The Russian Museum in St Petersburg: tickets, opening hours, free days and a two-hour route

When people talk about "going to the Russian Museum", they usually mean the Mikhailovsky Palace on Arts Square. But the museum has five large buildings in the centre of St Petersburg: the Mikhailovsky Palace, the Benois Wing, the Mikhailovsky Castle, and the Stroganov and Marble Palaces (plus the Summer Garden, the Summer Palace and the Cabin of Peter the Great). Each building has its own tickets, and entry is by timed session. Here we explain what is where, which ticket to buy in autumn 2026, when entry is free and how to see the main paintings in two hours.

The essentials

Closed. Tuesday, in all five buildings. Opening hours for each building are in the table below.

Tickets. Buy them at ticket.rusmuseum.ru or at the ticket offices. The museum warns that it has no other official sellers. The number of tickets for each session is limited, so it is best to book in advance.

Refunds. If there are fewer than three days left before your visit, the ticket can no longer be refunded. It cannot be exchanged either.

Five buildings: what is where

The prices below are for adult citizens of Russia and the EAEU countries, taken from the museum's ticket website as of mid-October 2026.

At the castle and the Stroganov and Marble Palaces, the ticket office closes an hour before closing time. At the Benois Wing, the last session starts an hour and a half before closing. The courtyard of the Stroganov Palace is open every day except Tuesday, from 10:00 to 21:00.

Which ticket to buy

The single ticket to the Mikhailovsky Palace and the Benois Wing costs 1,000 ₽. It gives access to the palace's permanent exhibition and the second floor of the Benois Wing. Temporary exhibitions are not included, among them "The Great" in rooms 18–28.

The "Great Karl" ticket for 700 ₽ covers both floors of the palace's permanent exhibition and Academic Rooms 14 and 15. The ticket description states explicitly that these rooms hold Bryullov's "The Last Day of Pompeii" and "Portrait of the Shishmaryov Sisters". The single ticket description does not name these rooms separately, so if you are going for Bryullov, it is safer to buy the "Great Karl" and get the Benois Wing separately (500–600 ₽).

"The Great" together with the palace exhibition. The price depends on the day and session: 600 to 900 ₽ on weekdays, 700 to 1,000 ₽ at weekends. There is also a combined ticket for 800 ₽, valid for one day: it includes "The Great", the palace's main exhibition and the whole of the Mikhailovsky Castle with the National Portrait Gallery.

The two-day combined ticket opens the permanent exhibitions and temporary exhibitions in all five buildings. For citizens of Russia and the EAEU it costs 3,000 ₽, for foreigners 5,000 ₽. It is valid for two consecutive calendar days, and if the first day falls on a Tuesday, then on the Wednesday.

Pensioners from Russia and the EAEU, students and schoolchildren aged 14 and over get discounted tickets: the single ticket, for example, costs 700 ₽. For children aged 7 to 14 it costs 400 ₽. With the Pushkin Card (Russian citizens aged 14 to 22), tickets are only issued in the holder's name and can only be bought on the website.

When entry is free

Children under 7 always go free. For everyone under 18 and for students, the free day is the 18th of each month. If the 18th falls on a Tuesday, it moves to the Wednesday. This autumn that means Sunday 18 October and Wednesday 18 November. Free tickets are issued on the website or at the ticket office, but only if there are places left in the session. Guided tours are not covered by this concession.

For an overview of free days at other museums in the city, see "When St Petersburg museums are free".

A two-hour route: the Mikhailovsky Palace and the Benois Wing

First hour: from icons to Bryullov. The entrance is at 4 Inzhenernaya Street. Start with Old Russian art: the collection includes icons by Andrei Rublev. Then go through the 18th-century rooms to the White Hall. It is the only interior in the palace that has kept its original appearance and decoration to designs by Carlo Rossi. Next come Academic Rooms 14 and 15 with the huge "The Last Day of Pompeii". Until 2 November the same rooms also host the exhibition "The Environs of St Petersburg in 19th-Century Engravings and Lithographs": around 100 sheets from the museum's collection.

