Where Paris was filmed in Soviet & Russian cinema

St. Petersburg

In Russia’s ‘Northern Capital’, you can find neighborhoods that could easily pass for Rome, London or even Paris.

For example, the palace of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich (now the House of Scientists) served as the perfect setting for the home of banker Danglar in ‘The Prisoner of the Chateau d'If’. Monte Cristo himself "lived" in the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo.

And one of the buildings in the local park became the Danglars' family estate in Auteuil, which the avenger acquires.

Meanwhile, another imperial palace, Peterhof, was transformed into the Louvre in the movie ‘The Three Musketeers’ (2013), while Parisian streets were found in the ancient towns of Vyborg and Gatchina.

The treacherous Cardinal Richelieu resided in the Gothic dining room of Baron Kelch's mansion. It also served as the hall of the Parisian mansion of Monsieur André Perrault, a high-ranking Freemason and custodian of the protagonist’s inheritance in the movie ‘The Golden Section’. To add extra glamor, the room was decorated with a “Picasso” painting.

It seems that St. Petersburg is the perfect setting for Dumas' novels. After all, ‘The Three Musketeers: Twenty Years Later’ was also filmed there. The interiors of the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace served as the Palais-Royal. Other scenes were shot in Peterhof Palace, the Fountain House and the Orangery of the Tauride Garden.

Moscow

The Eiffel Tower in the middle of a village? Why not? A good half of the adventure movie ‘The Crown of the Russian Empire, or Once Again the Elusive Avengers’ takes place in Paris. The movie's protagonists travel there to return a stolen Romanov relic to its homeland. The scenes set in the French capital were originally planned to be filmed in central Moscow, but city officials refused permission. The movie crew then found a compromise: they shot the scenes set on the Eiffel Tower on the city outskirts. The tower was built in the village of Gladyshevo, which had only recently become part of the city. Although the wooden structure wobbled menacingly, the filming went without any incidents.

In the TV series ‘The Eighties’, a café in Montmartre was also found in the Russian capital. The protagonist goes there to talk things out with Inga, with whom he has long been in love.