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US tourists stay in Eiffel Tower overnight while drunk - prosecutors

Two American tourists in Paris have been found sleeping inside the Eiffel Tower after getting stuck while drunk, according to prosecutors.

The two men were found by security guards in the early hours of Monday.

They paid to visit the landmark at around 22:40 (20:40 GMT) on Sunday and hopped security barriers while coming down the stairs, police said.

They were found in an area normally closed to the public between the tower's second and third levels.

The men "appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were", Paris prosecutors told the AFP news agency.

A specialist firefighter unit for rescuing people from heights were sent to recover the men, the agency reported.

The usual opening time of 09:00 was delayed due to the discovery of the inebriated pair.

They did not pose any threat, said Sete, the publicly-owned Eiffel Tower operator.

Both men were questioned by police in Paris, while Sete said it would file a criminal complaint.

It comes after two bomb scares at the tower on Saturday forced the monument to be evacuated twice in the same day.

French police have launched an investigation after the false bomb threats were made via posts on a gaming site and a platform for online contact between citizens and police.

The Eiffel Tower, which was built in the 1880s and stands at 300m (984ft), attracted 5.8 million visitors last year.

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2 American Tourists Caught Sleeping in the Eiffel Tower Overnight

The two men were found the next morning by a security guard.

Alexander Spatari/Getty Images

It’s been a summer filled with instances of bad behavior for travelers visiting the most historic and iconic destinations in Europe. This week, two inebriated American tourists entered a restricted zone in Paris’ famed Eiffel Tower and slept overnight, according to the BBC. The two men snuck into the area and passed out and were awoken by a guard the following morning during a routine security sweep, according to the news outlet. The incident prompted emergency personnel to investigate, a delay in opening of the Eiffel Tower to ticket holders by an hour.  The men slept between the second and third levels of the tower, according to the media report, and did not pose any additional security threat beyond trespassing.  The Eiffel Tower stands 1,084 feet tall, and welcomes over 7 million annual visitors, according to the official site .   In a separate incident this month, a woman in Rome, Italy was flagged by security for trespassing and climbing on the famed Trevi Fountain to fill a personal water bottle.

In Rome, a couple was filmed etching their names into the Colosseum earlier this summer, and was subsequently shamed on social media by Rome’s government. 

Europe has seen a surge of travelers visiting destinations as COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted and travelers can move more freely across the continent.  “American visitor volumes 55 percent above the 2022 peak season, with London, Paris and Dublin being the top destinations” the European Travel Commission shared in a recent “European Tourism: Trends & Prospects” report. For travelers looking to step up their travel etiquette, Travel + Leisure has a dedicated section for best practices when traveling including the ‘ 12 Most Annoying Things You Can Do as a Tourist Abroad .

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Two American Tourists Caught Sleeping in the Eiffel Tower

The two men posed no threat and were handed over to the police, officials said.

By Jenny Gross

The opening of the Eiffel Tower was delayed on Monday morning after security officials found two American tourists sleeping in the monument overnight, officials said.

“They were detected in the early morning by the Sete security service, during daily rounds of checks carried out before the monument was opened to the public,” according to the Eiffel Tower’s operator, Sociéte d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, also known as Sete. The operator said it would file a complaint about the two intruders, who posed no threat and were handed over to the police.

The Paris prosecutor’s office was informed on Monday morning that two American men had been found sleeping on the site of the Eiffel Tower after entering with tickets on Sunday night, according to a spokeswoman for the office, who said that alcohol was involved. She did not know where in the Eiffel Tower the men were discovered.

One of the world’s most recognizable landmarks, the Eiffel Tower was built from 1887 to 1889 to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution and stands at 1,083 feet. It receives about seven million visitors a year .

American tourists have been flocking to Europe this summer . The number of planned air arrivals to Paris for July and August has increased 14.4 percent this year, and is now nearly 5 percent above the level in 2019, before the pandemic.

Jenny Gross is a general assignment reporter. Before joining The Times, she covered British politics for The Wall Street Journal. More about Jenny Gross

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2 American tourists found sleeping atop Eiffel Tower in Paris

August 15, 2023 / 8:19 AM EDT / AFP

Two American tourists were found sleeping off a heavy night in the heights of Paris' Eiffel Tower on Monday after dodging security the night before, the monument's operator said Tuesday.

Security guards roused the men "in the early morning" as they were making their rounds before the French landmark's opening at 9 a.m. local time, publicly owned Eiffel Tower operator Sete said.

They "appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were," Paris prosecutors told AFP.

The inebriated Americans had spent their illicit night under the stars in a spot normally closed to the public between the tower's second and third levels, but "did not pose any apparent threat," said Sete.

After paying for an entry ticket around 10:40 p.m. local time Sunday, the pair hopped security barriers while climbing down the stairs from the tower's top, a police source said.

Firefighters, including a specialist unit for recovering people from dangerous heights, were sent to recover the interlopers, the police source added.

Both men were brought to the police station in Paris' seventh district for questioning. Sete said it would file a criminal complaint.

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Drunk American Tourists Get Caught Hiding Out in Eiffel Tower Overnight

Paris prosecutors said two men “appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were"

MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty

Two American men were found asleep inside the Eiffel Tower early Monday morning after drunkenly getting trapped overnight.

The men were discovered by security guards while they were making their rounds before the building opened, the New York Post reported.

Police said the tourists gained access to the building during its off hours by first paying an entry ticket to scale the building at 10:40 p.m. local time on Sunday, per CBS News .

They then jumped over the security barriers on their climb down the stairs from the top platform of the Parisian landmark, which is 276 meters, or 905.5 feet high.

Prosecutors in Paris told local news agency AFP that the tourists “appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were,” according to BBC News .

Gim42/Getty Images

They were located somewhere between the second and third floors in an area that is usually closed off from the public, according to both BBC News and CBS News.

Because the tourists were found "in the early hours" of Monday, per The Independent , the Eiffel Tower had to push back its regular opening local time of 9 a.m.

The men were eventually retrieved by a firefighter unit that specializes in rescuing people from great heights, AFP said, according to BBC News. Afterwards, they were interrogated by police in the seventh district of Paris, CBS News reported.

Sete, the publicly-owned company that operates the Eiffel Tower, said the interlopers “did not pose any apparent threat,” per CBS News. However, Sete plans to file a criminal complaint against the men.

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Almost 7 million people visit the Parisian landmark every year, with 75 percent being tourists, according to the Eiffel Tower's official website .

BBC News and The Independent reported that the incident comes just days after the Eiffel Tower received a bomb threat, forcing the building to be evacuated twice on Saturday. The building reopened later Saturday after police determined that the bomb threats were not real.

French authorities are investigating the bomb threats, which were posted on a gaming website, as well as an online platform between Parisian citizens and the police, per BBC News.

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Drunk American tourists spent a night in the Eiffel Tower, prosecutors say

Security guards making their rounds before the Eiffel Tower opened Monday stumbled across an unusual find: two Americans, fast asleep in a no-access area of the monument, in yet another case of tourists behaving badly at iconic landmarks and places of national importance.

The men, who purchased tickets to enter the attraction on Sunday, “appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were,” Paris prosecutors told Agence France-Presse, the French news service .

Security guards roused the pair “in the early morning,” the tower’s publicly owned operator SETE told AFP, adding that the pair had settled down for a sleep in an area between the tower’s second and third levels — a space that is usually closed to the public. Police believe the tourists, at some point during their visit, jumped security barriers while climbing down the stairs from the top of the tower.

The men were questioned by police, and, while they “did not pose any apparent threat,” SETE would be filing an official complaint, a spokesperson told AFP .

The tower is one of the most recognizable symbols of France , and as such is meant to have tight security: The monument has almost 40 rules in place for visitors, including a lengthy section on security that prohibits “climbing over barriers,” “entering areas not open to the public,” “running, sliding, jostling or climbing,” or “holding group picnics.”

Fortunately for Franco-American relations, French media outlets appeared more entertained than annoyed by the incident, with Le Figaro describing the pair’s time inside the monument as “a dream night that will make people envious,” and Actu Paris describing the tower as the “scene of a surprise twist.” AFP, meanwhile, joked that the two “alcoholic American tourists” had “spent a night under the stars in the Eiffel Tower.”

Vandalism, tantrums and narcissism: Entitled tourists are out of control

The unexpected discovery delayed the tower’s opening on Monday for around an hour and came after an eventful weekend at the monument, which draws around 7 million visitors each year.

On Saturday, two false bomb threats sparked evacuations after suspicious messages were posted online, French media reported, while on Monday, bomb threats were sent to at least three police stations in the French capital, although police advised against evacuating the monument, according to Le Parisien.

The incident is one of the latest cases of tourists getting into trouble — earlier this month, a teenager visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa carved a heart and initials into the 850-year-old structure. And in July, a tourist caused offense in Italy when she climbed Rome’s historic Trevi Fountain to fill up her water bottle — while another etched his name and initials into Japan’s 1,200-year-old Toshodaiji Temple — a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Academics, psychologists and travel industry professionals say that while the vast majority of sightseers are rule-abiding, there are frequent reports of tourists pushing the boundaries and breaking the rules — with feelings of entitlement, increasing numbers of travelers, and the influence of social media all playing a role.

