St. Petersburg

Restored, rejuvenated, and ripe with imperial splendor, Russia’s most glamorous city is a feast for the eyes and the appetite

Written by Sophia Kishkovsky

Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood, overlooking Griboedova Canal.
Credit: Dagmar Schwelle/Alamy

Few cities dazzle quite like St. Petersburg, the former imperial capital of Russia. Stucco-faced palaces are painted candied-almond colors. Window frames glitter with gold leaf. And the radiance is magnified as every last czarist morsel is reflected in the sparkling Neva River, in whose icy waters the infamous monk Rasputin finally drowned after having been unsuccessfully poisoned, shot, and clubbed over the course of an evening in 1916.

"Each building is like a monument," says New York–based interior designer Juan Pablo Molyneux. He visits St. Petersburg every few months to connect with ateliers that provide him with marble dust and amber for his projects. "The light is so beautiful, whether it's winter or summer." He also is struck by the melancholy that suffuses this metropolis of nearly five million souls spread across 42 islands and a chunk of mainland: "It has a sadness that I think is quite extraordinary."

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