Catherine the Great ordered the Marble Palace to be built as a present for her lover, Count Orlov, who first had the nerve to lose it twice in card-games (both times Catherine bought it back and presented it to him anew) and then had the audacity to die before it was finished. Both the interior and exterior are fronted in thirty-two kinds of marble, hence the name. Formerly home to the Leningrad branch of the Central Lenin Museum, it is now used for various temporary exhibitions and a new semi-permanent exhibition of paintings entitled "Formal Portraits of Russia."

Millionnaya Ulitsa 5/1. Metro: Nevsky Prospekt. Wed-Sun. museum hours 10:00-18:00. Ticketing office open 10:00-17:00. Mondays 10:00-17:00, ticketing office 10:00-16:00. Closed Tuesdays. Tel: 312 9196.