Paris prosecutors said 2 Americans caught sleeping in the Eiffel Tower 'got stuck because of how drunk they were'

• Two Americans were reportedly found sleeping in the Eiffel Tower Monday morning. 
• The pair "appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were," Paris prosecutors told AFP.
• They reportedly purchased tickets for 10:40 p.m. Sunday, then snuck into an area closed to visitors.

Paris prosecutors told AFP that two American tourists were found sleeping inside the Eiffel Tower on Monday morning.

Before the Eiffel Tower opened to the public at 9 a.m., the men were discovered inside a part of the Parisian monument that's normally closed to the public, Eiffel Tower operator Société d'Exploitation de la tour Eiffel (SETE) said. Paris prosecutors told AFP that the pair "appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were."

The pair had reportedly purchased tickets to enter the Eiffel Tower at 10:40 p.m. on Sunday, but instead of exiting afterward, authorities say the duo hopped a security barrier into a typically prohibited area between the tower's second and third floors where they spent the night.

Security guards woke the men early Monday morning and firefighters were sent to remove them from the tower, according to AFP. SETE told the outlet that it ultimately determined that the men "did not pose any apparent threat," but that it would file a criminal complaint. Neither Paris prosecutors nor SETE responded to Insider's request for further comment, made outside of regular working hours.

Both tourists were brought to a police station for questioning, AFP reported, and their discovery delayed the Eiffel Tower's opening by about an hour. Their overnight stay came just days after the Eiffel Tower had to be evacuated for several hours on Saturday due to a bomb threat.

The tourists' overstep is just the latest example of people misbehaving while abroad. This summer, on two separate occasions, two tourists were seen defacing the Colosseum in Rome . Another visitor to the city was recently filmed climbing the Trevi Fountain  to fill up her water bottle.

Watch: Video shows protesters setting fire to the streets in France

• Main content

Two 'drunk' American tourists found sleeping in Eiffel Tower- forcing landmark to open late

Inebriated pair sleep off a heavy night on Sunday between the second and third floors in a spot normally closed to the public but "did not pose any apparent threat", the tower's operator says.

By Russell Hope, news reporter

Tuesday 15 August 2023 15:30, UK

Two drunken Americans have been found sleeping it off up the Eiffel Tower, forcing the famous Paris landmark to open late.

The inebriated tourists were woken up early Monday morning by security guards, the monument's operator said.

They had dodged members of the same team after entering the attraction late the night before.

Guards making their rounds before the usual opening time of 9am, woke the men "in the early morning", Sete, the operator of the publicly-owned tower, said on Tuesday.

Paris prosecutors said they "appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were," AFP reported.

The inebriated Americans had spent the night between the tower's second and third floors, in an area normally closed to the public but Sete said they "did not pose any apparent threat."

The visitors bought tickets for entry at around 10:40pm on Sunday, then jumped over security barriers while making their way down from the top, police said.

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Firefighters, including a specialist unit for recovering people from dangerous heights, were sent to bring down the two, AFP, quoting a police source, added.

Both men were taken to a Paris police station for questioning, while Sete said it would file a criminal complaint.

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Drunk American tourists caught sleeping on the Eiffel Tower overnight

Parisian authorities say they appear to have got stuck “because of how drunk they were”.

Two American tourists were discovered sleeping inside the Eiffel Tower on Monday after getting stuck while drunk.

Security guards found the two men in an area between the second and third levels that is usually closed to the public.

Paris prosecutors told AFP that they “appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were”.

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How did the drunk tourists get stuck on the Eiffel Tower?

The American tourists reportedly paid their entrance fees at around 10.40 pm on Sunday evening. Police say they climbed over barriers on their way down the stairs from the top platform of the attraction. 

The men were found in the “early hours of the morning” before the Eiffel Tower opened to the public when guards were making their rounds.

A police source told AFP that firefighters and a specialist unit trained to rescue people from dangerous heights were called to help bring them down.

The usual opening time of 9am was delayed on Monday while authorities dealt with the inebriated tourists . It opened to visitors around an hour later at 10am.

Police questioned the tourists but prosecutors said that “as no damage was found, the charge of trespassing on a historical or cultural site was dismissed”.

The Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (Sete), the publicly owned company that operates the Eiffel Tower said it would file a complaint against the pair but added that they “posed no apparent threat”.

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Drunk stunt comes amid false bomb threats

The stunt comes after false bomb threats triggered two evacuations of the monument on Saturday.

Tourists were forced to leave all three floors of the tower including the restaurant and forecourt while police bomb disposal experts arrived on the scene. The site reopened later in the day once the threats had been found to be a hoax.

Authorities have launched an investigation into the false threats which were posted on a gaming website and an online platform for Parisian citizens.

Three more police stations in the city received emails about the presence of bombs on Monday morning. Sete decided not to evacuate the Eiffel Tower after being informed of the false threats.

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Drunk american tourists found sleeping inside eiffel tower after late-night break in.

Holy crêpe!

Two drunk American tourists were found sleeping inside the Eiffel Tower Monday after a wild night out in Paris, officials said.

Security guards were making their morning rounds before the iconic landmark’s 9 a.m. opening when they stumbled upon the dozing duo and woke them up, according to the publicly owned Eiffel Tower operator Sete.

They were found in an area normally closed to the public between the tower’s second and third levels.

The men appeared to have “got stuck because of how drunk they were,” Paris prosecutors told the news agency AFP.

A police source said that the visitors had bought entry tickets to the monument around 10:40 p.m. Sunday — and then jumped security barriers while climbing down the stairs from the tower’s top platform 905 feet in the air.

Paris firefighters, including a special unit for recovering people from dangerous heights, were sent to bring down the hapless interlopers, the source added.

Both men were taken to the police station in Paris’ seventh district for questioning.

Sete said it intends to file a criminal complaint against the intruders later this week.

The incident delayed the tower’s opening to the public by about an hour.

It came two days after back-to-back bomb threats forced the evacuation of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in the heart of the French capital.

With Post wires

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American tourists found sleeping it off atop Eiffel Tower

World europe.

Security guards roused the men 'in the early morning' as they were making their rounds

Paris: Two American tourists were found sleeping off a heavy night in the heights of Paris’ Eiffel Tower on Monday, after dodging security the night before, the monument’s operator said Tuesday.

Security guards roused the men “in the early morning” as they were making their rounds before the French landmark’s 9:00 am opening time, publicly-owned Eiffel Tower operator Sete said.

They “appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were,” Paris prosecutors told AFP.

The inebriated Americans had spent their illicit night under the stars in a spot normally closed to the public between the tower’s second and third levels, but “did not pose any apparent threat,” said Sete.

After paying for an entry ticket around 10:40 pm on Sunday, the pair hopped security barriers while climbing down the stairs from the tower’s top, a police source said.

Firefighters, including a specialist unit for recovering people from dangerous heights, were sent to recover the interlopers, the police source added.

Both men were brought to the police station in Paris’ seventh district for questioning, while Sete said it would file a criminal complaint.

The discovery of the nocturnal infiltrators delayed the tower’s opening to the public on Monday morning for around an hour.

Two bomb threats had on Saturday forced the evacuation of the landmark, and police are now investigating.

A further email with a bomb threat against the 330-metre (1080 feet) steel tower was sent to three Paris police stations on Monday, but police advised against evacuating it.

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American tourists fell asleep atop the Eiffel Tower after getting too drunk

On Saturday afternoon, prior to this incident, the Eiffel Tower was briefly evacuated after bomb disposal teams had been dispatched to secure the area

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Two American tourists were found sleeping inside the Eiffel Tower on Monday morning after entering a prohibited area the night prior.

Security guards were making rounds before the tower’s opening at 9 a.m. local time, when prosecutors say they “appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were,” they told Agence France-Presse.

The duo bought entry tickets at around 10:40 p.m. on Sunday and hopped security barriers where the area is normally closed to the public.

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They were taken in for questioning by authorities, though ultimately “did not pose any apparent threat,” publicly owned Eiffel Tower operator Sete said.

On Saturday afternoon, prior to this incident, the Eiffel Tower was briefly evacuated after a security alert was raised, AFP reported.

The Paris monument reopened at around 3:30 p.m. local time, two hours after the disturbance. Bomb disposal teams had been dispatched to secure the area.

These types of situations are rare, a spokeswoman for Sete told AFP. The news was first reported by BFM TV.

With files from Bloomberg

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10 Things Every American Should Know About Visiting the Eiffel Tower

Michael Y. Park

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Editor & Content Contributor

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Jestan Mendame

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Table of Contents

1. you should buy tickets early, 2. getting to the eiffel tower is easy, but the paris metro tries to make it hard, 3. you have to go through security twice to go up, 4. there’s more to the tower than the tower, 5. you should be prepared for crowds, 6. the stairs are no joke, 7. you can eat inside the eiffel tower, 8. there are toilets (and cheesy eiffel tower souvenirs) on the first floor, 9. you really do get the best views of paris from the tower, 10. there’s plenty to do and eat nearby that isn’t a tourist trap, final thoughts.

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Whether it’s just a side trip during the Olympic Games or the highlight of your trip to Paris, the Eiffel Tower is on pretty much everyone’s bucket list, making it both the world’s most cliched tourist visit and something you feel like you have to do … but is also actually worth doing.

