29. Yusupov Palace

The Yusupov Palace is located along the banks of the Moyka River and is nothing short of spectacular. All the rooms have been beautifully restored and feature a variety of unique furnishings and decorations, unlike those present in other palaces. Although nowhere near as large as the imperial palaces, this is about as lavish as it gets for the lesser nobility. Clearly, the Yusupov family had some serious wealth. Many of the finest paintings and sculptures at the Hermitage and Russian Museum came from the Yusupov family's collections that were originally displayed here.

The "home theater" was amazing - literally, an ornate rococo theater that can seat over 100 people in its current configuration, with box seats along both walls, an orchestra pit, and an elevated stage up front. Liszt (among many other prominent performers, conductors, and actors) once performed at the Yusupov theater, and it's still used today - definitely a venue at which I'd like to enjoy a performance.

Yusupov Palace is also the site where a group of noblemen and politicians assassinated Grigori Rasputin in 1916. The group poisoned, shot, beat, and finally drowned Rasputin in the Neva River. This story was not mentioned in the audio guide or signage throughout the tour - the rooms associated with this event are only accessible via group tour (and I think that only Russian-language tours are available), so I'll have to investigate this for a possible return visit.