Russia - Museums in Saint Petersburg

St. Petersburg has no skyscrapers and a relatively low skyline. Current regulations forbid construction of high buildings in the city centre. The 310m tall St. Petersburg TV Tower is the tallest structure in the city, while 122.5 m Peter and Paul Cathedral is the highest building.

Russian Museum - devoted to the Russian fine art specifically. Established 1895 by Nicholas II to commemorate his father, Alexander III. Original collection was composed of artworks taken from Hermitage, Alexander Palace and Imperial Academy of Arts. After Russian Revolution, many private collections were nationalized and relocated to the Russian Museum. Main building of the museum is Mikhailovsky Palace.
Cathedral of St Peter and Paul - first stone church in St. Petersburg, built between 1712 and 1733. Its golden spire reaches a height of 404 ft and features at its top an angel holding a cross. This angel is one of the most important symbols of St. Petersburg. Turned into a museum in 1924 it houses the remains of almost all the Russian Emperors and Empresses from Peter the Greatto Nicholas II and his family to Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia for 34 years. Only Peter II and Ivan VI are not buried here.

Saint Isaac's Cathedral - largest Russian Orthodox cathedral (sobor) in the city was the tallest Eastern Orthodox church upon its completion (surpassed only by the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour). Church was ordered by Tsar Alexander I, to replace Rinaldiesque structure.
Kunstkamera - first museum in Russia. Established by Peter the Greatcompleted in 1727.  Museum was dedicated to preserving "natural and human curiosities and rarities". Tsar's collection, features human and animal fetuseswith anatomical deficiencies, which Peter had seen in 1697 visiting Frederick Ruysch and Levinus Vincent. The underlying idea was to acquire full knowledge of the world.

Russian Museum of Ethnography -houses a collection of about 500,000 items relating to the ethnography, or cultural anthropology, of peoples of the former Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. In the 1830s, the Kunstkamera collections were dispersed to newly established imperial museums, the most important being the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, established in 1879.

Central Naval Museum -one of the oldest Russian museums and one of the world's largest naval museums. The museum's history officially started in 1709 with the foundation of Model-kammer by Peter the Great for the conservation of ship drafts and models.

Zoological Museum - Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, located on Universitetskaya Embankment. It's one of the ten largest nature history museums in the world. Peter the Great's Kunstkamera collections included zoological specimens. In 1724 the museum became a part of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Varshavsky Rail Terminal - former passenger train station in St. Petersburg, now serving as the Museum of Railway Machinery. The station was originally built in 1851 for a rail line, completed in 1858, from the city to the Tsar's residence in Gatchina. The line was extended in 1859 to Pskov and in 1862 to Warsaw, which at that time was a part of Russian Empire. A branch from the main line that ran to the Prussian border at Virbalis (now Lithuania) connected Saint Petersburg to other capitals of Europe.

St. Petersburg Museum of History- headquarters of the museum are located in the Peter and Paul Fortress. It was established in 1938 as the Museum of History and Development of Leningrad.
Artillery Museum - Since 1869 its collections, founded by Peter I of Russia in 1703 and consisting of Russian and foreign military equipment, uniform and decorations, are hosted in the Kronverk (a crownwork) of the Peter and Paul Fortress on the right bank of the Neva near Alexander Park.