Here’s what you have to know about visiting the Eiffel Tower. (Besides: Everyone speaks English.)

You can’t dilly-dally when it comes to buying your tickets to the Eiffel Tower, as it’s the most visited ticketed monument in the world . Get on the official Eiffel Tower website much earlier than you think —  weeks in advance, not days — if you just want the basic Eiffel experience, which means access to only the first floor (the floor between the ground level and the top) and only via the stairs.

If you want to take an elevator from the ground floor to the second floor or buy tickets to the summit, you need to book even earlier —  months , not weeks . The same goes for the guided tours.

Before you finalize your ticket purchase, you have to enter the names of every person using a ticket. Someone at the tower will check the names against the tickets before they let you go up, even if you’re just taking the stairs.

If you don’t intend to actually go up the tower, you don’t have to buy tickets at all. The gardens and everything else at the base of the tower are free to the public.

The Eiffel Tower is central to the city and well-connected by public transportation. That and the fact that it is the tallest and most striking structure in the city make it almost impossible not to find.

But the Metro, the backwards and byzantine Paris underground train system, seems to try to make getting anywhere harder than it needs to be, thanks to the zone system, parallel but technically separate rail systems (the Paris Metro, for zones 1 to 3, and the Réseau Express Régional, or RER, for zones 1 to 5, though both are managed by the Régie autonome des transports parisiens, or RATP), confusing or nonexistent explanations, too-few machines, machines that always seem to break down, and on and on.

On a recent weeklong trip, for example, there were lines for tickets at every station we went to because every station had at least 1 ticket machine that was broken or being serviced.

This will forever be my takeaway image of the Paris Metro system:

And, yes, I know that’s technically a machine in the Versailles Château Rive Gauche station, but you get the idea.

Want to visit the City of Light for less? Learn about all the best ways to fly to Paris with points and miles .

Yes, you have to line up for a security check and metal detector before you can get into the tower premises, and, yes, it can take a while. You’re allowed bags smaller than 15.7 x 7.9 x 21.7 inches , but you can’t bring in luggage or larger bags — there is no bag check here. You can’t bring in the obvious items, either: weapons, sharp objects, flammable material, glass containers, or alcohol.

If you’re actually going up the tower, you’ll go through security again, and that screening has a bag check.

If you’re not going up the tower, there’s actually enough to do on the ground floor to keep you busy while the rest of your party makes the climb. The gardens are surprisingly (or perhaps not surprisingly, since this is the French we’re talking about) lovely and large, and there are food and drink kiosks and other comforts without you having to take a single step up. Remember: As long as you’re not going up the tower, it’s totally free!

And even from terra firma, you get an awe-inspiring, even dizzying, look at the fantastic ironwork and detail that went into this architectural marvel.

Even in the off-season or shoulder season, brace yourself for serious crowds. The tower is, after all, consistently one of the 10 most visited places in the world, and there’s never really a quiet day there.

Be prepared for a few elbows, lots of lines, and strangers in almost every photograph.

There are 327 steps from the ground level to the first floor, then 347 steps to the second floor. There are 1,665 steps from the ground floor to the summit, but the staircase from the second floor to the top is closed to the public for safety reasons.

The climb up to the lower floors can be a workout even for the moderately fit, and only 2 of the young children in our group made it up to the second floor without breaking a sweat or having to catch their breath. (Even the young athlete in our group ended up taking it slowly halfway into the climb.)

Expect to spend about 30 to 40 minutes going up and a little less on the way down.

Acrophobic? Be aware that seeing through the scaffolding down to the ground is mostly unavoidable and that the railings may not feel all that comfortable or sturdy at all times, even though the structure is perfectly sound and safe.

There’s a restaurant on the first floor and another on the second floor of the tower.

Madame Brasserie is on the first floor, so you can climb up to it or take an elevator if you have mobility issues. It technically takes walk-ins, but in reality you need to make your reservation for the restaurant well in advance of your visit to the tower. Even The Platinum Card ® from American Express concierge couldn’t swing a table for me a couple of weeks in advance in April (shoulder season for Paris).

Le Jules Verne , the 2-Michelin-starred restaurant on the second floor , has a dedicated elevator that whisks you from the ground level to the top and back down again. It also requires reservations way in advance — we have friends who’ve lived in Paris for over a decade and only managed to snag a table once.

If you can’t get a table in the tower but are famished at the end of your first climb, you can buy macarons, pastries, drinks, or sandwiches at the snack shop on the first floor. There’s another snack shop on the second floor waiting for you after your even longer climb to that level.

There’s also a Champagne bar at the summit of the tower . You can add a glass of Champagne to your ticket to the summit through the Eiffel Tower website.

After slogging up 327 steps, it’d be understandable if you needed a bathroom break. And, no, you won’t have to turn right back around and madly barrel down 327 stairs to pee —  there are restrooms on the first floor, along with that snack shop and, yes, an Eiffel Tower gift shop with those miniature Eiffel Towers you can give to your fifth-favorite cousins for Christmas.

There are bathrooms on the second floor and summit , too, as well as diaper-changing rooms on all floors except the very top.

As the tallest thing in the city of Paris, and as a basically see-through structure (by acrophobe standards), the Eiffel Tower does, indeed, offer views of the City of Light that make the climb up worth it .

During our visit in April with local friends, we got a clear look at the Olympic volleyball courts being set up for the Olympics in the Champ de Mars, could make out the tourists across the Seine staring back at us on the Trocadero, and landmarks like Les Invalides, Montmartre, Notre Dame, the Louvre, and Grand Palais — and we didn’t even get to go to the top of the tower! One of our friends even found and pointed out th e crèche we used to pick her up from when she was a toddler.

One iconic Paris landmark you won’t get an amazing views of? The Eiffel Tower, for obvious reasons.

Once you’re back down on the ground and figuring out what to do next, don’t feel like you have to escape the area. Unlike, say, Times Square in New York City, you haven’t just emerged into a 100%-guaranteed-tourist-trap blast zone. The 7th arrondissement is, obviously, full of tourists and gets more than its share of touts, souvenir shops, and overpriced restaurants, but it’s also a place locals live in and frequent and don’t feel like they have to go out of their way to avoid except with when entertaining out-of-town friends on their first visit to the city.

You also get wonderful views of the Eiffel Tower closer up, framed by the local architecture.

The Eiffel Tower is the ultimate tourist cliche, but it’s become a cliche for a reason. The next time your friends or family say they want to go up, you’d be missing out if you didn’t turn into the skid and find out why.

Once you’ve come down from the tower, you may be able to appreciate French craftsmanship, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s revolutionary urban planning ideas, and the fact that, sometimes, tourist mobs get it right.

Wind down from the thrill (and muscle burn) of your ascent and descent, settle in for a coffee or a pastry somewhere (after checking the prices on the menu outside, of course), and take in the street life at the pace of a Parisian, knowing that you’ve crossed a biggie off your bucket list and don’t have to climb up and down 674 137-year-old stairs again anytime soon.

Just don’t go home wearing a beret, because that always looks ridiculous.

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Eiffel Tower facts for kids

The Eiffel Tower ( EYE -fəl ; French : Tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris , France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel , whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889.

Locally nicknamed " La dame de fer " (French for "Iron Lady"), it was constructed as the centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair, and to crown the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution . Although initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, it has since become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world. The tower received 5,889,000 visitors in 2022. The Eiffel Tower is the most visited monument with an entrance fee in the world: 6.91 million people ascended it in 2015. It was designated a monument historique in 1964, and was named part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site ("Paris, Banks of the Seine") in 1991.

The tower is 330 metres (1,083 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building, and the tallest structure in Paris. Its base is square, measuring 125 metres (410 ft) on each side. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to become the tallest human-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in New York City was finished in 1930. It was the first structure in the world to surpass both the 200-metre and 300-metre mark in height. Due to the addition of a broadcasting aerial at the top of the tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 5.2 metres (17 ft). Excluding transmitters, the Eiffel Tower is the second tallest free-standing structure in France after the Millau Viaduct .

The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second levels. The top level's upper platform is 276 m (906 ft) above the ground – the highest observation deck accessible to the public in the European Union . Tickets can be purchased to ascend by stairs or lift to the first and second levels. The climb from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the climb from the first level to the second, making the entire ascent a 600 step climb. Although there is a staircase to the top level, it is usually accessible only by lift. On this top, third level is a private apartment built for Gustave Eiffel's private use. He decorated it with furniture by Jean Lachaise and invited friends such as Thomas Edison .

Artists' protest

Construction, inauguration and the 1889 exposition, subsequent events, wind and weather considerations, ground floor, engraved names, maintenance, digital television, height changes, lattice towers taller than the eiffel tower, structures in france taller than the eiffel tower, illumination copyright.

The design of the Eiffel Tower is attributed to Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, two senior engineers working for the Compagnie des Établissements Eiffel . It was envisioned after discussion about a suitable centerpiece for the proposed 1889 Exposition Universelle, a world's fair to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution . In May 1884, working at home, Koechlin made a sketch of their idea, described by him as "a great pylon, consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals". Eiffel initially showed little enthusiasm, but he did approve further study, and the two engineers then asked Stephen Sauvestre , the head of the company's architectural department, to contribute to the design. Sauvestre added decorative arches to the base of the tower, a glass pavilion to the first level, and other embellishments.

