# Lakhta Center, St Petersburg > Europe’s tallest building — **462 m**, on the Gulf of Finland, 9 km from the centre. You can only go up on a timed tour: audio-guided to floor 83 for **1,400–1,800 ₽**, or with a guide to floors 83 and 86 for **3,000–4,000 ₽**. Tickets are sold only on the official website, and the deck is closed on Mondays. The tour lasts up to 60 or 90 minutes; allow half a day with travel. The embankment and atrium are free. Web page: https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg/lakhta-center - City: [St Petersburg](https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg), Russia - YesGo score: 48/100 (Yes, if nearby) - Time on site: 1 h 30 min - Entry: Deck from 1,000 ₽, tour only - Opening hours: Observation deck Tuesday–Sunday, timed tours from 10:00 into the evening, closed Mondays; atrium 10:00–20:00, last entry 19:00; embankment is open public space - With kids: Fine with kids - Observation deck: Guided or audio-guided tours only — no independent visits - Closed: Mondays - Audio-guide tour, floor 83, up to 60 min: Weekdays 10:00–17:00 — 1,400 ₽; weekdays 17:00–21:00 — 1,600 ₽; weekends, holidays, school breaks — 1,800 ₽ - Reduced audio-guide ticket: 1,000 / 1,100 / 1,300 ₽ — under-16s, students, pensioners and other groups with Russian documents - Guided tour, floors 83 and 86, up to 90 min: 3,000 / 3,500 / 4,000 ₽, groups of up to 10, no discounts - Early booking: 3,000 ₽ (audio guide) or 5,000 ₽ (guide), any day - Under 3: Free - Where to buy: Official Lakhta Center website only, by bank card; no cash, up to 5 tickets per order - Late arrival: More than 15 minutes late — ticket cancelled, no refund - Atrium: Free, 10:00–20:00, last entry 19:00 - Planetarium: Not open yet — no tickets on sale - Address: 1 Vysotnaya Street; tours start at Entrance 13 - Metro: Begovaya, 20–25 min on foot or a short bus ride - Coordinates: 59.98703, 30.17814 - Facts checked: 29.10.2026 ## Key facts - **462 m** — tall — the highest building in Europe and Russia (source: Official Lakhta Center website, About; English and Russian Wikipedia) - **365 m** — height of the observation deck, the highest in Europe (source: Official Lakhta Center website, Observation Deck; Russian Wikipedia) - **87 floors** — in the tower; visitors reach floors 83 and 86 (source: Official Lakhta Center website; English and Russian Wikipedia) - **90°** — the tower twists from base to tip (source: Official Lakhta Center website, About; English Wikipedia (twisted building)) - **19,624 m³** — of concrete poured non-stop in 49 hours for the foundation — a 2015 Guinness World Record (source: Official Lakhta Center website; English and Russian Wikipedia) - **16,505** — cold-bent glass panels on the façade, 70% of them uniquely shaped (source: Official Lakhta Center website, About) - **2017** — passed Moscow’s Federation Tower to become Europe’s tallest building (source: English Wikipedia; Russian Wikipedia) - **February 2025** — the observation deck opened to the public (source: Russian Wikipedia; T—Zh news report, 6 February 2025) - **RMJM** — and Gorproject designed the tower, lead concept architect Tony Kettle (source: English and Russian Wikipedia) - **Northernmost** — skyscraper in the world and Europe’s only LEED Platinum skyscraper (source: Official Lakhta Center website, About; Russian Wikipedia (LEED Platinum, 2018)) > **No ticket, no view — and foreign cards won’t work** The deck is tour-only, with timed tickets sold exclusively on the official Lakhta Center website and paid by bank card. There’s no ticket desk at the tower. Visa and Mastercard cards issued abroad have not worked in Russia since March 2022, so you need a Russian card (Mir) — ask your host, a Russian friend or your hotel to buy for you. ## Can you go to the top of the Lakhta Center? Yes, but only on a tour, and never on a Monday. There are two formats. The **audio-guide tour** (up to 60 minutes, groups up to 15) starts with an exhibition on floors 3 and 4 about how the tower was built, then a lift takes you to the deck on **floor 83**. The ride up takes just over a minute. The **guided tour** (up to 90 minutes, groups up to 10) adds **floor 