Catherine Palace, St Petersburg

Catherine Palace tickets and prices for foreigners

Foreign visitors pay 2,200 ₽, children aged 7–14 pay 700 ₽, under-7s go free. Russian and EAEU citizens and Russian tax residents pay 1,200 ₽. Every palace ticket includes entry to Catherine Park, so you don’t buy the park separately.

Tickets are sold only on the museum’s official website and at its box offices — the museum says it doesn’t work with resellers. Online sales run in timed slots and open 7 days ahead. Tickets carry your name, and staff check them against your original passport, so don’t leave it at the hotel.

Payment is the catch: Visa and Mastercard cards issued abroad have not worked in Russia since March 2022, so you usually can’t pay online with a foreign card. Bring roubles in cash for the box office, or book a tour that includes tickets. A private guide also gets you a proper story of the Amber Room instead of a rushed walk-through.

Inside, you can go on your own or rent the audio guide for 350 ₽ (deposit: ID or 1,000 ₽). From November to March, on Friday to Sunday, a “Two Palaces” ticket adds the Alexander Palace for 2,900 ₽ in total, with entry between 10:00 and 14:00.

Opening hours of the palace and park

The palace is open 10:00–18:00. The ticket desk closes at 16:45 and the last entry is at 17:00. It is closed every Tuesday, and from November to March also on the last Monday of each month for cleaning. The official site also lists “16:45” as a closing time — that is the box office, not the halls.

Catherine Park opens daily 7:00–21:00 from 1 September to 23 April, and until 22:00 from 24 April to 17 October. From 19 October entry is free. In summer the park costs 400 ₽, but it’s free before 9:00 and after 19:00, and always free for under-14s. There are five entrances, including one by the Lyceum arch and one on Triangular Square.

The gilded Golden Gates on the parade ground side are used only by pre-booked tour groups. Independent visitors queue at the Lyceum arch.

Is Catherine Palace worth visiting?

Yes, if interiors are your thing. It is the most lavish palace around St Petersburg, and the Amber Room exists nowhere else. Almost everything you see was rebuilt after the war, which is part of the story: restorers recreated whole halls from photos and fragments.

The honest downsides: the route through the palace is short and busy, photos are usually not allowed in the Amber Room, and weekend slots sell out. If you have only two days in the city, see the Hermitage and the centre first. In summer, Peterhof and its fountains beat it as a day trip; from October to April, Catherine Palace wins, because its highlights are indoors and the park is free.

What to see inside: the Amber Room and the state rooms

• The Amber Room — the reason most people come. The Prussian king gave the panels to Peter the Great in 1716; German troops took them to Königsberg in 1941 and they vanished. Today’s room is a reconstruction begun in 1979 and finished in 2003.
• The Great Hall — Rastrelli’s ballroom across the full width of the palace, with windows on both sides, mirrors and gilded carving.
• The State Staircase and the Cavaliers’ Dining Room — the start of the route, already heavy with gold.
• The White State Dining Room and the Crimson and Green Pilaster Rooms — part of the long enfilade, all doors aligned in one line.
• The Picture Hall — walls covered frame-to-frame with 17th- and 18th-century paintings.
• The Portrait Hall, the Chinese Drawing Room of Alexander I and the Stasov Staircase — the 19th-century end of the visit.
• Separate tickets: the Palace Church and the apartments of Paul I (route 3), and the “Catherine II. Personal Space” exhibition in the Zubov Wing (route 4).

Tsarskoye Selo beyond the palace

• Catherine Park — the Great Pond, the Hermitage and Admiralty pavilions, the Cameron Gallery, the Chesme Column, the Marble Bridge and the “Girl with a Pitcher” fountain.
• The Lyceum, in the wing across the street — Pushkin’s school, now a separate museum with its own tickets.
• The Alexander Palace — the last home of Nicholas II and his family, about 10 minutes’ walk through the park; it closes on Wednesdays instead.
• Alexander Park — free, quieter and wilder, with the Arsenal and the Chinese Village.
• Pavlovsk next door — Paul I’s palace in a huge landscape park, easy to add on the same day.

Catherine Palace vs Peterhof vs Pavlovsk

Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk sit on the same railway line, so pair them in one day. Peterhof is in the opposite direction and needs its own day.

St Petersburg palaces compared

Every palace in and around St Petersburg rated by YesGo. Tap a column heading to sort.

How to do it right

• Book the 10:00 slot — the Amber Room is at its quietest first thing.
• Weekend slots go fast: check exactly 7 days ahead, in the morning.
• Half a day: palace → down to the Great Pond → Cameron Gallery from outside → the Lyceum across the street.
• Full day: add the Alexander Palace and park, or neighbouring Pavlovsk.
• Kupchino platform beats Vitebsky station for speed — same train, half the ride.
• The spring water by the Arsenal and the “Girl with a Pitcher” fountain isn’t fit to drink — carry your own bottle (but not into the halls).
• If you only manage one palace outside the city in winter, make it this one.

Questions