The new version gained Eiffel's support: he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nouguier, and Sauvestre had taken out, and the design was put on display at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884 under the company name. On 30 March 1885, Eiffel presented his plans to the Société des Ingénieurs Civils ; after discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower, he finished his talk by saying the tower would symbolise

[n]ot only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the Revolution of 1789, to which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude.

Little progress was made until 1886, when Jules Grévy was re-elected as president of France and Édouard Lockroy was appointed as minister for trade. A budget for the exposition was passed and, on 1 May, Lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open competition being held for a centrepiece to the exposition, which effectively made the selection of Eiffel's design a foregone conclusion, as entries had to include a study for a 300 m (980 ft) four-sided metal tower on the Champ de Mars. (A 300-metre tower was then considered a herculean engineering effort.) On 12 May, a commission was set up to examine Eiffel's scheme and its rivals, which, a month later, decided that all the proposals except Eiffel's were either impractical or lacking in details.

After some debate about the exact location of the tower, a contract was signed on 8 January 1887. Eiffel signed it acting in his own capacity rather than as the representative of his company, the contract granting him 1.5 million francs toward the construction costs: less than a quarter of the estimated 6.5 million francs. Eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation of the tower during the exhibition and for the next 20 years. He later established a separate company to manage the tower, putting up half the necessary capital himself.

A French bank, the Crédit Industriel et Commercial (CIC), helped finance the construction of the Eiffel Tower. During the period of the tower's construction, the CIC was acquiring funds from predatory loans to the National Bank of Haiti, some of which went towards the financing of the tower. These loans were connected to an indemnity controversy which saw France force Haiti's government to financially compensate French slaveowners for lost income as a result of the Haitian Revolution , and required Haiti to pay the CIC and its partner nearly half of all taxes collected on exports, "effectively choking off the nation's primary source of income". According to The New York Times , "[at] a time when the [CIC] was helping finance one of the world's best-known landmarks, the Eiffel Tower, as a monument to French liberty, it was choking Haiti's economy, taking much of the young nation's income back to Paris and impairing its ability to start schools, hospitals and the other building blocks of an independent country."

The proposed tower had been a subject of controversy, drawing criticism from those who did not believe it was feasible and those who objected on artistic grounds. Prior to the Eiffel Tower's construction, no structure had ever been constructed to a height of 300 m, or even 200 m for that matter, and many people believed it was impossible. These objections were an expression of a long-standing debate in France about the relationship between architecture and engineering. It came to a head as work began at the Champ de Mars: a "Committee of Three Hundred" (one member for each metre of the tower's height) was formed, led by the prominent architect Charles Garnier and including some of the most important figures of the arts, such as William-Adolphe Bouguereau , Guy de Maupassant , Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet . A petition called "Artists against the Eiffel Tower" was sent to the Minister of Works and Commissioner for the Exposition, Adolphe Alphand, and it was published by Le Temps on 14 February 1887:

We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection   ... of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower   ... To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years   ... we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal.

Gustave Eiffel responded to these criticisms by comparing his tower to the Egyptian pyramids : "My tower will be the tallest edifice ever erected by man. Will it not also be grandiose in its way? And why would something admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris?" These criticisms were also dealt with by Édouard Lockroy in a letter of support written to Alphand, sardonically saying, "Judging by the stately swell of the rhythms, the beauty of the metaphors, the elegance of its delicate and precise style, one can tell this protest is the result of collaboration of the most famous writers and poets of our time", and he explained that the protest was irrelevant since the project had been decided upon months before, and construction on the tower was already under way.

Indeed, Garnier was a member of the Tower Commission that had examined the various proposals, and had raised no objection. Eiffel was similarly unworried, pointing out to a journalist that it was premature to judge the effect of the tower solely on the basis of the drawings, that the Champ de Mars was distant enough from the monuments mentioned in the protest for there to be little risk of the tower overwhelming them, and putting the aesthetic argument for the tower: "Do not the laws of natural forces always conform to the secret laws of harmony?"

Some of the protesters changed their minds when the tower was built; others remained unconvinced. Guy de Maupassant supposedly ate lunch in the tower's restaurant every day because it was the one place in Paris where the tower was not visible.

By 1918, it had become a symbol of Paris and of France after Guillaume Apollinaire wrote a nationalist poem in the shape of the tower (a calligram ) to express his feelings about the war against Germany. Today, it is widely considered to be a remarkable piece of structural art, and is often featured in films and literature.

Work on the foundations started on 28 January 1887. Those for the east and south legs were straightforward, with each leg resting on four 2 m (6.6 ft) concrete slabs, one for each of the principal girders of each leg. The west and north legs, being closer to the river Seine , were more complicated: each slab needed two piles installed by using compressed-air caissons 15 m (49 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) in diameter driven to a depth of 22 m (72 ft) to support the concrete slabs, which were 6 m (20 ft) thick. Each of these slabs supported a block of limestone with an inclined top to bear a supporting shoe for the ironwork.

Each shoe was anchored to the stonework by a pair of bolts 10 cm (4 in) in diameter and 7.5 m (25 ft) long. The foundations were completed on 30 June, and the erection of the ironwork began. The visible work on-site was complemented by the enormous amount of exacting preparatory work that took place behind the scenes: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629 detailed drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed. The task of drawing the components was complicated by the complex angles involved in the design and the degree of precision required: the position of rivet holes was specified to within 1 mm (0.04 in) and angles worked out to one second of arc . The finished components, some already riveted together into sub-assemblies, arrived on horse-drawn carts from a factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret and were first bolted together, with the bolts being replaced with rivets as construction progressed. No drilling or shaping was done on site: if any part did not fit, it was sent back to the factory for alteration. In all, 18,038 pieces were joined using 2.5 million rivets.

At first, the legs were constructed as cantilevers , but about halfway to the first level construction was paused to create a substantial timber scaffold . This renewed concerns about the structural integrity of the tower, and sensational headlines such as "Gustave Eiffel Has Gone Mad: He Has Been Confined in an Asylum" appeared in the tabloid press. Multiple famous artists of that time, Charles Garnier and Alexander Dumas , thought poorly of the newly made tower. Charles Garnier thought it was a "truly tragic street lamp". Alexander Dumas said that it was like "Odius shadow of the odious column built of rivets and iron plates extending like a black blot". There were multiple protests over the style and the reasoning of placing it in the middle of Paris. At this stage, a small "creeper" crane designed to move up the tower was installed in each leg. They made use of the guides for the lifts which were to be fitted in the four legs. The critical stage of joining the legs at the first level was completed by the end of March 1888. Although the metalwork had been prepared with the utmost attention to detail, provision had been made to carry out small adjustments to precisely align the legs; hydraulic jacks were fitted to the shoes at the base of each leg, capable of exerting a force of 800 tonnes, and the legs were intentionally constructed at a slightly steeper angle than necessary, being supported by sandboxes on the scaffold. Although construction involved 300 on-site employees, due to Eiffel's safety precautions and the use of movable gangways, guardrails and screens, only one person died.

18 July 1887: The start of the erection of the metalwork

7 December 1887: Construction of the legs with scaffolding

20 March 1888: Completion of the first level

15 May 1888: Start of construction on the second stage

21 August 1888: Completion of the second level

26 December 1888: Construction of the upper stage

15 March 1889: Construction of the cupola

The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 and, on 31 March, Eiffel celebrated by leading a group of government officials, accompanied by representatives of the press, to the top of the tower. Because the lifts were not yet in operation, the ascent was made by foot, and took over an hour, with Eiffel stopping frequently to explain various features. Most of the party chose to stop at the lower levels, but a few, including the structural engineer, Émile Nouguier, the head of construction, Jean Compagnon, the President of the City Council, and reporters from Le Figaro and Le Monde Illustré , completed the ascent. At 2:35 pm, Eiffel hoisted a large Tricolour to the accompaniment of a 25-gun salute fired at the first level.

There was still work to be done, particularly on the lifts and facilities, and the tower was not opened to the public until nine days after the opening of the exposition on 6 May; even then, the lifts had not been completed. The tower was an instant success with the public, and nearly 30,000 visitors made the 1,710-step climb to the top before the lifts entered service on 26 May. Tickets cost 2 francs for the first level, 3 for the second, and 5 for the top, with half-price admission on Sundays, and by the end of the exhibition there had been 1,896,987 visitors.

After dark, the tower was lit by hundreds of gas lamps, and a beacon sent out three beams of red, white and blue light. Two searchlights mounted on a circular rail were used to illuminate various buildings of the exposition. The daily opening and closing of the exposition were announced by a cannon at the top.

On the second level, the French newspaper Le Figaro had an office and a printing press, where a special souvenir edition, Le Figaro de la Tour , was made. There was also a pâtisserie .

At the top, there was a post office where visitors could send letters and postcards as a memento of their visit. Graffitists were also catered for: sheets of paper were mounted on the walls each day for visitors to record their impressions of the tower. Gustave Eiffel described the collection of responses as "truly curious".

Famous visitors to the tower included the Prince of Wales , Sarah Bernhardt , "Buffalo Bill" Cody (his Wild West show was an attraction at the exposition) and Thomas Edison . Eiffel invited Edison to his private apartment at the top of the tower, where Edison presented him with one of his phonographs , a new invention and one of the many highlights of the exposition. Edison signed the guestbook with this message:

To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison.

