The Mikhailovsky Garden is one of the most famous and well-maintained parks in St. Petersburg. It is located in the very center of the city. From the south, the Mikhailovsky Garden is adjacent to the Mikhailovsky Palace (the main building of the Russian Museum), the buildings of the Ethnographic Museum and the Benois Wing. On the eastern side, the territory of the park is bordered by Sadovaya Street, on the northern side – by the Moika River, and on the western side – by the Griboyedov Canal. Near the northwestern part of the Mikhailovsky Garden is the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. The Mikhailovsky Garden is administered by the State Russian Museum.

The Mikhailovsky Garden is one of the rarest examples of landscape architecture of the 18th—the first third of the 19th centuries. It is a unique combination of two different styles of landscape gardening art— formal (“French”) and landscape (“English”) styles – on the same territory.

In the days of Peter I, the territory where the Mikhailovsky Garden is now located was called the “Swedish Garden”. The emperor gave it as a present to his wife Catherine. Empress’s palace – “the Golden Chambers” – was situated where the pier pavilion, built by Carlo Rossi, now stands (the Moika River emb.). In the middle of the 18th century, during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, the garden was reconstructed according to the project of F.B. Rastrelli. Two large ponds in the southeastern part of the garden, which have survived to this day, had a geometric shape, and behind them there was a large labyrinth garden that stretched all the way to Nevsky Prospect.

In the 19th century, the garden changed its appearance from “formal” to “landscape” and became part of the Mikhailovsky Palace ensemble – a vivid example of architectural unity between the building and the natural landscape, as envisioned by the great architect Carlo Rossi.

The Mikhailovsky Garden was a closed private property and became accessible to public from the moment the Russian Museum was founded in 1895. In 1999, having almost completely lost its historical appearance, it became part of the Russian Museum. The 21st century is the starting point for the modern history of the Mikhailovsky Garden. Having undergone a large-scale reconstruction, it started its life not only as a unique monument of landscape architecture, but also as a modern museum space, a kind of “green” open-air hall.