4 hours / half day tour
This tour gives the guests opportunity to visit first Monasteries appeared on the territory of St.Petersburg.
The tour includes visit to the SMOLNY CONVENT and Cathedral and the first monastery appeared on the territory of St.Petersburg - Alexander Nevsky Monastery.
The Smolny ensemble includes a number of structures put up at different times. This territory on the Neva bank, opposite the Nienschanz Fortress put up by the Swedes in the 17th century, was allotted for the tar-yard (Smolianoi dvor); tar was stored and smelted there for the needs of the Admiralty. The cathedral is the center piece of a convent built mostly to Rastrelli's designs in 1748-57. His inspiration was to combine baroque details with the forest of towers and onion domes typical of an old Russian monastery.
Alexander Nevsky Monastery that is still a function Orthodox Convent. The main church of the St. Alexander Nevsky Monastery founded by Peter the Great in 1710-1713 to commemorate the victory of the Russian troops in the Neva battle of 1240. Built in 1776-1790 by the architect Ivan Starov. The cathedral was closed in 1933. However, at persistent demands of believers it was given back to the Church in 1955 and reconsecrated on 12 September 1957, the feast day of St. Prince Alexander Nevsky.
To the right of the Lavra entrance is the Tikhvinskoye Cemetery founded in 1823. During the nineteenth century there were buried many famous Russian writers and poets I. Krylov, N. Karamzin, V. Zhukovsky, F. Dostoyevsky; the composers M. Glinka, M. Mussorgsky, A. Borodin, P. Tchaikovsky, A. Dargomyzhsky, the artists I. Kramskoi, A. Kuinji, the art and musical critic I. Stasov, famous actors and actresses.
