Nevsky Prospekt
Невский проспект
A 4.5 km main street from the Admiralty to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, with Kazan Cathedral, the Singer Building bookshop, the Eliseev food hall and the Saint Petersburg of Gogol’s stories.
Nevsky Prospekt was laid out in the 1710s alongside the city itself. It runs 4.5 km from the spire of the Admiralty to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. It is the city’s main street and the “soul of Petersburg” in literature, as described in Gogol’s story “Nevsky Prospekt” and in the walks taken by Dostoevsky’s characters. Most visitors walk the 2.5 km from the Admiralty to Uprising Square. Along the way you will pass the Stroganov Palace, a branch of the Russian Museum. Kazan Cathedral, modelled on St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, has a colonnade of 96 columns. It houses the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, is free to enter, and holds the tomb of Kutuzov. Its evening services have beautiful singing. Opposite stands the Singer Building, an Art Nouveau landmark with the Book House inside. Its second-floor café looks straight onto Kazan Cathedral. The Eliseev food hall is an Art Nouveau luxury grocery store from 1903, where you can buy caviar and pastries. The Gostiny Dvor is a large 18th-century arcaded shopping centre. The Alexandrinsky Theatre and the small park with the statue of Catherine the Great stand at Ostrovsky Square. Over the Moika and Fontanka rivers are bridges, including the Anichkov Bridge with its four bronze statues of horses being tamed.
Both sides of the street are lined with 18th- and 19th-century palaces and apartment buildings. During the White Nights the street remains busy late into the night.
Food: Stolle pies, Pyshechnaya (a Soviet-era doughnut shop from 1958 at 25 Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street, on the north side of the avenue), and the Teremok chain of Russian pancake restaurants.
Metro stations along the street include Admiralteyskaya, Nevsky Prospekt, Gostiny Dvor, Mayakovskaya and Ploshchad Vosstaniya.
Notes: it gets crowded at night, so watch out for pickpockets. Boat docks for the Moika and Fontanka canals are right by the bridges. A one-hour cruise costs about RUB 800–1,500.
Opening hours
All day
Nearby sights
- Palace Square & Alexander Column
- State Hermitage Museum / Winter Palace
- Palace Bridge
- Saint Isaac's Cathedral
- Kazan Cathedral
- Singer House (Dom Knigi)
- Kunstkamera
- Spit of Vasilyevsky Island & Rostral Columns