Eiffel made use of his apartment at the top of the tower to carry out meteorological observations , and also used the tower to perform experiments on the action of air resistance on falling bodies.

Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years. It was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris . The city had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it should be easy to dismantle) but as the tower proved to be valuable for many innovations in the early 20th century, particularly radio telegraphy, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit, and from 1910 it also became part of the International Time Service.

For the 1900 Exposition Universelle , the lifts in the east and west legs were replaced by lifts running as far as the second level constructed by the French firm Fives-Lille. These had a compensating mechanism to keep the floor level as the angle of ascent changed at the first level, and were driven by a similar hydraulic mechanism as the Otis lifts, although this was situated at the base of the tower. Hydraulic pressure was provided by pressurised accumulators located near this mechanism. At the same time the lift in the north pillar was removed and replaced by a staircase to the first level. The layout of both first and second levels was modified, with the space available for visitors on the second level. The original lift in the south pillar was removed 13 years later.

On 19 October 1901, Alberto Santos-Dumont , flying his No.6 airship , won a 100,000-franc prize offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first person to make a flight from St. Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back in less than half an hour.

In 1910, Father Theodor Wulf measured radiant energy at the top and bottom of the tower. He found more at the top than expected, incidentally discovering what are known today as cosmic rays . Two years later, on 4 February 1912, Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died after jumping from the first level of the tower (a height of 57 m) to demonstrate his parachute design. In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I , a radio transmitter located in the tower jammed German radio communications, seriously hindering their advance on Paris and contributing to the Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne . From 1925 to 1934, illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the world at the time. In April 1935, the tower was used to make experimental low-resolution television transmissions, using a shortwave transmitter of 200 watts power. On 17 November, an improved 180-line transmitter was installed.

On two separate but related occasions in 1925, the con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal. A year later, in February 1926, pilot Leon Collet was killed trying to fly under the tower. His aircraft became entangled in an aerial belonging to a wireless station. A bust of Gustave Eiffel by Antoine Bourdelle was unveiled at the base of the north leg on 2 May 1929. In 1930, the tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building in New York City was completed. In 1938, the decorative arcade around the first level was removed.

Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French. The tower was closed to the public during the occupation and the lifts were not repaired until 1946. In 1940, German soldiers had to climb the tower to hoist a swastika-centered Reichskriegsflagge, but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and was replaced by a smaller one. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. When the Allies were nearing Paris in August 1944, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz , the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order. On 25 August, before the Germans had been driven out of Paris , the German flag was replaced with a Tricolour by two men from the French Naval Museum, who narrowly beat three men led by Lucien Sarniguet, who had lowered the Tricolour on 13 June 1940 when Paris fell to the Germans.

A fire started in the television transmitter on 3 January 1956, damaging the top of the tower. Repairs took a year, and in 1957, the present radio aerial was added to the top. In 1964, the Eiffel Tower was officially declared to be a historical monument by the Minister of Cultural Affairs, André Malraux. A year later, an additional lift system was installed in the north pillar.

According to interviews, in 1967, Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau negotiated a secret agreement with Charles de Gaulle for the tower to be dismantled and temporarily relocated to Montreal to serve as a landmark and tourist attraction during Expo 67. The plan was allegedly vetoed by the company operating the tower out of fear that the French government could refuse permission for the tower to be restored in its original location.

In 1982, the original lifts between the second and third levels were replaced after 97 years in service. These had been closed to the public between November and March because the water in the hydraulic drive tended to freeze. The new cars operate in pairs, with one counterbalancing the other, and perform the journey in one stage, reducing the journey time from eight minutes to less than two minutes. At the same time, two new emergency staircases were installed, replacing the original spiral staircases. In 1983, the south pillar was fitted with an electrically driven Otis lift to serve the Jules Verne restaurant. The Fives-Lille lifts in the east and west legs, fitted in 1899, were extensively refurbished in 1986. The cars were replaced, and a computer system was installed to completely automate the lifts. The motive power was moved from the water hydraulic system to a new electrically driven oil-filled hydraulic system, and the original water hydraulics were retained solely as a counterbalance system. A service lift was added to the south pillar for moving small loads and maintenance personnel three years later.

Robert Moriarty flew a Beechcraft Bonanza under the tower on 31 March 1984. In 1987, A. J. Hackett made one of his first bungee jumps from the top of the Eiffel Tower, using a special cord he had helped develop. Hackett was arrested by the police. On 27 October 1991, Thierry Devaux, along with mountain guide Hervé Calvayrac, performed a series of acrobatic figures while bungee jumping from the second floor of the tower. Facing the Champ de Mars, Devaux used an electric winch between figures to go back up to the second floor. When firemen arrived, he stopped after the sixth jump.

For its "Countdown to the Year 2000" celebration on 31 December 1999, flashing lights and high-powered searchlights were installed on the tower. During the last three minutes of the year, the lights were turned on starting from the base of the tower and continuing to the top to welcome 2000 with a huge fireworks show. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor commemorates this event. The searchlights on top of the tower made it a beacon in Paris's night sky, and 20,000 flashing bulbs gave the tower a sparkly appearance for five minutes every hour on the hour.

The lights sparkled blue for several nights to herald the new millennium on 31 December 2000. The sparkly lighting continued for 18 months until July 2001. The sparkling lights were turned on again on 21 June 2003, and the display was planned to last for 10 years before they needed replacing.

The tower received its 200,000,000th guest on 28 November 2002. The tower has operated at its maximum capacity of about 7 million visitors per year since 2003. In 2004, the Eiffel Tower began hosting a seasonal ice rink on the first level. A glass floor was installed on the first level during the 2014 refurbishment.

The puddle iron (wrought iron) of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes , and the addition of lifts, shops and antennae have brought the total weight to approximately 10,100 tonnes. As a demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300 tonnes of metal in the structure were melted down, it would fill the square base, 125 metres (410 ft) on each side, to a depth of only 6.25 cm (2.46 in) assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tonnes per cubic metre. Additionally, a cubic box surrounding the tower (324 m × 125 m × 125 m) would contain 6,200 tonnes of air, weighing almost as much as the iron itself. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7 in) due to thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.

When it was built, many were shocked by the tower's daring form. Eiffel was accused of trying to create something artistic with no regard to the principles of engineering. However, Eiffel and his team – experienced bridge builders – understood the importance of wind forces, and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world, they had to be sure it could withstand them. In an interview with the newspaper Le Temps published on 14 February 1887, Eiffel said:

Is it not true that the very conditions which give strength also conform to the hidden rules of harmony?   ... Now to what phenomenon did I have to give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be   ... will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.

He used graphical methods to determine the strength of the tower and empirical evidence to account for the effects of wind, rather than a mathematical formula. Close examination of the tower reveals a basically exponential shape. All parts of the tower were overdesigned to ensure maximum resistance to wind forces. The top half was even assumed to have no gaps in the latticework. In the years since it was completed, engineers have put forward various mathematical hypotheses in an attempt to explain the success of the design. The most recent, devised in 2004 after letters sent by Eiffel to the French Society of Civil Engineers in 1885 were translated into English, is described as a non-linear integral equation based on counteracting the wind pressure on any point of the tower with the tension between the construction elements at that point.

The Eiffel Tower sways by up to 9 cm (3.5 in) in the wind.

The four columns of the tower each house access stairs and elevators to the first two floors, while at the south column only the elevator to the second floor restaurant is publicly accessible.

The first floor is publicly accessible by elevator or stairs. When originally built, the first level contained three restaurants – one French, one Russian and one Flemish — and an "Anglo-American Bar". After the exposition closed, the Flemish restaurant was converted to a 250-seat theatre. Today there is the Le 58 Tour Eiffel restaurant and other facilities.

The second floor is publicly accessible by elevator or stairs and has a restaurant called Le Jules Verne , a gourmet restaurant with its own lift going up from the south column to the second level. This restaurant has one star in the Michelin Red Guide . It was run by the multi- Michelin star chef Alain Ducasse from 2007 to 2017. As of May 2019, it is managed by three-star chef Frédéric Anton. It owes its name to the famous science-fiction writer Jules Verne .

The third floor is the top floor, publicly accessible by elevator.

Originally there were laboratories for various experiments, and a small apartment reserved for Gustave Eiffel to entertain guests, which is now open to the public, complete with period decorations and lifelike mannequins of Eiffel and some of his notable guests.

From 1937 until 1981, there was a restaurant near the top of the tower. It was removed due to structural considerations; engineers had determined it was too heavy and was causing the tower to sag. This restaurant was sold to an American restaurateur and transported to New York and then New Orleans. It was rebuilt on the edge of New Orleans' Garden District as a restaurant and later event hall. Today there is a champagne bar.

The arrangement of the lifts has been changed several times during the tower's history. Given the elasticity of the cables and the time taken to align the cars with the landings, each lift, in normal service, takes an average of 8 minutes and 50 seconds to do the round trip, spending an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds at each level. The average journey time between levels is 1 minute. The original hydraulic mechanism is on public display in a small museum at the base of the east and west legs. Because the mechanism requires frequent lubrication and maintenance, public access is often restricted. The rope mechanism of the north tower can be seen as visitors exit the lift.

