St Petersburg

Art historians Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke take us on three cultural citybreaks, hunting for off-the-beaten-track artistic treats - and finding new ways of enjoying some famous sights. In this final episode they explore St Petersburg through its dazzling art and architecture and investigate how art has been used to enhance prestige and power in this city, ever since it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great. They discover a city where art has always taken centre stage: from the intoxicating beauty of the state rooms at the Winter Palace to the bejewelled confections of Faberge; from the dark tunnels where curators guarded precious artefacts during the deadly siege of the city in the Second World War, to the apartment piled high with protest art painted by the outspoken 'dissident babushka'.