Review: LabyrinthUm Museum, St. Petersburg Russia

This Review of LabyrinthUm Museum (ЛабиринтУм) St. Petersburg, Russia is part of a trip report including Vienna and luxury hotels and dining in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia. The LabyrinthUm Museum is an interactive science museum for kids and adults.

Visiting Russia? See all our posts tagged Russia. For the previous posts please see:

Review: Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom

Labstelle Wien Vienna Restaurant Review

Review: Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow

Moscow Metro Tour with Happy Moscow Tours

Review: Four Seasons Moscow

Cafe Khachapuri Moscow Review

Review: Peterhof Fountains and Gardens Near St. Petersburg, Russia

Review: L'Europe Restaurant and Dining at Grand Hotel Europe, St. Petersburg, Russia

Review: Four Seasons St Petersburg, Russia

Review: Four Seasons St. Petersburg Breakfast and Dining

Review of Cat Cafe: Great Georgian Food in St Petersburg, Russia

Getting to LabyrinthUm Museum (ЛабиринтУм) in St. Petersburg, Russia

The LabyrinthUm Museum, or ЛабиринтУм in Russian Cyrillic, is located at Lev Tolstoi Street, 9A (ул. Льва Толстого 9А), about a 6-8 minute walk from Metro Station Petrogradskaya.

LabyrinthUm Museum (ЛабиринтУм) Hours and Ticket Prices

The museum is open 11am-7pm daily, with tickets available until 6pm. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Tickets at the time of this post are 450 rubles per adult or child age 2 and older on weekends, and a reduced price of 400 rubles per adult or child on weekdays.

Highlights of Our Visit to ЛабиринтУм

My son came here with his Russian camp, and loved it so much he wanted to return. Some of the exhibits were based on Leonardo da Vinci's inventions, and recalled our visit to the Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Florence, Italy.

Note that all the exhibit descriptions are only in Russian, but even if you don't understand Russian, this is a fun museum for kids and adults, since everything is interactive and I didn't see any of the younger Russian kids reading the explanations anyway.

1. Mirror Maze

The namesake labyrinth at the museum is a mirror maze, which is truly disorienting the first time through. You're given plastic gloves to put on so that you don't leave finger prints on the mirrors, and asked to proceed slowly (there is a place where a mirror is cracked, from someone going headlong into it). It's not a long maze, but still fun without being scary, the way the completely dark Tactile Dome at the San Francisco Exploratorium can be for some kids.

2. Building Dams and Water Chutes

Yes, this is a simple activity that is probably geared for younger kids, but my 7 year old still had a blast building various water flow designs and dams.

3. Plasma Globes / Domes

This was the first time my son had seen plasma globes (also sometimes called Tesla globes, after their inventor Nikola Tesla), so he was fascinated just by their appearance, let alone the changing flow when he placed his fingers on it. These plasma globes have neon and argon in them, although other noble gases such as xenon and krypton can be used. A high-voltage electrode in the center of the sphere, with the gases, causes plasma filaments to extend to the outer glass, which appears to the viewer as colored beams of light. Touching the surface of the globe causes the energy to flow to the touchpoints, since the human body serves as an energy conductor.

4. Crawling Maze

In addition to the mirror maze, there's also a small crawling maze–a good place for your child to burn off some energy as s/he wriggles in and out of different compartments. Note that shoes must be removed before entering.

5. Giant Bubbles

Giant bubbles of different shapes, including one that can be raised up around your body–get ready to have your kid age 3-7 not wanting to leave for quite awhile 🙂

6. Mirror Room

As at the Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Florence, there was a Mirror Room that enables you to not only see each side of yourself without turning your head, but multiple copies due to the angles of the mirrors.

7. Archimedes' Screw

Although the original was attributed to Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci further improved on the design of Archimedes' Screw, which was used for irrigation and moving water from lower levels to higher ones, for example for decorative fountains.

8. Optical Illusions and Holograms

There were a number of optical illusions throughout the museum, but this deceptively simple “Cafe Wall” illusion was one of my favorites. The lines appear to be sloping, but are in fact parallel.