86**, a postcard you can send from 365 m and free time for photos. Both run in any weather — which matters, because in low cloud you look out at white. Children under 16 must come with an adult, and under-3s go free. Security at the door works like an airport: bags are scanned, and large luggage, alcohol, packaged food and scooters stay outside. ## Lakhta Center tickets and prices **Audio-guide tour:** 1,400 ₽ on weekdays 10:00–17:00, 1,600 ₽ on weekday evenings 17:00–21:00, 1,800 ₽ at weekends, on public holidays and during Russian school holidays. Reduced tickets (1,000–1,300 ₽) are for under-16s, students, pensioners and other groups, with documents checked at the door — in practice they’re built around Russian papers. **Guided tour:** 3,000 ₽ on weekday daytimes, 3,500 ₽ in the evening and 4,000 ₽ at weekends, no discounts. **Early booking** — for when the next few days are sold out — costs 3,000 ₽ with the audio guide and 5,000 ₽ with a guide. Tickets are for a fixed slot: no open dates, no changing the time. A full refund is possible more than 24 hours ahead. Up to five tickets per order. Lakhta itself warns that resellers and look-alike sites sell overpriced or fake tickets. YesGo’s pick: the weekday audio-guide tour. The view is the same, and it costs half as much as the guided version. If the official site won’t take your card, look at the guided-tour partner below — several of its Lakhta tours include the ascent, but check each listing. ## What is the Lakhta Center? A business complex in the Primorsky district on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, built as the headquarters of Russia’s largest gas company. Its tower is **462 m** tall with 87 floors and twists 90° on the way up; in 2017 it overtook Moscow’s Federation Tower as Europe’s tallest building. Most of it is offices. What’s open to visitors: the observation deck on floors 83–86 (on a tour), the atrium in the low building next door with free exhibitions, and a kilometre-long promenade with an outdoor amphitheatre on the water. It is a long way from the palaces and canals, both in distance and in feel. Think of it as St Petersburg’s 21st-century landmark rather than part of the old city. ## What to see at the Lakhta Center - **The floor 83 deck** — the whole city at once: the Gulf, [Krestovsky Island](https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg/krestovsky-island) with the football stadium, the port, Kronstadt on a clear day and the gold domes of the centre on the horizon. - **Floor 86** — the upper deck, guided tour only. - **The exhibition on floors 3–4** — every tour starts here: the foundation, the glass, the engineering of a twisted tower. - **The atrium** — free; until 30 April 2027 it hosts “Third Nature”, eight interactive light-and-sound sculptures. - **The promenade and amphitheatre** — a kilometre along the Gulf with swings, lookout points, the “Feather” sculpture and a stage for 1,000 people. - **The giant flags** — across Lakhta harbour in 300th Anniversary Park, three flagpoles of roughly 175–180 m carry 60 × 40 m flags; they come down in strong wind and fog. ## How to get to the Lakhta Center 1. From Palace Square, walk about 10 minutes to **Nevsky Prospekt** metro and change to **Gostiny Dvor** for the green line 3. 2. Ride to **Begovaya** — about 15 minutes, the stop after Zenit. 3. From Begovaya, head towards 300th Anniversary Park but don’t go in; walk along it to the **footbridge behind Lakhta Hall**, which drops you on the complex’s waterfront. Allow 20–25 minutes. 4. Or take a bus along Primorsky Prospekt from Begovaya or Staraya Derevnya (blue line 2) to the Lakhta Center or Shkolnaya stop — 10–15 minutes. Check current route numbers in Yandex Maps. 5. Tours start at **Entrance 13** on Vysotnaya Street. Arrive no more than 15 minutes early and don’t be more than 15 minutes late — there’s airport-style security. 