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About the city
The city of St. Petersburg is relatively young according to European and Russian standards. Founded in 1703 it will celebrate only 300th anniversary in year 2003. Though the city is rather young it has rich and fascinating history. Since the days of Peter I's "Paradise" and "North Venice" till nowadays St. Petersburg has been living an interesting life.
Since its birth Petersburg was the city of myths and mystery. You can hardly find such a young city wrapped in exciting stories, astonishing myths and mysterious legends. The unique history of the city is not only reflected in numerous rumors and still alive in destiny of people gazing through time from old portraits. The whole sophisticated development of St. Petersburg is materialized in its palaces and temples, park ensembles, street labyrinths and multistoried houses.
Like any other large city St. Petersburg will tell his stories to every attentive and interested observer. Outstanding personalities of culture and history - military leaders, courtiers, tsars and princes, artists and poets, writers and travelers lived and walked here. Come here to adore this "North Venice" of Peter the Great and his magnificent daughter Elizabeth; the city made the Russian Empire great power; where Lomonosov, Derzhavin, Pushkin, Gogol and Dostoevsky wrote their masterpieces. Come to get to know the history of St. Petersburg, White Nights of mysterious North Palmira and to see the spires of the Admiralty and Peter and Paul Fortress.
THE STATE RUSSIAN MUSEUM
The State Russian Museum is the world's largest museum of Russian art. It is located in the very center of St Petersburg, just of the city's central magisterial, Nevsky Prospekt. The museum is housed in the former Mikhailovsky Palace, a stunning monument of Empire architecture.
The collection of the Russian Museum numbers some 400,000 works and covers the entire history of Russian fine art from the tenth century to the present day. It reflects virtually every form and genre of art in Russia, including a unique collection of Old Russian icons, works of painting, graphic art and sculpture, decorative and applied art, folk art and numismatics, as well as the world's finest collection of Russian avaunt-garde.
HERMITAGE
The State Hermitage occupies six magnificent buildings situated along the embankment of the River Neva, right in the heart of St Petersburg. The leading role in this unique architectural ensemble is played by the Winter Palace, the residence of the Russian tsars that was built to the design of Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1754-62. This ensemble, formed in the 18th and 19th centuries, is extended by the eastern wing of the General Staff building, the Menshikov Palace and the recently constructed Repository.
Put together throughout two centuries and a half, the Hermitage collections of works of art (over 3,000,000 items) present the development of the world culture and art from the Stone Age to the 20th century. Today the Museum is creating its digital self-portrait to be displayed around the world.
ST. ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL
The weighty mass of St.Isaac's Cathedral dominates the skyline of St.Petersburg. Its gilded dome, covered with 100 kg of pure gold, soars over 100 meters into the air, making it visible far out onto the Gulf of Finland. It is now the third biggest Cathedral in the world.
St.Isaac was the patron saint of the Romanov family. The present version of St.Isaac's, the fourth, was constructed from 1818 to 1858. The original St.Isaac's, a small wooden church, was located near the Admiralty. Peter I and Catherine I were married here in 1712. Soon afterwards it was agreed that the decrepit structure did not suit the emerging grandeur of the capital and in 1717 a stone of St.Isaac's was built on the spot now occupied by the Bronze Horseman. Then in the 1760s Catherine II decided she wanted a huge marble St.Isaac's, and construction began on the third version in 1768. This dragged on until it was hastily completed in 1802, but the result was different from the original plan and was neither pretty nor well built. When rotten ceiling plaster fell from high on an Easter service in 1816, Alexander I decided to get the St.Isaac's business finished once and for all.
By the time the cathedral was completed in 1858, its cost had spiraled to more than twenty million rubles — as well as the lives of hundreds of laborers.
Mosaic paintings and icons, ornate marble slabs, as well as columns decorated with malachite and lapis-lazuli dazzle the eye inside the cathedral. St.Isaac's was closed in early 1930s and later turned into a museum. Nowadays, church services are held on major occasions only.
PETER AND PAUL FORTRESS
When Peter the Great re-conquered the lands along the Neva River in 1703, he decided to build a fort to protect the area from possible attack by the Swedish army and navy. The fortress was founded on a small island in the Neva delta on May 27, 1703 (May 16 according to the old calendar) and that day became the birthday of the city of St Petersburg. The Swedes were defeated before the fortress was even completed. For that reason, from 1721 the fortress housed part of the city's garrison and rather notoriously served as a high security political jail. Among the first inmates was Peter's own rebellious son Alexei. Later, the list of famous residents included Dostoyevsky, Gorkiy, Trotsky and Lenin's older brother, Alexander. Parts of the former jail are now open to the public...
In the middle of the fortress there is the Peter and Paul Cathedral, a church where all the Russian Emperors and Empresses from Peter the Great to Alexander III are buried. The Cathedral was the first church in the city to be built of stone (in 1712-33). The design of the cathedral is most unusual for a Russian Orthodox church (come over to St Petersburg and you will learn why).
On top of the gilded spire is an angel holding a cross. This weather-vane is one of the most prominent symbols of St Petersburg. At 404 feet the cathedral is the highest building in the city.
Other buildings in the fortress house the City History Museum and the Mint, one of the two places in Russia where coins and medals are minted.
ALEXANDER NEVSKY LAVRA
The oldest monastery in St. Petersburg was founded in 1710 by Peter the Great. The cemetery of the monastery was intended as a burial place for members of the royal family, nobility, prominent statesmen and other outstanding personalities. The first to find peace at the Lavra`s St Lazarus Cemetery in 1717 was Peter`s beloved sister Natalya. Actually, her body was not buried for many months because Peter stayed abroad at the time and ordered to wait until he was back to Russia. The XVIII century Necropolis still keeps magnificent tombstones and monuments of marble, bronze and granite erected to commemorate people who made the history of Russia. The Tyhvinskoye cemetery of the monastery was turned into Necropolis of people of art. There are graves of world famous composers such as M. Glinka, P. Tchaikovsky, M. Mussorgsky, and N. Rimsky-Korsakov. Besides, the great Russian scientist M. Lomonosov, an outstanding military commander A. Suvorov, the writer Dostoevsky and many other prominent figures are buried in Lavra.
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