In autumn 2026 the Russian Museum has turned its Benois Wing over to Ivan Aivazovsky — the painter whose seascapes made the nineteenth century Russian when they were meant to be Italian. The exhibition is the largest Aivazovsky retrospective the museum has shown in years, and the Russian Museum has backed it with a full programme of guided tours. If you are coming to St Petersburg for the first time, this is the single show to anchor your weekend on.
🖼 Benois Wing: where the exhibition lives
The Benois Wing is the twentieth-century extension to the Russian Museum, built in 1910–1919 along Griboedov Embankment. Its entrance is a separate door from the main Mikhailovsky Palace — the ticket says Корпус Бенуа / Benois Wing. If the main palace is closed on your date, Benois may still be open; check the schedule on rusmuseum.ru before you go. The combined ticket covers both and is the cheaper way in.
🎧 Guided tours: what the Russian Museum promises
Russian-language tours run several times a day on the weekends and twice a day on weekdays; group size is capped at fifteen. The museum has added family tours for children from ten and a slow-paced tour for seniors. English-language tours exist but are rarer — book by email at least a week ahead. Audio-guide rentals cover the exhibition.
⚓ The sea thread: from Benois to Aurora in one afternoon
Aivazovsky is the painter of the sea, and St Petersburg is the city on the water. After the exhibition the natural next move is Petrogradskaya Side — the cruiser Aurora, moored at the embankment opposite the Nakhimov Naval School, has a museum below decks and open-air cannons on top. From Benois it is twenty minutes on foot via the Troitsky Bridge, or ten minutes by taxi.
If the weather holds, close the day with a Neva river trip: in October the small boats still run from Senatskaya and Dvortsovaya piers, and from the water the city reads differently — the way Aivazovsky painted it. Short river cruises on the Neva — GetBoat are the easiest way to pick a route in October without hunting embankment ticket booths in the rain.
🚕 How to get to the Benois Wing and get home
The nearest metro is Nevsky Prospekt / Gostiny Dvor, a ten-minute walk via the Field of Mars. The Russian Museum closes at 20:00 on Wednesdays and Thursdays; after an evening visit the metro has roughly an hour left. For a late tour in a group it is simpler to book a transfer in Saint Petersburg via RideClu in advance — the driver picks you up at the Griboedov entrance.
For an overnight stay the easiest radius is Nevsky and the Petrogradsky Side; short-term flats in central St Petersburg on Tutkakdoma usually have options within fifteen minutes on foot from the museum.
Cover photo: ForExamplevSud, CC BY-SA 4.0, Викисклад
