Russia

This gigantic Neoclassical cathedral was built 1818-58 under the direction of Tsar Alexander I.

The New Maiden's Convent was founded in 1524 by Tsar Vasily III to commemorate the capture of Smolensk from Lithuania.

Danilov was founded in the late 13th century by Prince Daniil Aleksandrovich and restored by Ivan the Terrible in 1560.

New Jerusalem Monastery is located on the river Istra outside Moscow. It was founded in 1656 by Patriarch Nikon, who patterned it after Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The world's largest freestanding monument, the Alexander Column was erected in front of the Winter Palace in 1834 in honor of Tsar Alexander I.

The small town of Ivolginsk in East Siberia is home to Russia's most important Buddhist monastery and a miracle - the body of the last Khambo Lama, who died in 1927, remains upright and undecayed toda

Located on the frontiers of northern Russia, Solovki is home to a 15th-century walled monastery, a 20th-century Soviet prison camp, and mysterious ancient labyrinths.

Housed in the former palaces of Russian emperors in St. Petersburg, the State Hermitage Museum is a huge complex containing several palaces and more than three million works of art.

Founded in 1710 by Peter the Great to house the relics of the military hero-saint Prince Alexander of Novgorod, this is one of only four Russian monasteries to be given the highest rank of lavra.