This exhibition marks the 800th birth anniversary of Alexander Yaroslavich, Prince of Novgorod and Pskov, Grand Prince of Vladimir, hero of the Battle of the Neva and the Battle on the Ice, a talented commander and diplomat.

Locally recognised as a saint in 1361, he went on to be officially canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547. Alexander Nevsky is venerated as a defender of Russia and prayer for the Russian land. The exhibition features around 150 works of art dating back to the thirteenth – twentieth centuries from the State Hermitage Museum. Most of them are associated with the imperial period of Alexander Nevsky’s veneration, when he was made patron saint of St Petersburg during Peter the Great’s reign. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a silver reliquary commissioned by Elizabeth Petrovna. Also on display are rare artefacts from the lifetime of Alexander Nevsky himself as well as Soviet and modern objects.