Palace Square

Today I had a tour of the Hermitage Museum, formerly known as the Winter Palace. I met the tour guide and the three other people on the tour next to the Alexander Column in Palace Square.

Palace Square is a fantastic huge square that has some of St Petersburg's most magnificent buildings. Opposite the Winter Palace is the semi circular General Staff Building. Through it is a triumphal arch leading to Nevsky Prospect.

The square has a prominent place in the history of St. Petersburg. The massacre of 'Bloody Sunday' on January 22, 1905, when Tsarist troops fired on unarmed strikers sparked the revolution of 1905. It also played an important part in the 1917 revolution, when a group of Bolshevik militants stormed the Winter Palace following a shot fired from the Aurora cruiser.Read more