Muzei-kvartira A.A. Bloka (Blok Flat-Museum), St. Petersburg

The last house on Ulitsa Dekabristov, which runs by the Mariinskii Theatre. This is the very house where Blok—the great Russian symbolist poet of the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century—spent the last 9 years of his life. The museum was opened in November of 1980. In flat number 21 you can get a good look at Blok's apartments, his style of life, his personal belongings. Blok's poetry is very mysterious and enigmatic, and his living quarters are no less so. In 1920 Blok moved into his mother's flat which was in the same house on the second floor. Displayed there are a series of photos and illustrations. In his famous speech "About the predestination of the poet" in 1921 Blok said: "Poet dies, but the art stays alive". After a visit here, you may begin to believe that.