The convent’s name comes from “smola”, which translates from Russian as “tar” (originally, there was the taryard on the site, where the tar for the ships was made in Peter the Great’s times). The convent was designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli and was built in 1748-1764 for the girls of noble birth. In 1764, Russia’s first girls’ school was opened there by the order of Catherine the Great. The nearby neo classical building of Smolny Institute was built for the school in 1806-1808 to Giacomo Quarenghi’s design. In October 1917 the institute was the headquarters of the Petrograd (as St. Petersburg was then called) Soviet, where from Lenin guided the October Revolution.
The blue baroque Smolny Cathedral (Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ the Saviour) is the centrepiece of the convent. It is one of the city’s most beautiful buildings, which houses nowadays a concert and exhibition hall with an exhibition of the Smolny’s history on display.  

Open: Cathedral 11:00-17:00

Closed on Thursdays

Address: Ploschad Rastrelli 3

Nearest metro station: Chernyshevskaya

Tel.: +7 (812) 710 31 43