The State Russian Museum is the world's largest museum of Russian art. It is located in the very center of St Petersburg, just of the city's central magisterial, Nevsky Prospekt. The museum is housed in the former Mikhailovsky Palace, a stunning monument of Empire architecture. The collection of the Russian Museum numbers some 400,000 works and covers the entire history of Russian fine art from the tenth century to the present day. It reflects virtually every form and genre of art in Russia, including a unique collection of Old Russian icons, works of painting, graphic art and sculpture, decorative and applied art, folk art and numismatics, as well as the world's finest collection of Russian avaunt-garde. In 1998 the State Russian Museum celebrates its centenary jubilee. There was a cycle of exhibitions entitled World Museums and Galleries on the Occasion of the Centenary of the Russian Museum. Visitors will also be able to see the newly - restored halls of its three new palaces. There will also be a series of books devoted to the collections and history of the Russian Museum. .

The first floor contains art from the second half of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. One will notice a preponderance of village scenes, landscapes, and portraits of bearded men. Of special note: the works of Alexander Ivanov, whose mystical Christ Appearing to the People .

on the second floor, whose rooms look more palace-like than those on the first thanks to recent renovation. Rooms 1 to 4 hold a large collection of icons dating from the 11th century. Iconographers - monks who painted as a form of spiritual therapy - represented Russian painting exclusively until a slight liberation began under Mikhail Romanov in the 17th century. This was brought to its conclusion by his grandson, Peter the Great, when he sanctioned the complete secularization of art. Featured items here are the 12th century Angel Gold-Hair, the last remaining third of a triptych depicting Christ surrounded by angels (room 1); Boris and Gleb, depicting the two sons of Grand Duke Vladimir of Kiev who were canonized after having been murdered by their brother (room 1); and several works by one of the most famous iconographers of the Moscow School, Andrei Rublev, whose large Apostle Peter and Apostle Paul were once part of the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Vladimir.

Our address: Russia, 191011, St.-Petersburg, Inzhenernaya str., 4/2 Transport: 5 minutes walk from metro station Nevsky Prospect Museum hours: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m, closed on Tuesdays