercial enterprises as offices.

The Menshikov Palace (Russian: Меншиковский дворец) is a Petrine Baroque edifice in Saint Petersburg, situated on Universitetskaya Embankment of the Bolshaya Neva on Vasilyevsky Island. It was the first stone building in the city. Since 1981, it has served as a public museum, a branch of the Hermitage Museum. The palace was founded in 1710 as a residence of Saint Petersburg Governor General Alexander Menshikov and built by Italian architects Giovanni Maria Fontana, and, later, German architect Gottfried Johann Schädel. It was opened in 1711, but the construction continued until 1727 (assisted by Domenico Trezzini, Bartolomeo Rastrelli, Georg Johann Mattarnovy and Jean-Baptiste Le Blond), when Menshikov with his family was exiled to Siberia and his property was confiscated. In 1731 the First Cadet Corps were established and occupied the palace and neighboring buildings. At the end of the 19th century the Menshikov Palace was restored and became the museum of the Corps. In 1924, its collections were moved to the Hermitage and other museums. From 1956 to 1981 the Menshikov Palace was restored again and finally opened to the public as a branch of the Hermitage Museum with a collection of Russian art of the late 17th-early 18th century.

The State Hydrological Institute (SHI; Russian: Государственный гидрологический институт, ГГИ) is a research institute of Russia in the field of developing methods for locating hydrological networks and river hydrometry, creating modern models and methods for accelerated measurements of water discharge, runoff accounting at hydroelectric power plants and other hydrology structures. SHI is created under the initiative of the Russian Academy of Sciences in October 1919. The institute cooperates with international organizations such as UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization.

Griffins' tower (Russian: Башня грифонов) is a red-brick tower situated in one of the yards on Vasilyevsky Island in Saint Petersburg. It used to be a part of a 19th-century pharmacy factory run by famous pharmacist and alchemist Wilhelm Poehl (sometimes written William Pell). The tower is around 11 m high and 2 m wide and has no windows or doors. Almost every brick of the tower is numbered. The mysterious code and unusual location at the pharmacy yard caused numerous legends about the tower.

Universitetskaya Embankment (Russian: Университетская набережная) is a 1.2 km long embankment on the right bank of the Bolshaya Neva, on Vasilievsky Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Starting at the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, it spans between Palace Bridge and Blagoveshchensky Bridge. The bank was lined with granite in 1805–1810 (eastern part), 1831–1834 (western part) and the 1850s (near Blagoveshchensky Bridge). It features an ensemble of Petrine Baroque buildings of the early 18th century, including the Kunstkamera, Twelve Collegia, Menshikov Palace, as well as the neoclassical building of the Academy of Arts. The embankment was formerly connected to the left bank through Isaakiyevsky Pontone Bridge, constructed in 1819–1841 in front of Senate Square. One of the campuses of Saint Petersburg State University (hosted in the Twelve Collegia and several other buildings), Saint Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (hosted in the Kunstkamera) and Zoological Museum are all situated along the embankment. The embankment was named after the university in 1887.

Saint Andrew's Cathedral (Russian: Андреевский собор) was the last Baroque cathedral built in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The cathedral was conceived at the time of Peter the Great as the chapter church of Russia's first chivalric order, that of Saint Andrew. The most famous architect of the Nordic countries, Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, was called upon to design a church resembling St Paul's Cathedral in London and exceeding 430 feet in length. By the time Tessin submitted his designs, the tsar had died and the costly project was suspended. Two years later, Giuseppe Trezzini, a city architect to St. Petersburg, had the territory behind the building of the Twelve Colleges cleared from wood and built a modest timber church, which was consecrated by Feofan Prokopovich in the name of Saint Andrew on 8 October 1732. It was an austerely rational structure with few stylistic pretensions. Empress Anna donated furnishings to the church, while the icon screen required by Orthodox usage was taken from a chapel of the neighbouring Menshikov Palace. As the timber church was found too small to house its increasing congregation, Trezzini designed a stone church, which was founded on 2 July 1740 in the proximity of the timber cathedral. The shell of the church was erected within five years, but decoration works prevented its consecration until 1760. It was here that Mikhail Lomonosov and Vasily Trediakovsky were sworn in as professors of the Imperial Academy of Sciences on 30 July 1745. The structure, dedicated in the name of Three Holy Men, still stands. On 4 July 1761 the wooden cathedral was struck by lightning and burnt to the ground. The architect Alexander Whist (1722–94) was charged with the task of designing a new cathedral of stone. Though founded on 18 July 1764, the church took 22 years to complete. A delay was due to the collapse of its cupola on 6 August 1766, a disaster which led to the architect being taken into custody. It was not until 21 March 1780 that the five-domed pastel pink cathedral was consecrated. The decoration of the cathedral is restrained (picture), although Emperor Paul, in reasserting its importance as the chapter church of the oldest Russian order of knighthood, had the entrance decorated with a relief representing the order carried by two angels. A special place was reserved in the cathedral for the tsar until 1813. The pyramidal bell-tower, attached to the church by a refectory, was built in two tiers in 1784-86 and formerly boasted ten bells, the largest of which weighed in excess of four tons. The top of the belfry was remodeled in 1850. Seven years later, the cathedral interior was renovated and the 18th-century icon screen augmented. Furthermore, when the first permanent bridge across the Neva was built in the 1850s, a chapel on the bridge became affiliated with the cathedral. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks confiscated many valuables from the church. On 24 April 1924 a crowd of several hundred worshipers attempted to defend the icons and clashed with the members of the "expropriation committee". As a consequence of the disorders, the cathedral was given over to the renovationists, a state-sponsored sect which sought to reconcile the ideals of Christianity and Communism. On 16 May 1938 the cathedral was closed down, its priests arrested and the bells destroyed. However, the impressive baroque iconostasis was restored, while a 17th-century icon with the portraits of Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexis was taken to the Russian Museum. During the Siege of Leningrad, the dome was equipped with cannons which helped protect the area from intensive bombing. In 1992 the cathedral of St. Andrew and the church of Three Holy Men were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. In 2001, an obelisk was unveiled in front of the church to commemorate the tercentenary of the restored Order of St. Andrew.