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Cabin of Peter the Great

The first residential building to be built in the newly founded city of St. Petersburg was a wooden house or cabin, intended for Tsar Peter himself. The cabin is very small - only 60 square meters in area and is a strange combination of a traditional Russian house or izba and a Dutch home with large and elaborate windows and a high roof covered with wooden tiles. Tsar Peter lived in this house between 1703 and 1708 and the living room, bedroom and study, still filled with Peter's original belongings, continue to bear the mark of his presence. Peter the Great wanted all the houses of his new city to be built of stone, the way it was done in Europe. But he could not afford a stone house at the time, so he ordered the walls to be painted as if the house was made of bricks.

  • Pavilion housing the Cabin of Peter the Great on Petrovskaya Embankment in St Petersburg, Russia
    Pavilion housing the Cabin of Peter the Great on Petrovskaya Embankment
  • Two-headed eagles at the Cabin of Peter the Great in St Petersburg, Russia
    Two-headed eagles at the Cabin of Peter the Great
  • Pavilion housing the Cabin of Peter the Great and a statue of the monarch in St Petersburg, Russia
    Pavilion housing the Cabin of Peter the Great and a statue of the monarch

Hidden from wind and rain inside a red brick pavilion, the first house built in the city of St. Petersburg is still open to the public. During the Second World War the Cabin of Peter the Great was the first museum to reopen in 1944 after the dramatic 900-day Siege of Leningrad.

Location:6, Petrovskaya Naberezhnaya
Metro:Gorkovskaya
Telephone:+7 (812) 232-4576
Open:Daily, 10 am to 6 pm. Last admission is at 5 pm. Thursday, 1 pm to 9 pm. Last admission is at 8 pm.
Closed:Tuesdays and the last Monday of each month
Admission:RUB 200.00
Photo and video:RUB 100.00
Accessibility note:Sorry, this museum is not wheelchair accessible.