The northen capital - Saint-Petersburg

Do you know that the longest escalator is situated in the Saint-Petersburg underground? The city on the Neva, sung by a lot of poets and immortalized by famous artists, attracts tourists not only by its numerous museums, but by the glamour of the White Nights. Saint-Petersburg competes with the dynamically developing Moscow as the city engrossed in dreams, an exquisite city. Today it is the second largest city of Russia, a centre of culture and arts, the “tourist capital” of the country. As the native city of the current president, Saint-Petersburg is acquiring a new political image.

In comparison with other large cities of Russia and even of the whole world, Saint-Petersburg is a young city, which literally grew up from under the ground by order of Peter the Great. On May 27(May 16 Old Style) 1703, Peter the Great founded the new fortress Saint-Petersburg. The fortress became the centre of the city, and later, the last resting place of Peter the Great. Today it is called the Peter and Paul Fortress, and its original name has been given to the city that has been developing under the protection of its fortified walls, on the numerous islands in the delta of the Neva River for more than 300 years.

A great number of foreign architects, engineers, and artists came to Saint-Petersburg to realize the dream of Peter the Great about a European city. Side by side with the leading architects from Western Europe, here, on the banks of the Neva, a lot of Russian architects worked and created splendid architectural monuments: the Stock Exchange, the Admiralty, the Academy of Sciences, the Winter Palace, the Smolny Convent, St. Isaac’s Cathedral and many others. From 1712 to 1918, Saint-Petersburg was the capital of Russia, the residence of all Russian tsars; and only after 100 years from the foundation, it became a European city. Saint-Petersburg has been renamed three times: at the beginning of the First World War the city received the name of Petrograd, after the death of Lenin in 1924, the city was renamed Leningrad. In 1991, after the referendum, the revival of its original name ensued. In Russia, Saint-Petersburg is a “European oasis”, which has its own image.

Saint-Petersburg has been preserving this image for 300 years of its existence in spite of the Revolution, the Civil War, and the 900 days of the Siege during the Second World War. Come to this city and try to see in person what was sung by poets and immortalized by famous artists