Palace Square & Alexander Column
Дворцовая площадь
The city's main square, framed by the Winter Palace and the General Staff Building, with the 47.5-metre Alexander Column standing free without any fixings.
Palace Square is the heart of Saint Petersburg. To the north stands the green-and-white Baroque facade of the Winter Palace (the Hermitage), and to the south the 580-metre curved facade of the General Staff Building, with a triumphal arch between them leading onto Nevsky Prospect. The Alexander Column in the centre commemorates the 1812 victory over Napoleon. At 47.5 metres tall, it is carved from a single block of granite weighing around 600 tonnes and stands on its base by its own weight alone. Bloody Sunday in 1905 and the storming of the Winter Palace in 1917 both took place here. The square is free to enter, the east wing of the General Staff Building houses the Hermitage's Impressionist New Wing, and the square is especially photogenic at night under lights and in winter snow.
Opening hours
All day
Nearby sights
- Nevsky Prospekt
- State Hermitage Museum / Winter Palace
- Palace Bridge
- Kazan Cathedral
- Singer House (Dom Knigi)
- Peter and Paul Fortress
- Saint Isaac's Cathedral
- Kunstkamera