6. By taxi from the centre it’s 25–40 minutes depending on traffic. There’s no visitor parking at the tower. ## Is the Lakhta Center worth visiting? Worth it if you like views and modern architecture and you can get a ticket. From 365 m St Petersburg reads like a map — islands, the port, the Gulf — and nothing else in the city comes close in height. Skip it on a short first trip. Getting there and back plus the tour takes half a day; in that time you could do the [Hermitage](https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg/hermitage) or climb the colonnade of [St Isaac’s Cathedral](https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg/st-isaacs-cathedral), which is lower but looks straight over the historic rooftops — and is easy to book. Without a deck ticket it’s only worth the trip on a fine summer evening, for a sunset walk on the promenade. In winter or on a grey day, there’s little to do here at ground level. ## Restaurant and planetarium The design includes a two-level panoramic restaurant on floors 75–76, at roughly 315–320 m, but the official visitor pages don’t list it — no hours, no bookings. Don’t plan your trip around it; the shopping centres on Primorsky Prospekt are the easy option for food. The **planetarium** — the mirrored sphere set into the atrium façade, with a 14 m dome and 90 seats — is “preparing to open”, according to the official site, and tickets aren’t on sale yet. ## Before you go: checklist - [ ] Timed ticket bought on the official site (Russian bank card — foreign Visa and Mastercard don’t work in Russia) - [ ] It isn’t Monday - [ ] At Entrance 13 10–15 minutes before the start - [ ] Passport with you — ID can be checked against the ticket - [ ] Under-16s with an adult - [ ] No big bags, alcohol or packaged food; water up to 0.5 L in plastic - [ ] Checked the cloud forecast ## Lakhta Center vs St Isaac’s colonnade: best view of St Petersburg | | Lakhta Center | St Isaac’s colonnade | Peter and Paul Fortress | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Height | 365 m | About 43 m | Riverside walls | | The view | The whole city and the Gulf | Historic rooftops and domes | The Neva, the Winter Palace, the Spit | | Entry | 1,400–4,000 ₽, tour only | Separate ticket | Grounds free | | Where | 9 km out, Begovaya metro | Centre, 10 min from Palace Square | Centre, Gorkovskaya metro | | Time | Half a day with travel | ≈ 1 hour | 1–3 hours | First time in St Petersburg? Do the colonnade — it’s the old city you came for, and easy to book. Save Lakhta for a return visit or a longer stay. ## St Petersburg viewpoints compared Every viewpoint in St Petersburg rated by YesGo. - [Peter and Paul Fortress](https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg/peter-and-paul-fortress) — YesGo score 74/100 (Yes, go) · 2 h · Grounds free, cathedral 1,000 ₽ - [St Isaac's Cathedral](https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg/st-isaacs-cathedral) — YesGo score 69/100 (Yes, go) · 1 h · 700 ₽, colonnade 700 ₽ - [Palace Bridge and the bridge openings](https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg/palace-bridge) — YesGo score 53/100 (Yes, go) · 45 min · Free from the embankment - [Lakhta Center](https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg/lakhta-center) — YesGo score 48/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · Deck from 1,000 ₽, tour only - [Griboyedov Canal](https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg/griboyedov-canal) — YesGo score 48/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 30 min · Free - [Krestovsky Island](https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg/krestovsky-island) — YesGo score 36/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · Free ## Lakhta and the islands in a day Morning on the Lakhta deck and promenade, afternoon on Krestovsky Island, sunset on Yelagin Island. 