151. The Great Mosque of Saint Petersburg

The Great Mosque of St. Petersburg is an impressive sight on the Petrograd side, just to the east of the Peter and Paul Fortress and north of the Neva River. It was built between 1909 and 1920 and can accommodate up to 5,000 worshipers, making it the largest mosque in European Russia and one of the largest in Europe outside of Turkey. The minarets are 49 meters tall and the dome is 39 meters tall. The dome and the western entrance are richly decorated with an intricate design of blue tiles, and look even more impressive when illuminated at night. Like many religious buildings in St. Petersburg, the Great Mosque was confiscated by the Soviet government from 1940-1956 and used as a storehouse for medical equipment prior to being handed back to the Muslim community.

I'm not sure if it's a universal rule, but I believe that non-Muslims are not generally allowed to go inside mosques. I've read in several places that part of this mosque is open to non-Muslim visitors, so I went to see for myself when I was in the neighborhood. It appeared that this is normally true, although the entire building is currently closed due to ongoing renovations. So, no luck for me. This is not the first time this has happened in St. Petersburg (I've been thwarted in my attempts to visit Yelagin Palace and Alexander Palace, for example), so it was not a total surprise. In general, I think such an active renovation and restoration program for St. Petersburg's historic buildings is a great sign of how much people here value their cultural and architectural treasures.