The first living quarters built in the newly founded city of St Petersburg was a wooden house (cabin) for Tzar Peter himself. The cabin is very small - only 60 sq. meters. It is a strange combination of a traditional Russian house - izba - and a Dutch home with large and elaborate windows and high roof, covered with wooden tiles. Tzar Peter lived in this house between 1703 and 1708 and the living room, the bedroom, and the study, filled with Peter's original belongings, still bear the mark of his presence. Peter the Great wanted all the houses of his new city to be built of stone, the way it was done in Europe. But he could not afford a stone house at the time, so he ordered the walls to be painted as if the house was made of bricks.

Hidden from wind and rain inside a red brick pavilion, which you can see in the picture, the first house of St Petersburg is still open to the public. During the Second World War the Cabin of Peter the Great was the first museum to reopen in 1944 after the dramatic 900-day Siege of Leningrad.

NOTE: Some guide books list this house as Peter's Cottage.

Location: Petrovskaia Naberezhnaia, 6.
Open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Closed on Tuesdays.
Modest fee charged

Next: The Summer Palace of Peter the Great and the Summer Gardens

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