St. Petersburg is the cultural capital of Russia, and it's not a stiffened stamp, but the real truth, the confirmation of which is easy to find in the very history of the city . The first theaters in St. Petersburg appeared in Peter's time . Established in 1756 by the decree of the Empress Elizaveta Petrovna court theater in 1832 moved to a new building, called the Alexandrinsky Theater, and since then his name is inextricably linked with the world history of stage art . The best St. Petersburg actors worked in the theater, there were emperors and grand dukes . In the field the Mariinsky Theater opened in 1783 and until 1860 it was called the Bolshoi (Kamenny) Theater . In the 19th century it was considered indecent among St. Petersburg aristocrats to skip the premiere in the Mariinsky and Alexandrinsky, the nominal boxes were always filled . Rich merchants and officials sought to imitate high-minded spectators and bought tickets to the ground, and students and journalists, not having enough money, but wanting to follow the course of spiritual life, took places in the gallery .

theater and musical culture of St. Petersburg. The orchestra could be heard at all public amusements of the nobility. In 1802, the Philharmonic Society was founded, which began a stormy concert activity. In the middle of the 19th century, the Philharmonic Hall was located in an excellent hall from the acoustical point of view, which is still today, and quickly became the center of the musical life of St. Petersburg.

It was difficult to surprise art workers of St. Petersburg, they saw them enough in their daily lives. However, the Hermitage and the Russian Museum played a significant role in shaping the public artistic taste. In the beginning of the 20th century, there were salons in the city that organized exhibitions of paintings by artists from all directions, not just the classical school.

With the abolition of the monopoly of the imperial theaters in 1882 in St. Petersburg, private theaters began to appear that entertained the public with light vaudeville and operettas. In 1896, in the garden of Aquarium, the films of the Lumiere brothers, the French inventors of cinema, were first shown

After the revolution, art became an instrument of propaganda and enlightenment activity. At that time the Grand Drama Theater was founded, there were still popular pop concerts, exhibitions of artists working in the spirit of socialist realism were held. In the 60's. in Leningrad for the first time there are rock ensembles, in the 80's. who declared themselves in full voice and protested against the ideological culture.

Today St. Petersburg is deservedly proud of its museum collections (there are more than 200 museums in the city), musical and theatrical traditions (about 200 theaters and concert halls in the city), unique monuments architecture of the XVIII-XIX centuries ., libraries (almost 2000), art galleries, cinemas . St. Petersburg Ballet School is rightfully considered one of the best in the world . In the city on the Neva today there are about 350 newspapers and magazines . In 1938, the Leningrad Television Center broadcast the first TV program . From the very beginning, the Leningrad television was more free than the Moscow .