The Alexander Nevsky Lavra (Aleksandro-Nevskaya lavra, the city's senior monastery) stands where Nevsky Prospekt ends, and many visitors only see it from the square: a gateway, a dome, and back into the metro. That is a mistake. Behind the walls is a working monastery whose cathedral holds the relics of Saint Alexander Nevsky, and two old cemeteries turned into an open-air museum where Lomonosov, Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky and Glinka lie a few hundred metres apart. Late October is a good time to come: yellow leaves over the gravestones.
On 19 October 2026 we checked the websites of the Lavra, the State Museum of Urban Sculpture, the Saint Petersburg Encyclopaedia and Yandex Maps for what is free and what needs a ticket, prices, closing times and how to get there from the metro. Hours and prices can change, so check the websites before you go. Signs, tours and ticket desks work in Russian.
⛪ Holy Trinity Cathedral: Alexander Nevsky's relics, free entry
The heart of the Lavra is the Holy Trinity Cathedral (Svyato-Troitsky sobor). According to the timeline on the monastery's website, it was founded in 1778 to a design by Ivan Starov and consecrated in 1790; on that day the relics of Alexander Nevsky, which Peter the Great had brought to the monastery in 1724, were moved into it. The famous silver shrine that once held them has been in the Hermitage since 1922.
Columns, vaults and chandeliers of the Holy Trinity Cathedral, photographed in 2025 — Photo: MBH, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Entry to the cathedral is free. The Lavra's website gives its hours as 5:45 to 20:00; after the evening service the cleaning starts and access inside may be partly restricted. Daily services: midnight office at 6:15, early liturgy at 7:00, late liturgy at 10:00, evening service at 17:00. If you only want to see the interior, come in the afternoon between the late liturgy and the evening service. Since January 2023 the cathedral has been under comprehensive restoration (as the Lavra's website reports), so parts of it may be screened off. The website publishes no dress code, but the usual Orthodox custom applies: women cover their heads, and no shorts.
🏛 Necropolis of the 18th Century: Lomonosov, Fonvizin and Neoclassical marble
The first of the two museum cemeteries is the Lazarevskoye (St Lazarus) Cemetery, the oldest in St Petersburg. The Museum of Urban Sculpture says it has existed since 1713 and became an open-air museum in 1923. More than a thousand tombs of the 18th to 20th centuries survive: the scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, the playwright Denis Fonvizin, the statesman Sergei Witte, Admiral Vasily Chichagov, Natalya Lanskaya — Pushkin's widow; the Lavra adds the architects Andrei Voronikhin and Ivan Starov.
The tomb of P. A. Talyzin with a mourning figure in the Necropolis of the 18th Century — Photo: Tulip, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Come here for the sculpture: allegorical statues, busts and reliefs from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the age of Neoclassicism. Inside the necropolis stands the Lazarus burial church, with its own hours: 10:00 to 16:30, closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The necropolis itself is open daily from 10:00 to 18:00, ticket desk until 17:30. A ticket costs 200 roubles, concession 150.
🎼 Necropolis of the Masters of Arts: Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky, Glinka
Opposite the Lazarevskoye, says the Lavra, lies the Tikhvinskoye (Tikhvin) Cemetery, founded in 1823. In 1937 the museum Necropolis of the Masters of Arts was created here, and more than sixty burials were moved in from city cemeteries that were being destroyed. The museum counts 184 tomb monuments; among those buried are Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Karamzin, Vasily Zhukovsky, Ivan Krylov, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Ivan Shishkin.
Old gravestones under autumn leaves in the Tikhvin Cemetery — Photo: Glvinn, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Same hours: daily 10:00 to 18:00, ticket desk until 17:30; the small "Signs of Memory" display closes at 17:00. A ticket is 200 roubles, concession 150; a combined ticket for both necropolises is 400 and 300. A guided tour costs another 200 roubles on top of the ticket, or from 2,000 roubles for a group of up to 10, booked by phone with the museum. Prices are the same for foreigners. If you only have time for one, choose this one: the names are known worldwide.
🍂 The courtyard, the Nikolskoye Cemetery and the bell tower you cannot climb
Beyond the necropolises is the monastery courtyard with 18th-century buildings and paths to the cathedral. According to the Saint Petersburg Encyclopaedia, Peter the Great inspected the site in 1710, and the monastery received the rank of lavra (a senior monastery) only in 1797.
