According to Graduate Abbreviations, Saint Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia. It was founded on May 16, 1703 under Peter I, when, after the victory over the Swedes, he decided to lay the Peter and Paul Fortress on Hare Island. From the 18th century to the early 20th century, Saint Petersburg was the capital of Russia. In 1945, after the Great Patriotic War, he received the title of Hero City. St. Petersburg is located on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, and in the east is Lake Ladoga, because of this, the city is often called the “Venice of the North”. The weather here is special, with its own microclimate, quite humid, summers are warm, and winters are moderately cold. Tourists especially like to come to St. Petersburg in summer, when the period of white nights begins, they last from May 25 to July 16. At this time, the sun drops below the horizon by no more than 9 degrees, and it becomes light at night. The Neva River is the main water artery of St. Petersburg. It stretches within the city for 32 km, on average its width is 600 m, depth is 24 m. Floods often occur in autumn. In 1824, the water rose by 4 meters.
The longest bridge in the city is thrown across the Neva – the Alexander Nevsky Bridge, 909 m long. There are many bridges in the city, the most famous of them is the Palace Bridge. The silhouette of two divorced halves of the bridge, with a thin spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral sparkling in the middle, has long been the hallmark of the city. At the Anichsky Bridge there is a stop for sightseeing boats that will take you along the waterways of the city. Anichkov Bridge is the oldest of the bridges in Saint Petersburg. It is known for the sculptural groups “The Taming of the Horse by Man”, created by the famous sculptor Klodt. These bronze sculptures were installed on the bridge in 1941. In total, there are about 53 rivers in St. Petersburg . The city is located on 47 islands. The largest islands are Vasilyevsky and Petrogradsky. Vasilyevsky Island during the time of Peter I was to become the administrative and cultural center of the city. Two Rostral Columns are installed on its Arrow – giant lighthouses 32 meters high, designed by Thomas de Thomon in 1810. The sculptural images on the lighthouses are reminiscent of Russian naval victories. At the foot of the columns there are monumental statues – symbols of the Russian rivers Volga, Dnieper, Neva and Volkhov, and the columns themselves are decorated with the image of anchors and rostra – the bows of ships made of forged metal. The island also houses the Stock Exchange building, the Central Naval Museum and the Central Museum of Soil Science. Dokuchaev.
Nevsky Prospekt – the central thoroughfare of St. Petersburg, which has a length of 4260 meters and starts from the Admiralty, ending near the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Walking along it, you will see the building of the former merchant bank, where Aeroflot is now located, house number 18, where A.S. Pushkin shortly before the duel, the building of the Dutch Church, the Stroganov Palace, the ensemble of the Lutheran Church of St. Peter and Paul, the famous Kazan Cathedral (the burial place of Field Marshal Kutuzov), the Engelhardt House, which houses the Small Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Church of St. Catherine, the Armenian Church, the building of the City Duma crowned with a tower, Gostiny Dvor, the Passage department store, the ensemble of Ostrovsky Square with the building of the Public Library and a monument to Catherine II, the Anichkov Palace, the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace, Vosstaniya Square with the Moscow Railway Station and the Alexander Nevsky Lavra complex.
The most famous and most visited attraction of St. Petersburg is the Winter Palace. It was built according to the project of the architect Rastrelli in 1754-1762 in the Baroque style and was conceived as the winter residence of the Russian emperors. In 1837 there was a fire here and all the interior decoration was destroyed. It was later restored. Now the State Hermitage is located here. The Hermitage was founded in 1764. The Hermitage collection began with a collection of paintings by the merchant Gotzkowski, which he bought in Berlin Prince V.S. Dolgoruky at the request of Catherine. Hermitage means “solitude” in French. And in fact, at first the Empress admired the paintings herself, but already in the 19th century the museum was opened to the general public. In total, the Hermitage occupies 6 buildings along the Neva embankment. Here is the largest collection of ancient monuments and the world’s largest collection of Scythian-Sarmatian antiquities (“Scythian gold”). The main facade overlooks the Palace Square. Palace Square – the main square of St. Petersburg. In honor of the victory over Napoleon in the war of 1812, the Alexander Column or “Pillar of Alexandria” was erected in the center of Palace Square. The column reaches 47 meters in height – it is the highest monument of its kind in the world. It is crowned with the figure of an angel with the face of Emperor Alexander I. The column weighs 600 tons. It is not dug into the ground and is not fixed on the foundation, but is kept solely due to accurate calculation and its own weight.
The oldest building in St. Petersburg is the Peter and Paul Fortress, it was with its construction that the life of the city began. The fortress was supposed to protect the banks of the Neva from the attacks of the Swedes. Until now, the bell tower with a gilded spire, a cross and a figure of an angel is a symbol of St. Petersburg. Previously, the fortress was the tomb of Russian tsars and members of the royal family, later it became a prison for political criminals, and in 1924 – a museum. Every day from the Naryshkinsky bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress at 12 o’clock a “messenger” cannon is fired.
St. Petersburg is extraordinarily beautiful in architectural terms. Very interesting St. Isaac’s Cathedral. The current cathedral is the fourth building that was built in the middle of the 19th century according to the project of the architect Auguste Montferrand. The first building was made of wood, it was ordered to be built by Peter I in honor of his patron saint Isaac of Dalmatia. The height of St. Isaac’s Cathedral is 102 m, it is lined with gray marble and decorated with 48 red granite columns, the diameter of its golden dome is 22 m. Artists K.P. Bryullov, F.A. Bruni, V.K. Shebuev and others
Church of the Savior on Blood, also known as the Temple of the Ascension of Christ, was erected on the site of the assassination of Alexander III. Then, on March 1, 1881, by the verdict of the secret terrorist organization Narodnaya Volya, he was killed by an explosion of a thrown bomb. This is a nine-domed single-altar temple. Its inside is covered with mosaics, and outside, under the bell tower, at the site of the mortal wound of the emperor, rises the “Crucifixion with the Coming Ones” with a cross made of marble and granite.
Be sure to visit the Menshikov Palace, which is located on the University Embankment of St. Petersburg. Its construction began in 1710. At that time it was the most luxurious building in St. Petersburg in the Baroque style, because it was built for the favorite of Peter I. Foreign ambassadors were received here, so the palace was often called the Embassy House. Now a branch of the State Hermitage Museum has been opened here, where many unique objects of applied art, clocks of that time, samples of weapons, astronomical instruments and a collection of paintings, among which there are especially many works by outstanding Dutch masters, are exhibited. The favorite room of Prince Menshikov himself was the Walnut Study, the decoration of which was made of rare varieties of wood with applications of bronze and tortoiseshell.