Equipping the tower with adequate and safe passenger lifts was a major concern of the government commission overseeing the Exposition. Although some visitors could be expected to climb to the first level, or even the second, lifts clearly had to be the main means of ascent.

Constructing lifts to reach the first level was relatively straightforward: the legs were wide enough at the bottom and so nearly straight that they could contain a straight track, and a contract was given to the French company Roux, Combaluzier & Lepape for two lifts to be fitted in the east and west legs. Roux, Combaluzier & Lepape used a pair of endless chains with rigid, articulated links to which the car was attached. Lead weights on some links of the upper or return sections of the chains counterbalanced most of the car's weight. The car was pushed up from below, not pulled up from above: to prevent the chain buckling, it was enclosed in a conduit. At the bottom of the run, the chains passed around 3.9 m (12 ft 10 in) diameter sprockets. Smaller sprockets at the top guided the chains.

Installing lifts to the second level was more of a challenge because a straight track was impossible. No French company wanted to undertake the work. The European branch of Otis Brothers & Company submitted a proposal but this was rejected: the fair's charter ruled out the use of any foreign material in the construction of the tower. The deadline for bids was extended but still no French companies put themselves forward, and eventually the contract was given to Otis in July 1887. Otis were confident they would eventually be given the contract and had already started creating designs.

The car was divided into two superimposed compartments, each holding 25 passengers, with the lift operator occupying an exterior platform on the first level. Motive power was provided by an inclined hydraulic ram 12.67 m (41 ft 7 in) long and 96.5 cm (38.0 in) in diameter in the tower leg with a stroke of 10.83 m (35 ft 6 in): this moved a carriage carrying six sheaves. Five fixed sheaves were mounted higher up the leg, producing an arrangement similar to a block and tackle but acting in reverse, multiplying the stroke of the piston rather than the force generated. The hydraulic pressure in the driving cylinder was produced by a large open reservoir on the second level. After being exhausted from the cylinder, the water was pumped back up to the reservoir by two pumps in the machinery room at the base of the south leg. This reservoir also provided power to the lifts to the first level.

The original lifts for the journey between the second and third levels were supplied by Léon Edoux. A pair of 81 m (266 ft) hydraulic rams were mounted on the second level, reaching nearly halfway up to the third level. One lift car was mounted on top of these rams: cables ran from the top of this car up to sheaves on the third level and back down to a second car. Each car travelled only half the distance between the second and third levels and passengers were required to change lifts halfway by means of a short gangway. The 10-ton cars each held 65 passengers.

Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower the names of 72 French scientists, engineers and mathematicians in recognition of their contributions to the building of the tower. Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the artists' protest. At the beginning of the 20th century, the engravings were painted over, but they were restored in 1986–87 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel , a company operating the tower.

The tower is painted in three shades: lighter at the top, getting progressively darker towards the bottom to complement the Parisian sky. It was originally reddish brown; this changed in 1968 to a bronze colour known as "Eiffel Tower Brown". In what is expected to be a temporary change, the tower is being painted gold in commemoration of the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

The only non-structural elements are the four decorative grill-work arches, added in Sauvestre's sketches, which served to make the tower look more substantial and to make a more impressive entrance to the exposition.

A pop-culture movie cliché is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower. In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to seven storeys, only a small number of tall buildings have a clear view of the tower.

Maintenance of the tower includes applying 60 tons of paint every seven years to prevent it from rusting . The tower has been completely repainted at least 19 times since it was built. Lead paint was still being used as recently as 2001 when the practice was stopped out of concern for the environment.

Communications

The tower has been used for making radio transmissions since the beginning of the 20th century. Until the 1950s, sets of aerial wires ran from the cupola to anchors on the Avenue de Suffren and Champ de Mars. These were connected to longwave transmitters in small bunkers. In 1909, a permanent underground radio centre was built near the south pillar, which still exists today. On 20 November 1913, the Paris Observatory, using the Eiffel Tower as an aerial, exchanged wireless signals with the United States Naval Observatory , which used an aerial in Arlington County, Virginia . The object of the transmissions was to measure the difference in longitude between Paris and Washington, D.C. Today, radio and digital television signals are transmitted from the Eiffel Tower.

A television antenna was first installed on the tower in 1957, increasing its height by 18.7 m (61 ft). Work carried out in 2000 added a further 5.3 m (17 ft), giving the current height of 324 m (1,063 ft). Analogue television signals from the Eiffel Tower ceased on 8 March 2011.

The pinnacle height of the Eiffel Tower has changed multiple times over the years as described in the chart below.

Taller structures

The Eiffel Tower was the world's tallest structure when completed in 1889, a distinction it retained until 1929 when the Chrysler Building in New York City was topped out. The tower also lost its standing as the world's tallest tower to the Tokyo Tower in 1958 but retains its status as the tallest freestanding (non-guyed) structure in France.

The nearest Paris Métro station is Bir-Hakeim and the nearest RER station is Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel. The tower itself is located at the intersection of the quai Branly and the Pont d'Iéna.

More than 300 million people have visited the tower since it was completed in 1889. In 2015, there were 6.91 million visitors. The tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world. An average of 25,000 people ascend the tower every day (which can result in long queues).

The tower and its image have been in the public domain since 1993, 70 years after Eiffel's death. In June 1990 a French court ruled that a special lighting display on the tower in 1989 to mark the tower's 100th anniversary was an "original visual creation" protected by copyright. The Court of Cassation, France's judicial court of last resort, upheld the ruling in March 1992. The Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE) now considers any illumination of the tower to be a separate work of art that falls under copyright. As a result, the SNTE alleges that it is illegal to publish contemporary photographs of the lit tower at night without permission in France and some other countries for commercial use. For this reason, it is often rare to find images or videos of the lit tower at night on stock image sites, and media outlets rarely broadcast images or videos of it.

The imposition of copyright has been controversial. The Director of Documentation for what was then called the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SNTE), Stéphane Dieu, commented in 2005: "It is really just a way to manage commercial use of the image, so that it isn't used in ways [of which] we don't approve". SNTE made over €1 million from copyright fees in 2002. However, it could also be used to restrict the publication of tourist photographs of the tower at night, as well as hindering non-profit and semi-commercial publication of images of the illuminated tower.

The copyright claim itself has never been tested in courts to date, according to a 2014 article in the Art Law Journal , and there has never been an attempt to track down millions of people who have posted and shared their images of the illuminated tower on the Internet worldwide. However, the article adds that commercial uses of such images, like in a magazine, on a film poster, or on product packaging, may require prior permission.

French doctrine and jurisprudence allows pictures incorporating a copyrighted work as long as their presence is incidental or accessory to the subject being represented, a reasoning akin to the de minimis rule. Therefore, SETE may be unable to claim copyright on photographs of Paris which happen to include the lit tower.

As one of the most famous landmarks in the world, the Eiffel Tower has been the inspiration for the creation of many replicas and similar towers. An early example is Blackpool Tower in England. The mayor of Blackpool, Sir John Bickerstaffe, was so impressed on seeing the Eiffel Tower at the 1889 exposition that he commissioned a similar tower to be built in his town. It opened in 1894 and is 158.1 m (519 ft) tall. Tokyo Tower in Japan, built as a communications tower in 1958, was also inspired by the Eiffel Tower.

There are various scale models of the tower in the United States, including a half-scale version at the Paris Las Vegas, Nevada, one in Paris, Texas built in 1993, and two 1:3 scale models at Kings Island , located in Mason, Ohio , and Kings Dominion , Virginia , amusement parks opened in 1972 and 1975 respectively. Two 1:3 scale models can be found in China, one in Durango, Mexico that was donated by the local French community, and several across Europe.

In 2011, the TV show Pricing the Priceless on the National Geographic Channel speculated that a full-size replica of the tower would cost approximately US$480 million to build. This would be more than ten times the cost of the original (nearly 8 million in 1890 Francs; ~US$40 million in 2018 dollars).

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• Top 20 Attractions

Top 20 St. Petersburg attractions and experiences

St. Petersburg has a true wealth of attractions and experiences to offer travelers, from spectacular Imperial palaces to quirky and absorbing museums, from boat trips along the city's majestic rivers and canals to walks in the footsteps of St. Petersburg's literary and artistic greats.

In fact, there's more than enough to see and do in St. Petersburg to keep visitors entertained for weeks or even months. One of the biggest challenges for independent travelers is to work out what they will actually have time to fit in to their itinerary, particularly as St. Petersburg is one of Europe's largest cities, with the historical centre alone covering several square kilometers and some of the most famous attractions located far out in the suburbs. To help you get the most out of your time in St. Petersburg, our travel writers have drawn on their own expertise and years of feedback from travelers to compile this Top 20 list of attractions and experiences.

The Hermitage (The Winter Palace)

Undoubtedly St. Petersburg's most famous visitor attraction, and universally acknowledged as one of the world's greatest treasuries of art and antiquities, the Hermitage is a name to be conjured with, and reason enough on its own for many travelers to book a trip to St. Petersburg.

The Hermitage Museum now spans several sites, but for most visitors it is the main collection in the Winter Palace that is an essential component of any St. Petersburg itinerary. Here you'll find not only centuries of European fine art and a rich collection of Greek and Roman antiquities , but also the astonishingly opulent 18th and 19th century state rooms of Russia's imperial family.

