Palace Square is the great public space of imperial St Petersburg, framed by the baroque mass of the Winter Palace on one side and the long, curving classical sweep of the General Staff Building on the other. At the centre stands the Alexander Column — a single 47-metre piece of red granite raised in 1834 to commemorate the defeat of Napoleon, held in place by nothing more than its own weight.
The square has been the stage for tsarist parades, revolutionary marches, Soviet military reviews, and now street performers and tourists. Walk through it at dusk in summer, when the white nights light the buildings without the harsh midday glare, for the photograph that will define your memory of the city. The General Staff Building's east wing has been incorporated into the Hermitage and houses the museum's collection of Impressionist and modern art.