Peter and Paul Fortress guided tour

Built as a fortress and military garrison, notorious as a political prison, and home in different eras to institutions as varied as the Imperial Mint and Soviet-era rocket research laboratories – not to mention the magnificent Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral, the final resting place of nearly all the Romanov Tsars – the Peter and Paul Fortress offers a fascinating array of attractions to visitors. Without a tour guide, however, the fortress's complex history and wildly different functions can be difficult to fully appreciate, especially considering the labyrinthine system of admissions tickets.

This three-hour guided tour of the Peter and Paul Fortress is a great way to begin your exploration of St. Petersburg, as your guide will be able to present the history of the city from its very beginning. Walking the battlements of the fortress, you can enjoy spectacular views across the Neva River and build a picture of how the city developed. At the museum in the Nevsky Curtain Wall, you will learn all about the construction and operations of the fortress itself. In the Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral, you will see the tombs of all but one of the Romanov Tsars who ruled the Russian Empire from St. Petersburg, a learn a little about what each of them contributed to the city. You will also visit the Commandant's House, where a charming small museums gives valuable insight into the everyday life of St. Petersburg in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the prison in the Trubetskoy Bastion, where political dissidents including Maxim Gorky and Leon Trotsky were held in the final decades of Tsarist rule.

Time permitting, you can also arrange with your guide to visit any or all of the temporary exhibitions devoted to different aspects of St. Petersburg's history hosted in the various parts of the fortress, as well as the Museum of Space Exploration and Rocket Technology, and the fortress's collections of antique glassware and furniture.

Itinerary and route details