Arts Square (Ploshchad Iskusstv) is a testimony to the effectiveness of the originally planning that went into the city. The square's plan was drawn up by the Italian architect Carlo Rossi, who spent most of his life working in Russia and is considered by many to be a native Russian architect (both his contemporaries and present-day art historians have tended to call him by his Russified name Karl Ivanovich Rossi). He was responsible for all the most prominent buildings built on the square, including the Mikhailovsky Palace, which today houses the Russian Museum. According to the "Classical" style of the day, all the buildings lining the square are similar in design and form a harmonious architectural ensemble. Other architects and landlords then had to follow his design.

The ARTS SQUARE

Arts Square derives its name from the cluster of museums, theaters and concert halls that surround it. Some of the most notable include:

the Russian Museum, one of the country's two largest collections of Russian art;

the Ethnographic Museum, representing all the ethnic cultures of the former USSR;

the Maly Opera and Ballet Theater (also known as the Mussorgsky Theater) often referred to as "the city's second fiddle to the Mariinsky for opera and ballet" but still a well-respected and centrally located theater;

the Large Concert Hall (Bolshoi Zal) of the St.Petersburg Philarmonia - the city's prime classical music venue.

In the middle of Arts Square stands a Statue of Alexander Pushkin (1799-1836) (sculptor Anikushin, architect Petrov) - Russia's most famous and most beloved poet and the author of the novel-in-verse "Evgeny Onegin" and some of the most beautiful poetry written about St.Petersburg.

The State Russian Museum (Gosudarstvenny Russky muzey) is the perfect choice for those interested in Russia art from the 12th century to the mid- 20th century. The Russian Museum is the second largest in the city after the Hermitage. The museum's collection can only be rivaled by that of the famous Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The museum's central building is the yellow, white- columned Mikhailovsky Palace, both monumental and light, with gracious portico of classic Corinthis order. Its built between 1819 and 1825 for Grand Duke Mikhail, the brother of Tsars Alexander I and Nicholas I and as a gift from his dad, Tsar Pavel I as compensation for not being able to have a chance on the throne. The building was bought by the government during the late 19th century and was turned into the "Russian Museum of the Emperor Alexander III" in 1898. A new wing, the Benois Building (Corpus Benua), built by Benois, was added to the museum at the start of this century to help house the museum's growing collections. The collection is disposed also in other palaces that make the Russian Museum ensemble: in the Stroganov Palace, the Marble Palace and the Mikhailovsky Castle.

The State Russian Museum is the world's largest and the city's most popular museum of the Russian Art. Its collection has over 400,000 items covering the overall development of the Russian art from the precious icons of the 10th century to the masterpieces of the Russian avant-garde and covers all the genres: painting, drawing, etching, sculpture as well as decorative and applied arts folk art and numismatics, as well as the world's finest collection of Russian avant-garde. Soviet art and arts-and-crafts are also represented in abundance. The ancient Russian art is presented by works of Rublev and Ushakov, there are canvasses by the 20th century artists Chagall and Malevitch. Collection of the art of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries includes works of Brullov, Kiprensky etc. Also in Russian Museum we can find the works of painting by Repin, Surikov, Levitan, Serov, Vrubel.

Today the unique and comprehensive collection of the Russian Museum is an exceptional opportunity of an all-round, detailed study of the development of artistic ideas and culture in Russia over a period of nearly two and a half centuries.

The Museum of Ethnography building came into being as a result of reconstruction of the eastern wing of the Mikhailovsky Palace. The architect used the techniques and motifs of Russian Classicism in his design to achieve stylistic unity of the new building and the palace. The construction works took rather a long time. The vestibule and the spacious Marble Hall are faced with Olonetsk marbles. The sculptural frieze is performed by the sculptors Khariamov and Bogatyriov.

Museum of Ethnography is one of the less-crowded museums. Founded at the end of the 19th century as a branch of the Russian Museum, for years it propogandized the friendship between the ethnic groups that made up the USSR with special emphasis on how happy various nomadic tribes were when Russians freed them from tsarist oppression and brought them things like schools, hospitals, and socialism. Now the exhibition turns the clock back a bit and shows through folk art, national dress, and various farming and craft paraphernalia how these same peoples managed to live for hundreds or thousands of years without lifting a finger to help the international proletariat.

The main exhibition is spread out over two floors in rooms to the left and right of the main entry hall. The fifteen former republics are covered in the wing to the right, and to the left are several rooms featuring artifacts from the St. Petersburg region as well as rooms dedicated to non-Russian peoples from the Russian Federation. Some parts of the exhibition are only mildly interesting and get monotonous after a while (eg. Estonian beekeeping), whereas even non- anthropologists will get a kick out of such things as the intricately carved Georgian wine vessels, the re-constructed huts with dressed-up Asian mannequins, and the Far East fish-folk room (on the 2nd floor of the left hall) complete with decked out model shaman and guys who eat, wear, live in, and ski on things made almost exclusively out of fish and reindeer.

Metro: Nevsky Prospekt / Gostiny Dvor