🏛 Kresty

Арсенальная наб., 7

A former red-brick prison of the late 19th century with cross-shaped blocks; closed for reconstruction from autumn 2026. The closure dates are known only from plans for summer 2026 — check before you go.

The prison was built in 1884–1892 to a design by A. O. Tomishko: two five-storey cross-shaped blocks with 960 cells.
In 1937–1938 the prisoners here included Nikolai Zabolotsky, Lev Gumilev, Georgy Zhzhyonov and the future marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky.
In 1922 the raider Lyonka Panteleev escaped from Kresty, climbing down the wall on ropes made of blankets.
On the top floor of one of the blocks was the prison Church of Alexander Nevsky; the crosses were returned to its domes in 2004.
In 2017 the detention centre moved to the new Kresty in Kolpino, and in 2025 the KVS group bought the old building for 1.136 billion rubles.
Across the Neva opposite are Mikhail Shemyakin's sphinxes (1995) and the monument to Anna Akhmatova (2006), whose husband and son were held in Kresty.