An autumn path among gravestones leads to the Holy Trinity Cathedral — Photo: Glvinn, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Between the monastery wall and the Neva lies the Nikolskoye (St Nicholas) Cemetery; it is not part of the museum, and neither the Lavra nor Yandex Maps mention a ticket. The Lavra says the land was set aside in 1861 and the name comes from the St Nicholas church built in 1868–1871. Buried here are the historian Lev Gumilyov, the singer Anastasia Vyaltseva and the pioneering aviators Sergei Utochkin and Lev Matsievich. It is a state cemetery; Yandex Maps lists it as open daily 9:00 to 18:00. According to the pilgrimage centre, tours up the cathedral's north bell tower run only in summer, so in October and November you cannot get to the top.
🌳 The Metropolitan's Garden and the Monastyrka River
The Saint Petersburg Encyclopaedia notes that the Lavra's buildings and necropolises stand along the little Monastyrka River, with the Metropolitan's Garden (Mitropolichy sad) beside them; a monastery garden with canals was laid out on the west side of the cloister as early as 1725.
The Monastyrka River and the Lavra buildings at sunset — Photo: Pavlikhin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
In late October the sun sets at about half past five, and at sunset the Lavra's buildings are reflected in the Monastyrka — the most photogenic corner of the monastery.
🚇 Getting there, how long to allow and where to eat
The nearest metro is Ploshchad Aleksandra Nevskogo, stations 1 and 2: according to Yandex Maps they are 320–390 metres from the Lavra. The monastery grounds, says the Lavra, are open daily from 5:30 to 22:00. Allow 2–3 hours: half an hour for the cathedral and 40–60 minutes for each necropolis. In late October it gets dark at around 17:30, so reach the necropolises by 15:00.
The pilgrimage centre runs general tours of the Lavra daily at 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00, lasting 45–60 minutes, in Russian; the suggested donation is 300 roubles, 200 for schoolchildren, students and pensioners, and 3,000 for a private tour. The Lavra's own museum (drevlekhranilishche, the treasury) is open on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 14:00 to 17:00, suggested donation 150 roubles. For a snack, the Palomnik refectory in the Dukhovskoy building is open daily 9:00 to 19:00, with Lenten pies filled with cabbage, mushrooms or apple, sweet millet pies, and everything to take away. To continue with churches, see our route Cathedrals of St Petersburg.
🧭 Things to know
- Necropolis tickets are sold by the Museum of Urban Sculpture (ticket desks and website), not by the Lavra; the grounds and the cathedral are free.
- Foreign bank cards do not work in Russia: bring roubles in cash or a Russian card for tickets, donations and the refectory.
- The first Wednesday of the month is free for under-18s and college and university students, but such tickets are issued only at the desk on the day. Other free days are in our guide Free museum days in St Petersburg.
- The Lazarus burial church is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
- The necropolis ticket desks close at 17:30, and in late October and November it is already dark by then. What else changes in November is in St Petersburg in November.
- Services are held in the cathedral: do not disturb worshippers, and skip the flash.
- Not for you if: you expect a classic museum with galleries; walking among graves feels heavy; you have small children, who will be bored.
📌 In short
✅ The Lavra is by Ploshchad Aleksandra Nevskogo metro; the grounds are open 5:30–22:00, the cathedral 5:45–20:00, entry free.
✅ Tickets are needed only for the museum necropolises: 200 roubles for one, 400 for both; open 10:00–18:00, ticket desk until 17:30.
✅ Lomonosov and Fonvizin are in the Necropolis of the 18th Century; Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky and Glinka in the Necropolis of the Masters of Arts.
✅ General tours of the Lavra run at 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00 in Russian, suggested donation 300 roubles.
✅ Allow 2–3 hours and arrive by 15:00, while it is still light.
In one walk the Lavra gives you both a working 18th-century monastery and a pantheon of Russian culture: the cathedral, two necropolises, the Monastyrka at sunset and pies from the refectory. Checked on 19 October 2026 against the websites of the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra and its pilgrimage centre, the State Museum of Urban Sculpture, the Saint Petersburg Encyclopaedia and Yandex Maps.
Cover photo: Pavlikhin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holy_Trinity_Cathedral_of_Alexander_Nevsky_Lavra_in_SPB_(01).jpg)
