Every week someone arrives at a famous St Petersburg apartment building with a door code found online, and finds a notice on the gate instead: the residents have voted to switch to a new intercom, and old keys no longer work. Ten minutes away, a real nineteenth-century mansion is open to anyone with a ticket. Here is how to get inside legally.
Mansions that became museums
The easiest option is a mansion that is now a museum, with a cash desk and posted hours. The Rumyantsev Mansion at 44 English Embankment is a branch of the State Museum of the History of St Petersburg. An adult ticket costs 400 roubles; Russian students and pensioners pay 250. Besides the historic interiors, it holds a permanent display about communal apartments, the Soviet practice of splitting grand flats between several families.
If you plan several addresses, the museum sells a combined ticket valid for 14 days: 1,900 roubles from January to April and November to December, 2,300 roubles from 1 May to 31 October, when it also covers Oreshek Fortress.
Stieglitz Academy: book by phone
The Museum of Applied Arts at the Stieglitz Academy, 15 Solyanoy Lane, has the most theatrical interiors in the city: halls styled as an Italian palazzo and a Russian terem under a glass dome. A full ticket is 1,000 roubles, reduced 600, children under seven free. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday and closed on Monday. Tickets are sold online, and phone bookings are accepted only Tuesday to Friday 11:00–17:00 and Saturday 11:00–16:00. Walking in unannounced rarely works.
Brodsky's one and a half rooms
The closest thing to a real St Petersburg apartment building interior is the Joseph Brodsky museum at 14 Korolenko Street, inside the Muruzi House: bare brick, old plaster, creaking parquet. Entry is only with a ticket bought in advance on the museum website. A guided tour costs 950 roubles, the evening programme 900. On 18 September 2026 almost every slot for the following days was already sold out, so book a week or two ahead.
What stays closed, and why
The city also runs a free programme, Otkrytiy Gorod, that opens buildings normally shut to visitors; note that registration is limited to Russian citizens. Beyond that, some interiors are closed because of structural damage, ongoing restoration or a tenant who simply works there.
One rule matters more than any code list: staircases, landings and corridors in an apartment building belong to the owners of the flats under article 36 of the Russian Housing Code, and only a general meeting of owners can open them to outsiders. Residents are within their rights to refuse entry and call the police. Buy a ticket instead — the door will be opened for you, with an explanation of what you are looking at.
