Most beautiful St. Petersburg metro stations that you need to visit

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In this post, I will tell you about the most beautiful St. Petersburg metro stations that you need to visit on your trip to Saint Petersburg, Russia. Russia has undoubtedly one of the most beautiful metros (subway, underground, tube – whatever you call it) in the world and not visiting it on your trip to Russia would be a mistake (considering that the underground ticket price in St. Petersburg was less than $0.7 (45 Rub) in 2019, and there is no time restriction, so you can explore St. Petersburg metropolitan for hours if you wish (why not, especially in winter. St. Petersburg in winter can be pretty tough).

However, to spare you some time, as not all the metro stations in St. Petersburg are equally beautiful, I created this guide to the most beautiful St. Petersburg metro stations.

If you’re new to this blog, hi, I’m Liza (pronounced as Lisa, not Lai-za). I’m originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, but I’m calling London my home now. I like helping people travelling to St. Petersburg and Russia in general and I’m always sharing useful tips for travelling to Russia on this blog. If you’re interested in the comprehensive guide to travelling in St. Petersburg, here’s my ultimate guide to St. Petersburg. And oh, hey, did you know that most people can visit St. Petersburg with a free e-visa now? Read my post about the e-visa to St. Petersburg and who (and how) can get it!

St. Petersburg metro map

If you want to see how does St. Petersburg metro map look like, here’s the link to the official website of St. Petersburg metropolitan that has the most relevant information. There are plans to add some new stations to St. Petersburg underground system. However, it takes ages to build a new metro station in St. Petersburg due to the presence of underground rivers and the fact that St. Petersburg is located on multiple islands.

Because of that, the metro stations in St. Petersburg are located very deep underground, and it takes a while to dig and freeze the tunnels under the city. There are currently only 69 (updated in 2019 – now there are 73 stations in St. Petersburg metro system) underground stations in St. Petersburg.

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Most beautiful metro stations in St. Petersburg

Without further ado, let’s get started with the best metro stations in Saint Petersburg. If you feel like you want a tour of St. Petersburg metro, I recommend taking this very affordable and well-rated St. Petersburg metro stations tour.

1. Avtovo Station – the most beautiful one

Avtovo station is a highlight of St. Petersburg metro. I was lucky to live just two stations away from Avtovo and was passing this station every single time I needed to go to the city centre. Avtovo is fantastic, and it looks like a room of some palace – marble walls, chandeliers and dim light. The best time to visit the Avtovo metro station is around 12- 2pm on weekdays, so you can see the station quite empty and take a good photo of it.

Most beautiful metro stations in Saint Petersburg, Russia - Avtovo

There is not much to see in Avtovo apart from a couple of monumental residential buildings from the Stalin Era, so I suggest you move forward to your next metro-station.

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2. Zvenigorodskaya & Pushkinskaya – the one for literature lovers

Another one of my favourite metro stations in Saint Petersburg is Zvenigorodskaya and Pushkinskaya. These two are actually just one station where you can change from the purple line to the red one, so it’s one station but two platforms and two vestibules. Both stations are actually very different. Zvenigorodskaya is newer and it’s decorated with green granite and white marble. It also has some very beautiful mosaic art at the end of the platform. Pushkinskaya station is dedicated to the famous Russian poet – Alexander Pushkin (he wrote Eugene Onegin and many other novels and poems) and also looks impressive with the statue of A.S. Pushkin at the end of the platform.

Most beautiful St. Petersburg metro stations that you need to visit
Pushkinskaya
Most beautiful metro stations in St Petersburg
Zvenigorodskaya

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3. Admiralteyskaya – the deepest one

Admiralteyskaya is one of the deepest metro stations in the world (the second deepest to be precise – it’s located 102 meters below the ground level) and it has not one, but two escalators. I like the decoration of the station in the purple tones as well as the vestibule at the ground level. Admiralteyskaya metro station is located just a few steps away from the Hermitage museum, so you can go and look at the foyer of the station before heading to the Hermitage Museum.

 St. Petersburg subway stations
Photo credit: Leon Yaakov (flickr)

4. Narvskaya – the one for the people of USSR

Narvskaya metro station in St. Petersburg is dedicated to the hard work of the people of USSR. It’s a typical USSR-style monumental station and it has high-reliefs of different respectable professions during the USSR on its walls. Make sure to check them out!

Most beautiful St. Petersburg metro stations

Planning on visiting Moscow as well? Read this post about different ways to get to Moscow and back.

5. Kirovskiy Zavod – the grey marble one

Another impressive station of St. Petersburg metro is Kirovskiy Zavod (Kirovskiy Factory). It’s decorated with grey marble and has a very special illumination – it looks like there is no ceiling there, just a sky above you. It’s the next station after Avtovo and it’s a station before Navskaya, so you can visit them all in one journey. Some of the best metro stations in Saint Petersburg are located on the metro line number 1 (or the red line), so it’s pretty easy to visit them all in 1 hour or so.

Kirovsky Zavod - Most beautiful St. Petersburg metro stations

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6. Ploshad Vosstaniya – the centric one

One of the busiest stations of St. Petersburg subway or underground is Ploshad Vosstaniya, but it’s also one of the most beautiful St. Petersburg metro stations that you need to visit. It looks like a proper tunnel and it’s decorated with beautiful metal art. It’s a very central station – if you exit there, you can find one of my favourite affordable restaurants in St. Petersburg, ObedBufet (read my post about the best budget-friendly restaurants in St. Petersburg) and the biggest shopping mall in St. Petersburg, Galeria, is a few steps away as well.

Ploshad Vosstaniya - most beautiful metro stations in St Petersburg

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7. Obvodny Kanal – the “space ship”

Obvodny Kanal is a station that I rarely used in St. Petersburg (also because it opened not so long ago – it’s a great example of modern metro stations in St. Petersburg), but it looks interesting, and to me, it resembles a spaceship.

metro stations in saint petersburg russia
Beautiful photo by Polyrus (Flickr)

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8. Mayakovskaya

Mayakovskaya is the interchange station from Ploshad Vosstaniya and it’s dedicated to the famous Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. It’s a very bright station, decorated in red colours.

 most beautiful metro stations in St Petersburg

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9. Technologichesky Institut

Technologichesky institute is an interchange station (between the red and the blue lines) and it’s dedicated to the achievements of Soviet Science.

Technologichesky Institute

10. Krestovsky Ostrov

Finally, the last, but not least of the most beautiful metro stations in Saint Petersburg is Krestovsky Ostrov. If you’re planning to visit Zenit Arena (the main stadium of St. Petersburg), you will probably use this station.

Krestovky Ostrov station

Okay, these were the most beautiful St. Petersburg metro stations! But of course, the beauty is in the eyes of the one looking, so what might seem appealing to me, might not be equally beautiful to you and vice versa, so I recommend you to visit more stations of St. Petersburg metro, to form an opinion of it.

I’ve got a lot of blog posts about St. Petersburg, so feel free to check them out (St. Petersburg post category)!

1 thought on “Most beautiful St. Petersburg metro stations that you need to visit”

  1. The subway stations in Russia are OUT OF THIS WORLD. Absolutely Beautiful. I have viewed some other Very picturesque images of Russia. Russia should talk more about their beauty and not worry about so much else. Simply Stunning!

    Reply

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