An ideal way to start one's acquaintance with the city is to take a 3-hour city tour.
The route is tailored just to give you a chance to see all the highlights of the city center - an unforgettable journey through the past and present of the city. The tour invariably includes a drive along Nevsky Prospect, the Peter & Paul Fortress and the Hermitage. After a stop by the multi-domed Church of the Resurrection of Christ (also known as the Church on the Spilled Blood), cross the Neva to see the Aurora cruiser. Stop by the Bronze Horseman. Return then to the Admiralty region to look at St.Isaas's Cathedral.

Built in honour of Peter the Great's patron-saint, St. Isaac's Cathedral was once the main church of Russia. It was built in 1818-1858 by the French architect Montferrand to become the most exquisite of all Russian cathedrals.
From the outside it is decorated with sculptures, its huge dome is gold-leafed, and monolith granite columns surround its perimeter. Mosaic paintings and icons, ornate marble slabs, as well as columns decorated with malachite and lapis-lazuli dazzle the eye inside the cathedral.

St. Isaac's was closed in early 1930s and later turned into a museum. Nowadays, church services are held on major occasions only.
The original St. Isaac's, a small wooden church, was located near the Admiralty and a notorious watering hole of the time called Petrovskoye Kruzhaloye. Peter I and Catherine I were married here in 1712. Soon afterwards it was agreed that the decrepit structure did not suit the emerging grandeur of the capital and in 1717 a stone St. Isaac's was built on the spot now occupied by the Bronze Horseman.

Everything was done on a grand scale. The portico columns, cut from red granite, are 17 meters high; the mosaic inside has 20.000 shades and colors; the walls are 5 meters thick; the cupola is coated with 100 kilos of gold; and the whole thing weighs 300.000 tons. Inside there are hordes of paintings, sculptures, and mosaics by XIX century Russian and European masters, including a huge fresco on the inside of the cupola by Karl Bryullov and a bust of Montferrand made of different colored marbles and other minerals.