Metro Highlights
1. Avtovo Station
The Avtovo station, like the vast majority of metro stations in Russia, was constructed during the Soviet period. It opened in 1955 and was intended to act as one of many “Palaces for the People”. Complete with chandeliers and marble columns, this station reveals a fascinating part of the city’s history. The station’s Woman with Child mosaic is topped with the words “Peace to the World”.
2. Ploshchad Vosstaniya Station
While the interior of the Ploshchad Vosstaniya station is highly ornate, the distinguished exterior – a curious circular structure topped with a steeple – has a crumbling beauty. The station was part of the 1955 Line One construction and is dedicated to the 1917 Revolution. Today the building is the subject of ongoing restoration work, and is, at times, obscured by scaffolding and advertising billboards.
3. Kirovsky Zavod Station
Kirovsky Zavod station (1955), which means “Kirov Factory station”, is named after a nearby factory. Although the station’s elegant design, with its marble columns and wide platform, was intended to pay homage to the achievements of Soviet industry, the building resembles an ancient Greek temple – the structure is supported by huge columns.
4. Pushkinskaya Station
Named after Pushkin, Russia’s national poet, this station is one of the most beautiful in St Petersburg. A statue of a pensive Pushkin forms the centrepiece of the station, which is a masterpiece of architectural design. Pushkinskaya station was opened in 1956, later than the other stations on Line One, due to problems with tunneling.
5. Frunzenskaya Station
Named in honour of the Bolshevik leader Mikhail Frunze, Frunzenskaya metro station was opened in 1961 as part of St Petersburg’s Line Two project. Its central feature is a large monument depicting Frunze with his revolutionary comrades. In comparison with many other stations in the city, Frunzenskaya has a relatively simple design, notable for its absence of ornate chandeliers and marble columns.
6. Sportivnaya Station
Operational since 1997, this station is one of the newest in St Petersburg. It is located close to Petrovskiy Stadium, although trains do not stop here before, during or immediately after matches. The station’s interior includes two large murals, and an ode to sport that includes the line “O’ Sport, you are Joy!”.
7. Ploshchad Alexandra Nevskogo Station
Ploshchad Alexandra Nevskogo is notable for the colourful mural immediately inside the entrance, which depicts Russia’s defeat of Swedish invaders in the 13th century. Opened in 1985, this was St Petersburg’s first station on the Pravoberezhnaya (right bank) Line.
8. Dibenko Station
When compared to earlier stations, Dibenko, which opened in 1987, is rather austere in design. Located at a distance from St Petersburg’s centre, this is one of the last stations to be opened by Soviet authorities before the collapse of the USSR.
9. Baltiskaya Station
Another Line One metro station dating from 1955, Baltiskaya Station features a large image of Baltic socialist revolutionaries from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, hoisting the red flag of socialism aloft in victory. Its exterior is a massive Socialist Realism construction typical of the period.
10. Narvskaya Station
The sculpted figures in the scene inside this station are clearly gazing at someone who is not present – namely Stalin (1878–1953), the dictator whose once-ubiquitous image was removed from all over the USSR following Nikita Krushchev’s “secret” denouncement of Stalinism in 1956.