30–40 minutes: the second half of the 19th century. Among the key works in this section, the museum names Repin's "Barge Haulers on the Volga", "Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks" and "Ceremonial Sitting of the State Council on 7 May 1901" together with his studies for it, Surikov's "Suvorov Crossing the Alps" and "Yermak's Conquest of Siberia", and Kuindzhi's "Moonlit Night on the Dnieper". Rooms 18–28 on the ground floor are currently taken up by "The Great": more than 300 works, from Argunov's portrait of Catherine II to Bryullov, Serov and Petrov-Vodkin. The exhibition is open until 22:00, so it is convenient to leave it for the evening of another day.

The last 40 minutes: the Benois Wing. This is the neighbouring building, with its entrance at 2 Griboyedov Canal Embankment. The permanent exhibition occupies the second floor. "Our Avant-Garde" brings together more than 400 works by Malevich, Kandinsky, Goncharova, Larionov, Filonov, Chagall, Popova and Rozanova. The other rooms hold Vrubel, Serov, Nesterov, Kustodiev, and artists of the World of Art group and the "Severe Style". Temporary exhibitions are on the ground floor and need a separate ticket.

If you are comparing it with the Hermitage, we have a separate guide: "The Hermitage or the Russian Museum".

Exhibitions in October and November 2026

"Aivazovsky" opens in the Benois Wing on 16 October and runs until 10 May 2027. The exhibition features 120 paintings from 16 Russian museums, the National Art Museum of Belarus and private collections, as well as more than 30 works on paper. From the Russian Museum's own collection it includes "The Ninth Wave", "The Wave", "The Creation of the World" and "The Brig Mercury". So during these months, look for "The Ninth Wave" at the exhibition rather than in the permanent display. The ticket costs 800 ₽.

"Ivan Shishkin. The Russian Forest" is also in the Benois Wing, until 9 November. It has around 120 works, including "Ship Grove". The exhibition is open from 9:30 to 21:00, on Fridays and Saturdays until 22:00. The ticket costs 700 ₽, or 1,200 ₽ together with the Benois Wing's permanent exhibition.

"The Great. The Image of Woman in Russian Art" is in the Mikhailovsky Palace until 11 January 2027.

At the Mikhailovsky Castle, an exhibition of Pelageya Shuriga, around 130 works by the Leningrad artist, runs until 16 November. An exhibition of Vsevolod Voinov is open until 18 January. Both are included in the standard castle ticket. On 16 October the castle's State Rooms are open only until 14:00.

At the Marble Palace, the Tropinin exhibition closes on 19 October, and the Nikolai Akimov exhibition runs until 11 January. At the Stroganov Palace, "Glass in Sculpture", "Glass and Stone" and "The Villa of a Russian Patron" are open until 26 October.

There is an audio guide for "The Great", the Shishkin exhibition and the Tropinin exhibition: 550 ₽, or 450 ₽ concession.

Getting there and what to bring

The Mikhailovsky Palace and the Benois Wing stand next to each other. The nearest metro stations are Nevsky Prospekt and Gostiny Dvor. Buses 3, 22, 27 and 49 and trolleybuses 5 and 22 run to the Benois Wing and the castle. The Stroganov Palace is at 17 Nevsky Prospekt, by Nevsky Prospekt metro station. For the Marble Palace at 5/1 Millionnaya Street, the museum also gives Nevsky Prospekt as the station.

Outdoor clothing must be left in the cloakroom before entering the galleries. Under museum rules, you will not be admitted to the galleries with a backpack larger than 30×25×7 cm, a walking-stick umbrella or food. Photography is allowed, but without flash, tripod or selfie stick. Pushchairs are not allowed in the Benois Wing or the Stroganov and Marble Palaces: they are left in the cloakroom.

Frequently asked questions