This square is a testimony to the fact that large sections of St. Petersburg were built according to an overall plan. That was possible only in such a relatively new city (on the European scale of course) as St. Petersburg.

The plan for the square was drawn by Carlo Rossi, an Italian by birth, who spent most of his life working in Russia and is considered by many to be a Russian architect (both his contemporaries and present-day art historians have tended to call him, in the Russian way: Karl Ivanovich Rossi). He built the most prominent building of the square, the Mikhailovsky Palace, nowadays - the Russian Museum. The "Classical" style of the day demanded architectural harmony and ensembles of buildings, so Rossi also designed the facades for every single building which faced the square. Other architects and landlords then had to follow his design.

Arts Square got its name from the cluster of museums, theaters and concert halls that surround it. Some of the most notable include:

• the Russian Museum, one of the country's two top collections of Russian art,
• the Ethnography Museum, representing all the ethnic cultures of the former USSR,
• the Maly Opera and Ballet Theater (Musorgsky theater), "the city's second fiddle to the Mariinsky for opera and ballet" ("Lonely Planet" series guide book on Russia), but still a well-respected, and centrally located, mid-sized theater,
• The Large Hall (Bolshoi Zal) of St. Petersburg Philarmonia - a prime venue for classical concerts, and more.

Next: The Mikhailovsky (St. Michael's) Castle

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