The A.V. Suvorov Museum

At the corner of Kirochnaya and Tavricheskaya streets stands a building devoted entirely to the memory of Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov. Opened in 1904 to mark the centenary of the commander's death, it was the first structure in Russia built specifically in honour of a single individual. Built in the form of a watchtower with fortress walls, it remains a recognisable landmark of the Peski district.

The idea of commemorating Suvorov took shape in 1898, when a special commission for raising funds was established under the Main Staff. Entire regiments contributed, donating part of their pay, as did private individuals across the country — peasants from one district even brought a donation of grain. By the time of the opening, voluntary contributions exceeded 298,000 roubles. A building site was sought for a long time among plots near the Field of Mars and the Fontanka, until the choice fell on the Preobrazhensky parade ground next to the General Staff Academy. The design was created by Alexander von Hohen; the foundation stone was laid on 8 June 1901 in the presence of the commander's descendants.

Hohen executed the building in the spirit of Old Russian fortress architecture: a quadrangular three-tiered tower with a tent roof is joined by walls with false embrasures, flanked by round turrets, with battlements echoing those of the Kremlin. The main façade is adorned with two mosaic panels, almost four metres high and nine metres long — "Crossing the Alps" and "Departure from Konchanskoye" — created after paintings by Nikolai Shabunin and Alexander Popov. The mosaics were assembled by craftsmen under the direction of Mikhail Zoshchenko, father of the future writer, using more than eight tonnes of smalt.

In the spring of 1918 the exhibits were hastily evacuated to Yekaterinburg, and for decades the building was occupied by various institutions — from a military-political academy to a club. On 16 April 1943 a German air bomb damaged the tower and one of the mosaics. Restoration was completed on 2 May 1951 and the museum reopened, though its memorial status was only restored in 1998 after a decade-long restoration of the interiors. During restoration work in 2014–2017 the double-headed eagle, replaced by a red star in Soviet times, was returned to the tower.

Today the collection holds more than a hundred thousand items: Suvorov's personal awards and belongings, documents and charters from the collection of Nicholas II, weapons and equipment from the Swiss campaign donated by Vasily Engelhardt. Among the exhibits are a seventeenth-century samurai sword and the presentation sabre of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich. The museum has been awarded an honorary diploma by the city's Legislative Assembly for its contribution to the development of St Petersburg's culture.

The building on Kirochnaya Street remains a rare example of early-twentieth-century memorial architecture and one of the country's few museums devoted to a single historical figure, linking the history of the Russian army with the fabric of St Petersburg.