Since the summer of 2014, much of the Hermitage's renowned collection of impressionist and post-impressionist art (in terms of artistic quality, undoubtedly the highpoint of the collection) has been transferred across Palace Square to the General Staff Building , so if your main reason for visiting the Hermitage is to see the art, then you have to consider making time for the second location, possibly with a break for refreshments between the two.

Optimal: One day for the Winter Palace and General Staff Building collections.

Minimum: Two hours

Further reading

Explore the Hermitage: An introduction to St. Petersburg's greatest museum.

The Mariinsky Theatre

St. Petersburg's other internationally renowned cultural institution, and for some visitors an even greater draw than the Hermitage, the Mariinsky Theatre has profited in recent years from the financial and creative turmoils of Moscow's Bolshoi to become the undisputed preeminent musical theatre in modern Russia.

Renowned for the impeccable discipline and devotion to tradition of its ballet company, and blessed in Valery Gergiev with one of contemporary classical music's most exciting and exacting conductors, as well as international stars of ballet and opera including Ulyana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva and Anna Netrebko, the Mariinsky Theatre is a world-class venue for ballet, opera and orchestral music.

Recent years have seen the Mariinsky spread beyond its historic home, the wedding-cake late-19th century opera house on Teatralnaya Ploshchad ("Theatre Square"), with the addition in 2006 of the Mariinsky Concert Hall, and in 2013 the long-awaited opening of the second opera and ballet stage, Mariinsky II. While most visitors will want to enjoy the rich atmosphere and ornate interiors of the main theatre, both new venues are beautifully designed inside, with state-of-the-art acoustics and stage technology, making them well worth exploring for music enthusiasts.

Optimal: As many performances as time and your budget will allow.

Minimum: At least one evening performance at the Mariinsky should be an essential component of any Petersburg itinerary.

Rivers and canals of St. Petersburg by boat

If you're visiting St. Petersburg from May to October, there are a number of ways to explore the city by boat, from taking the hydrofoil to the suburban palace and park at Peterhof to enjoying dinner and live jazz on an evening cruise along the Neva. When the weather's good, visitors should really take any opportunity to get out on the water, but even the shortest visit to St. Petersburg in summer should include one boat trip along the city's central rivers and canals.

There is a wide range of different offers available at the various quays on or near Nevsky Prospekt, with larger boats offering guided tours (some in English) and on-board refreshments, and smaller boats that you can rent by the hour, choose your own route, and bring your own food and drink. All routes through the centre take in some portion of the Fontanka and Moyka Rivers and the Griboedov and Kryukov Canals. Some also head out onto the River Neva, while around midnight most of the boats in the city offer the chance to watch the opening of the Neva's bascule bridges from the water. Whatever route you end up taking, a boat trip is a fantastic way to see St. Petersburg from a different angle, and perhaps the best possible means of getting an impression of the sheer scope of the city's architectural beauty and romance.

Optimal: If you're in the city for more than a few days, it's definitely worth taking two trips - one sightseeing tour through the centre and one to watch the bridges opening .

Minimum: A basic sightseeing tour along the rivers and canals of the centre will take just over an hour.

When it comes to visitor attractions, St. Petersburg is as famous for the Imperial palaces and parks in the suburbs as for the museums and palaces in the city centre. Among the former, Peterhof is the one we would class as absolutely unmissbale, especially in summer when the park's incredible collection of fountains is in operation.

It took Peter the Great over a decade and a few false starts before he found the right site for his summer residence. Modelled partly on Versailles, but with many features that reflected Peter's specific tastes and interests, the park was expanded under Peter's daughter, Empress Elizabeth, to greatly surpass its French antecedent in scope and grandeur. While the Grand Palace at Peterhof is less spectacular than the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, Peterhof excels in the diversity and range of its attractions, from the charming baroque buildings of the Petrine era to the extraordinary gilded extravagance of the Grand Cascade to the catalog of gardening styles encompassed in the Upper and Lower Parks to the ever-growing number of museums housed in the various buildings on the estate.

Optimal: There is plenty at Peterhof to keep you occupied for a whole day, and the Lower Park is a great place to picnic in the summer.

Minimum: As the journey from the city centre takes at least 45 minutes, half a day is the minimum time necessary to visit Peterhof even for the briefest overview.

St. Isaac's Cathedral & Colonnade

The low-rise skyline of St. Petersburg's historic centre is dominated by the grand gold dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral, the life's work of French architect Auguste de Montferrand and the city's largest and most spectacular religious building.

Completed in 1858, St. Isaac's took over forty years to build and decorate. Its strictly European Empire-style facades and colonnades are made unique by the employment of red Karelian granite, while the interiors also meld Orthodox tradition with Catholic influence and extraordinary extravagance in the choice of materials. Different types of semiprecious stone from all over Russia form the interior walls and columns, while an abundance of original art and sculpture goes only a little way to filling the vast hall of the cathedral, designed to accommodate 14 000 standing worshipers. As well as visiting the Cathedral interiors, travelers can buy an extra ticket to climb the 300 steps up to the colonnade. From here, you can enjoy some of the best views of St. Petersburg available.

Optimal: A tour of the cathedral and colonnade should take around two hours. It's certainly worth getting an audio guide for the cathedral, and possibly for the colonnade if you are entirely unfamiliar with the lay-out of the city.

Minimum: While visiting the cathedral interiors is hardly essential if you have limited time to explore the city, the colonnade is just about the only accessible place in St. Petersburg where you can enjoy something like aerial views of the downtown, so it's well worth taking half an hour to visit.

The Peter & Paul Fortress

The place where the city of St. Petersburg began, the Peter and Paul Fortress never actually saw military action, but has fulfilled a variety of functions over its three-century history, from burial place for nearly all of the Romanov Emperors and Empresses to notorious political prison to the site of key experiments in the development of Soviet rocket technology. All of these aspects of the fortresses history are celebrated in diverse exhibitions across various buildings, and it is the ramshackle charms of these various museums and collections as much as the grandeur of the spectacular Ss. Petersburg and Paul Cathedral that make the fortress an essential visitor attraction.

Optimal: It's possible to spend the best part of a full day at the Peter and Paul Fortress, and if possible you should definitely take the time (around five hours) to visit the Peter and Paul Cathedral, explore the displays on the History of St. Petersburg in the Commandant's House and at the Museum of Cosmonautics and Rocket Techonolgy, and walk along the top of the curtain wall.

Minimum: If you're short of time, it's probably enough to pop inside the Cathedral and walk the ramparts (just over an hour).

Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood

While it lacks the authentic medieval charm of St. Basil's in Moscow, the Church on Spilled Blood is nonetheless one of St. Petersburg's most instantly recognizable landmarks, its riotously colorful Russian Revival architecture making a stark contrast to the elegant neoclassicism of the State Russian Museum next door. This is part of the church's charm, in that it serves to constantly remind the visitor to St. Petersburg that, despite the Italianate elegance of most of the "Golden Triangle", you are still definitely in Russia. It's extraordinary also that a monument to mark such a tragic event (the assassination of Alexander II) should be so exuberantly colorful.

Optimal: As gaudy and colorful on the inside as on the outside, the Church on Spilled Blood is worth going inside if you have time to listen through an audio guide with the story of the church's construction (just over an hour in total).

Minimum: If you're on a whistlestop tour, there's no need to set aside time for the Church on Spilled Blood, as you're bound to pass it more than once in even the shortest exploration of St. Petersburg.

Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin)

Home to not one but two vast 18th century palaces, surrounded by beautifully landscaped parkland with a rich variety of follies and monuments, Tsarskoye Selo is a testament to the immense wealth and lavishness of the Romanov Imperial family. The rococo Catherine Palace by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, a sister building to his Winter Palace in the city centre, is the most famous attraction, particularly thanks to the extraordinary Amber Room, but there are many other highlights to see, with almost every great St. Petersburg architect of the 18th and early-19th centuries contributing something to the ensemble.

Optimal: Like Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo is best enjoyed at a leisurely pace over a full day, with a break for a picnic in the park or lunch at one of Pushkin's restaurants.

Minimum: There's no point in visiting Tsarskoye Selo unless have a full morning or afternoon free. It's all worth considering combining Tsarskoye Selo with the palace and park at Pavlovsk a few kilometers east. This also gives you the opportunity to dine at the excellent Podvorye restaurant.

Opening bridges

The Neva River connects Lake Ladoga to the Baltic Sea, and during the summer navigation season tens of cargo ships per day follow this important route, making it necessary to open the bascule bridges across the Neva in central St. Petersburg. This is done after midnight, and during the White Nights especially it has long been a tradition for crowds to gather along the embankments to watch the raising of the bridges. The raised arches of Palace Bridge make for one of St. Petersburg's most famous views, but its as much the atmosphere of lazy revelry and contentment inspired by the eternal twilight that makes this such an unmissable St. Petersburg experience.

Optimal: If you have the opportunity, then it's worth taking a midnight boat trip out to watch each bridge rise from the water.

Minimum: It is only really Palace Bridge and Trinity Bridge that gather big crowds, and they are undoubtedly the most beautiful. To watch the two adjacent bridges rising and walk the kilometer along the river between the two is a pleasant way to spend an hour before bed.

