Getting to Know St. Petersburg

18 points7 km1.5 hours

In the city on the Neva, luxurious palaces, world-class museums, old cathedrals, and cozy embankments blend in perfect harmony. This route will highlight the city's main sights, along with some of its secrets and legends.

Route author

Alexander Plyusnin

Things to do

📸 Take photos
📜 Learn the city's history
🏰🕵️‍♂️ Discover a legend

Route points (18)

Shostakovich Philharmonia in Saint Petersburg

Point on route “Getting to Know St. Petersburg”

Point 6

Shostakovich Philharmonia

🕵️ Urban legend • 📜 Historic site • 🎭 Theater

Historical Background

From Gostiny Dvor and Nevsky Prospekt, let's walk a little way down Mikhailovskaya Street. Here on the corner stands a building that at first glance is not the most striking. Nearby is an architectural landmark, the Russian Museum, and across the street the famous Hotel Europe… Yet this building's historical significance is no less important. It originally had various functions; the facade was designed by the famous Carlo Rossi, and the present Grand Hall was built in 1839 by the architect Paul Jacot for the St. Petersburg Assembly of the Nobility. In the early 20th century, after the revolution, the Petrograd State Philharmonic opened here. Although as early as the mid-19th century the building had become the center of the capital's musical life.

Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony

Dmitri Shostakovich's world fame began right here, on the stage of the Philharmonia, where his First Symphony was first performed. But the Philharmonia's greatest fame came from the Seventh Symphony, which the composer began writing in 1941 in besieged Leningrad. In October Shostakovich and his family were evacuated to Kuibyshev (now Samara), where he completed the fourth and final movement. The Seventh Symphony premiered in Kuibyshev, but its most famous performance took place on August 9, 1942, in Leningrad. The city was under siege, and not all of the Philharmonia's musicians had survived. But in the summer of 1942 the Leningrad Radio Committee Orchestra under Karl Eliasberg performed the symphony. On the day of the first performance, all of Leningrad's artillery was directed at suppressing the enemy's firing positions. Despite the bombs and air raids, all the chandeliers were lit in the Philharmonia, and the hall was full. The symphony was broadcast on the radio and through the city's loudspeaker network. It was heard not only by the city's residents but also by the German troops besieging Leningrad. Various sources tell how, many years after the war, two Germans sought out the conductor Karl Eliasberg and confessed that it was then, in the summer of 1942, that they realized they would lose the war.

Nearby

Grand Hotel Europe On the same Mikhailovskaya Street, across from the Philharmonia, stands the grand building of the Grand Hotel. This five-star hotel has hosted the most famous guests over its history.