1. [Lakhta Center](https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg/lakhta-center) — YesGo score 48/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · Deck from 1,000 ₽, tour only 2. [Krestovsky Island](https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg/krestovsky-island) — YesGo score 36/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · Free 3. [Yelagin Island](https://yesgo.io/russia/saint-petersburg/yelagin-island) — YesGo score 36/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · Free weekdays, 200 ₽ at weekends > **See the tower from the water** The best full-length view of Lakhta is from the Gulf or the Neva — boat trips run out to it from the city centre in summer. For free, stand on the promenade by the amphitheatre at sunset. ## Good to know Locals call the whole area simply “Lakhta”, after the old village on this shore. A second tower — 703 m and 150 floors — was announced in 2021, but there is no date for it to open to visitors. ## Tips - Cheapest slot: a weekday audio-guide tour before 17:00, 1,400 ₽. - Next days sold out? Check again the day before for cancellations, or pay for early booking. - A slot near sunset gives you daylight and city lights in one go — very late in June’s White Nights. - After the tour, walk the promenade — free and no ticket needed. - Head back via the footbridge to Begovaya, or carry on to Krestovsky Island — you’ll have seen the stadium from floor 83. - Keep your ticket on your phone, but save it offline — mobile data can be patchy. ## Questions ### How much are Lakhta Center tickets? The audio-guide tour to floor 83 costs 1,400 ₽ on weekday daytimes, 1,600 ₽ on weekday evenings and 1,800 ₽ at weekends. The guided tour to floors 83 and 86 is 3,000–4,000 ₽. Under-3s are free. ### Is the Lakhta Center open to the public? The observation deck is, on timed tours only, Tuesday to Sunday. The atrium (10:00–20:00) and the waterfront promenade are free to walk into. The office floors are closed. ### Can foreigners buy Lakhta Center tickets? Anyone can visit, but tickets are sold only on the official website and paid by bank card. Foreign Visa and Mastercard cards don’t work in Russia, so you’ll need a Russian card or someone to buy for you. ### How tall is the Lakhta Center? 462 m with 87 floors — the tallest building in Europe since 2017. The observation deck is at 365 m, also the highest in Europe. ### Is the Lakhta Center open on Mondays? No. The observation deck is closed on Mondays; tours run Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 into the evening. ### How do I get to the Lakhta Center by metro? Take the green line 3 to Begovaya, then walk 20–25 minutes past 300th Anniversary Park and over the footbridge behind Lakhta Hall, or take a bus along Primorsky Prospekt. ### How long does the Lakhta Center tour take? Up to 60 minutes with the audio guide, up to 90 minutes with a guide. With the metro both ways, allow half a day. ### Is there a restaurant at the top of the Lakhta Center? A panoramic restaurant on floors 75–76 is part of the design, but it isn’t listed on the official visitor pages. Don’t count on eating there. ### Is the Lakhta Center planetarium open? Not yet. As of 29.10.2026 the official site says it is preparing to open and that ticket sales will be announced later. ## How we checked Prices, opening days, tour formats, rules, the atrium and the planetarium come from the official Lakhta Center website on 29.10.2026. The site gives no exact session timetable, only price bands from 10:00 to 21:00, so we say “from 10:00 into the evening”. The deck height is 365 m on the official site and 357 m in English Wikipedia; we use the official figure. Guides give different walking times from Begovaya (15–20 and about 25 minutes) — we say 20–25 — and different bus numbers, so we don’t list them. Published flagpole heights are 175 m and 179.5 m, hence “roughly 175–180 m”. The floor 75–76 restaurant appears in the project description (Wikipedia) but not on the official visitor pages, so we don’t confirm it is open. Taxi time is our estimate. ## Sources - Official Lakhta Center website: Tickets, Observation Deck, Observation deck tours, Planetarium, Atrium, Amphitheatre and Embankments, Visitor rules, About, How to get here, 29.10.2026 - English and Russian Wikipedia: Lakhta Center; Wikidata Q4255374 - T—Zh: news report on the observation deck opening, 6 February 2025; visitor report - Sputnik8 guide: How to get to the Lakhta Center - Fontanka and Delovoy Peterburg: the 300th Anniversary Park flagpoles, 2022–2023 - Visa and Mastercard statements on suspending operations in Russia, March 2022 --- This is the Markdown version of a YesGo page for AI assistants. Quote the web page link above, not this file.