St. Isaac’s Cathedral is the most well-known place for enjoying a bird’s eye view of St. Petersburg. Peter and Paul Fortress and Smolny Cathedral are maybe the second and third on the list. Bulla photo studio is hardly on the short list but it’s definitely worth a visit. First of all it provides for a nice view over the Nevsky prospect: Alexandrinsky theatre, Bolshoi Gostiny Dvor, Kazan Cathedral and the Admirality.

Secondly the photo studio is a historic object, having been the first one in St. Petersburg and in Russia in the middle of the XIX century. It survived the Soviet times as “Photostudio #1” and a lot of families still proudly have those photos in their archive.

Thirdly there is now a permanent exhibition of the photos made by Carl Bulla – the most famous photographer of the beginning of XIX century. Looking through them is like travelling in a time machine – the installation of the cables for the first tram in St. Petersburg, the ice rink with the girls of Smolny institute, the 300 year celebration of the Romanov family and so on.

Worth mentioning is the panorama of Nevsky prospect on the wall, beginning in the XX century and ending 100 years later. There are always one or two additional temporary exhibitions which might be quite interesting. And last but not least is the fact that the photo studio still operates in this historic interior and you can get a photo of yourself with clothes dating back to the XX century.