Nevsky Prospekt

"There's nothing finer than Nevsky Prospekt, at least not in St. Petersburg." So begins Nikolay Gogol's famous tale of St. Petersburg's central avenue. While that story may end in disillusion and despair, there's little doubt that Nevsky is one of the world's greatest streets. Running 4.5 kilometers from the Admiralty in the west to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in the east, Nevsky Prospekt has a hardly single building dating from after 1917. Highlights include the magnificent Art Nouveau Singer Building , the baroque Stroganov Palace , Kazan Cathedral with its curved neoclassical colonnade, the Horse Tamers statues on Anichkov Bridge , and the 18th century shopping arcade Gostiny Dvor .

Nowadays, St. Petersburg's most exclusive shopping area is actually the eastern end of Nevsky, beyond Ploshchad Vosstaniya. As well as landmark buildings and up-market boutiques, however, Nevsky Prospekt also offers an electric atmosphere and energy. Especially in summer, Nevsky is bustling no what the hour, and an increasing number of bars and cafes without outdoor seating give you a better opportunity to enjoy the avenue's living theatre.

Optimal: It will take at least two hours to walk the full length of Nevsky Prospekt, allowing for brief contemplation of the major sights and attractions.

Minimum: The most famous landmarks on Nevsky are nearly all in the stretch that runs through St. Petersburg's "Golden Triangle" from the Fontanka River to the Admiralty. This section of the avenue can be explored in around 30 minutes.

Bronze Horseman

St. Petersburg's most famous public monument, this equestrian statue to Peter the Great is not only one of the most instantly recognizable symbols of St. Petersburg - like the Statue of Liberty for New York or the Eiffel Tower for Paris - it is also the subject of one of the greatest poems in the Russian language, Alexander Pushkin's The Bronze Horseman: A Petersburg Tale . Completed in 1782, the statue took 12 years of work by the French sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet, recommended to Catherine the Great by Denis Diderot himself. The pedestal of the monument, the "Thunder Stone", is purportedly the largest ever moved by man.

The Bronze Horseman is easily combined with a visit to St. Isaac's Cathedral, so does not require a specific time on your itinerary.

State Russian Museum

While the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow is undoubtedly the finest collection of Russian art in the world thanks to its beautiful premises and rich collection of 20th century work, it is matched up to the October Revolution almost painting for painting by the State Russian Museum. Occupying the magnificent Mikhailovsky Palace, the Russian Museum's main collection is a treasury of Russian visual from throughout the ages, with highlights including medieval icons, atmospheric late-19th century genre paintings, and several modernist masterpieces.

Optimal: The main collection in the Mikhailovsky Palace will take 2-3 hours to do justice to, and it's also worth visiting the collections in the Marble Palace both to see this beautiful building and for the Peter Ludwig collection of international Pop Art.

Minimum: While the Russian Museum is definitely one of St. Petersburg's top visitor attractions, if you are on a first-time trip to Russia and visiting Moscow as well, it makes sense to choose either the Russian Museum or the Tretyakov Gallery, as the two have very similar content right down to different variations of the same work in some cases.

Dostoevsky's St. Petersburg

While nearly every great figure of Russian literature spent some time in St. Petersburg, and many wrote works with St. Petersburg as their setting, none is so inextricably linked with the geography and atmosphere of the city as Fyodor Dostoevsky. For many travelers, it is reading his works that sparks an initial desire to visit St. Petersburg, even though his descriptions often make the city monstrous and forbidding. As St. Petersburg's historic centre has been comparatively untouched by change in the 20th century, much of Dostoevsky's Petersburg is still there to explore, and the areas around Sennaya Ploshchad and Vladimirskaya Ploshchad are rich in sights connected to his life and works.

Optimal: Our Dostoevsky walking tour takes 3.5 hours, including a visit to the Dostoevsky Memorial Museum .

Minimum: To get an idea of where Dostoevsky lived, you can just visit the museum and the adjacent Church of the Vladimir Icon , as well as the Monument to Fyodor Dostoevsky , in about an hour.

A small promontory of land at the eastern end of Vasilevskiy Island , the Strelka ("Spit") is right in the middle of the Neva River Delta, with magnificent views on all sides, including the Winter Palace , Palace and Trinity Bridges , the Peter and Paul Fortress and St. Isaac's Cathedral . A perennially popular site for wedding parties and bus tours to stop and take photos, the Strelka also has landmarks of its own, specifically the magnificent Rostral Columns , with their gas beacons lit for public holidays and maritime anniversaries, and the elegant classical temple of the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange , all works of the French-born architect Thomas de Thomon.

The Strelka is an integral part of any exploration of Vasilevskiy Island, and does not require separate time on your itinerary.

Pushkinskaya 10

Established in 1989 as a squat for independent artists, alternative musicians, and other "underground" types, Pushkinskaya 10 is an arts and performance centre in an old apartment building a short walk from Nevsky Prospekt. A warren of studios and exhibition space haphazardly linked together as the Museum of Non-Comformist Art , Pushkinskaya 10 can be somewhat bewildering for visitors, and much of the space is often inexplicably closed (the two bars, both of which are also concert venues, are by far the most accessible parts of the complex), but it's well worth visiting for the increasingly rare chance to get a glimpse of the old Leningrad bohemia and its once revered dissident art scene.

Optimal: The best way to visit Pushkinskaya 10 is to come in the early evening and hope that the galleries are open, before heading to one of the two music venues for a concert.

Minimum: A 15-minute visit should suffice to get an overall impression of the center's atmosphere.

Carlo Rossi's Petersburg

Practically unknown outside Russia, this Italian-born architect was the major creative force behind great swathes of central St. Petersburg, particularly the city's grand formal squares, with their Empire-style columned facades and trademark yellow-and-white plasterwork. His most famous buildings include the General Staff Building on Palace Square, the Alexandrinsky Theatre , the Senate and Synod Building , and the Mikhailovsky Palace (the State Russian Museum ). In the "Golden Triangle" of St. Petersburg's historic centre, moreover, it's hard to take more than a few steps without finding more of Rossi's work.

Optimal: Our walking tour of Rossi's most famous buildings takes around 2.5 hours.

Minimum: You'll see Rossi's work when you visit the Hermitage, the State Russian Museum, the Bronze Horseman, and just about anywhere you walk in central St. Petersburg.

Kunstkammer (Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology)

The city's oldest museum, the Kunstkammer was founded in 1718 by Peter the Great himself, and is primarily of interest as a monument to the remarkable endeavours and enthusiasms of St. Petersburg's extraordinary founder. Housed in an elegant baroque building on Vasilevskiy Island, the museum has a rather pedestrian collection of ethnographic exhibits, and most visitors are drawn rather to Peter's own fascination, the huge number of deformed fetuses preserved in jars and other freaks of nature. Slightly less sensational but also of interest are the displays devoted to the great Russian polymath Mikhail Lomonosov.

A visit to the Kunstkammer will take around 1.5 hours.

Ploshchad Pobedy and Moskovsky Prospekt

St. Petersburg's historic centre is renowned for having undergone little architectural change during the 20th century. In fact, the Soviet authorities were inclined to abandon the centre, redolent of the imperial past, and develop a new city to the south, along Moskovsky Prospekt . Most visitors only see this part of town on their way to and from Pulkovo Airport, but its worth exploring for several fantastic examples of Stalin-era architecture, including the monumental House of Soviets , as well as the memorials to the Great Patriotic War in Park Pobedy ("Victory Park") and on Ploshchad Pobedy ("Victory Square"). The latter is home to a magnificent panoramic monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad , which has a museum detailing the defense of the city beneath it.

Optimal: It is worth spending a couple of hours exploring Moskovsky Prospekt southwards from Park Pobedy Metro Station, as well as taking a tour of the museum beneath the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad.

Minimum: If you're short of time, there's not reason to make an extra trip out to Moskovsky Prospekt as you'll be able to see the highlights on the way to/from the airport.

Mikhailovsky Theatre

While there's no questioning the Mariinsky Theatre's position as St. Petersburg's leading venue for opera and ballet performances, it is worth paying attention to this second historic theatre on Ploshchad Iskusstv, not only because of the last decade's largely successful financial and artistic renaissance, which has seen the Mikhailovsky engage top foreign talent and gain an international reputation, but also because it can often be a more affordable and accessible way to see ballet in St. Petersburg. This is especially true when tickets at the Mariinsky are scarce during the White Nights Festival.

Ballet enthusiasts should definitely consider taking in a show at the Mikhailovsky as an addition to, rather than a replacement for, performances at the Mariinsky.

Yelagin Island

Accessible from the city centre in around 20 minutes by metro, Yelagin Island (also known by its Soviet-era name as the "Kirov Central Park of Culture and Leisure") rarely finds a place on tourist itineraries. It really should be more popular, however, offering not only a (comparatively) small but very elegant Imperial palace by Carlo Rossi, but also attractive parkland, a boating lake in summer and outdoor skating in winter, and the surprisingly avant-garde wonders of the Museum of Glass Art . The lack of cars on the island and the small entrance fee make it a secluded a tranquil spot, and its probably the best of the green spaces within the city if you're looking for somewhere to enjoy a relaxing walk.

Yelagin is a great place to while away a summer afternoon, and also has a fairly active calendar of cultural events in the warmer months, including a couple of music festivals.

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