St. Petersburg Market

• April 16-17
• Kirov Palace of Culture
• Free entrance

This market is your chance to get to know some local businesses and spice up your wardrobe or your flat for this spring. If you are quite the craftsman yourself, then you will also enjoy the various workshops on offer. As per tradition, there will also be an abundance of foods to eat there or take home and DJ mixes to set the mood for shopping and making new friends among the fellow local explorers. As a bonus, you will be able to recycle the things you no longer need and learn more about having an eco-friendly lifestyle.

Cosmonautics Day at Peter and Paul Fortress

• April 17, starting at 12 pm
• Peter and Paul Fortress
• Free

In Russia, April 12 is traditionally celebrated as Cosmonautics Day because on this day over 60 years ago Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel to outer space. This year, all space exploration enthusiasts will meet at Peter and Paul Fortress to celebrate the day and launch many hand-made spaceships – definitely a sight to see. This event is a sure way to make this Sunday one to remember.

Street Art Froniter exhibition 

• March 19 - May 22
• Nevskaya Zastava Museum
• 200 rubles (100 for students) 

Graffiti and street art keep their own annals of the city’s history and sometimes, a hidden message on the wall makes you feel seen in a good way (at other times you wonder if painting on walls is even legal, but that’s another story). At this exhibition, you will get the chance to trace St. Pete’s street history in the works of 20 artists painted on mockup buildings at the spacious museum. This is a wonderful opportunity to explore another, underground, side to the city and understand the influences behind the art you see on a daily basis.

Leningrad From The Back Entrance

• March 3 - July 3; 11 am - 7 pm daily, except for Wednesdays
• Rumyantsev Mansion
• 350 rubles (200 for students)

Another piece to your St. Petersburg puzzle, this exhibition presents over 120 works by Leningrad painters of the 1930-1940s. Back then, landscapes were considered somewhat of a frivolous and escapist genre – and this, perhaps, is partly why these works are so full of feeling even though they might seem crude or lacking in detail at first glance. You will get to see St. Petersburg from non-typical angles: no Bronze Horseman or St. Isaac’s Cathedral, but instead the “simple” locations that attracted artists for one reason or another. Maybe next time when you pass a seemingly charmless street or corner, you will try to see it through the eyes of an artist and find something inspiring in it, too.