About St.Petersburg

Location:

Eastern Europe, the Eastern shore of the

Baltic Sea (Gulf of Finland)

St. Petersburg is the largest northern

city in the world.

The distance from St. Petersburg to:

Helsinki – 320 km

Stockholm – 1,520 km

London – 2,200 km

New York – 8,300km

Population:

4 million 568 thousand

(as of January 2008)

Area:

1400 square kilometers

Time Zone:

GMT +3

City’s Founder and origin of the name:

The city was founded on May 27 (May 16 old style), 1703 by Russian Emperor Peter the Great.

St. Petersburg is named in honor of St. Peter, who is one of the holy patrons of the city. “St. Petersburg” in Dutch means "The City of St. Peter".

The U.S. city St. Petersburg, Florida was named in honor of St. Petersburg, Russia by Russian-born railroad builder Piotr Dementyev (Peter Demens)

Name changes:

May, 1703 - August, 1914 St. Petersburg

August, 1914 - February, 1924 Petrograd

February, 1924 - July, 1991 Leningrad

July, 1991 – Present St. Petersburg

Nicknames:

"The Venice of the North"(referring to St. Petersburg's many rivers and canals)

"The Northern Capital of Russia" (referring to the centuries-old rivalry between St. Petersburg and Moscow)

“The Cultural Capital of Russia” (referring to its numerous museums, theatres, art galleries and exhibition halls)

“The Cradle of the Revolutions” (All Russian revolutions started here)

“The Northern Palmira”

“The Babylon of Snows”

Natural Phenomena:

Floods

White Nights

Symbols:

The Angel carrying a Cross (sculpture on top of St. Peter & St. Paul Cathedral)

The Sailing Ship (the weather-vane on top of the Admiralty building)

The Emblem:

A sea anchor and a river anchor with symbols of royal power, a scepter and a crown, on a red field.

Local Government:

The Governor and the Governor's Office, The Legislative Assembly

Airports:

Pulkovo-2 International Airport

Pulkovo-1 Domestic Airport

Sea port:

Passenger Port Marine Façade.

St. Petersburg is beautiful at all times of the year, but White Nights give a peculiar charm to the city. Officially, the period of White Nights lasts from June 11 to July 2, but actually you can enjoy this magic time from late May till mid July.

The nature of White Nights is explained by city’s geographical location. St. Petersburg is located on the same latitude as Oslo, Norway, the south of Greenland and the south of Alaska.

Due to such high latitude, the sun does not go under the horizon deep enough for the sky to get dark. Twilights do not exceed 30 to 40 min.

White Nights blur the boundary between day and nigh accentuating St. Petersburg’s beauty. During this natural phenomenon events in the city often take place outdoors, restaurants and cafés work 24 hours, museums have special evening programs. City’s artistic climate also flourishes under St. Petersburg’s iridescent skies. Across the centuries White Nights have been captured in paintings, photographs, literature and movies. It is a vision to experience at least once in a lifetime.

Spb tours | St. Petersburg Rivers and Canals | Petersburg travel | Tour st petersburg | Off-the-beaten Track Attractions of St Petersburg Suburbs

The most popular tourist city for foreigners in Russia is Saint Petersburg. It’s not surprising, because this city, certainly, comes as a center of classic architecture, best monuments and masterpieces from the old times, which are hard to find somewhere else in Russia.

Broad avenues, churches, palaces, museums, many winding canals attract millions of tourists from all over the world all year round. Especially it concerns art and artistic treasures lovers, among which the Hermitage takes one of the main places. This most outstanding museum contains rich art collections of all the ages – Oriental, Near East, Far East, China, India, ancient Greece and Rome, Europe - all collections are fabulous.

Attractions in St.Petersburg include not only art galleries. There are many churches, which are appearing as incredible architectural creations. The most famous is St.Isaac’s Cathedral. Besides that, Holy Trinity Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Kazan Cathedral, Prince Vladimir Cathedral and many others.

Sure enough, that St. Petersburg is the cultural capital of Russia and it reflects all the cultural events like no other city. Guests of the city can visit ballet performances at Mariinsky Theatre and many other St Petersburg theatres, that are equally significant in the cultural life of the city and country.

St.Petersburg is located on a moorland area of the delta of Neva river and occupies more than than 100 islands, so bridges are an essential part of the city and its unique architectural style. There are about 500 bridges, which are really architectural and technological masterworks and endowed the city the name of «The Venice of the North».

All over the times St.Petersburg cherishes its rich history and culture in a huge number of museums, palaces, famous buildings, villas, mansions and apartment buildings. All these attractions in St.Petersburg are keeping the mystery of lives of many great and famous writers and artists, political, cultural and private events of the past.

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