Russian Museum

Housed in the Mikhailovsky Palace, the Russian works here—which include 6,000 religious icons—makes an interesting complement to the Hermitage's foreign treasures. Liszt and Berlioz gave private concerts in the impressive White Column Hall, a music parlor dating from the 1820's. It's the only room that hasn't been altered to make way for the art and still has the original details: gilt furniture, friezes alive with dancing cherubs, and a parquet floor of ebony, mahogany, and birch.