St. Petersburg is the northernmost of the world’s greatest cities. It lies at 60° north and 30° east. The city covers over 600 km2, or 1439 km2, including the suburbs.

The St. Petersburg fortress was founded on Zayachij Island (the Island of Hares) in the mouth of the Neva upon the decree of Peter the Great on May 27, 1703.

The fortress where Peter and Paul Cathedral was erected was later named Peter and Paul Fortress. Domenico Trezzini supervised the construction works. Peter the Great wanted to have not only a convenient harbor, but also a new city & the new capital of Russia, that would be an equal of European capitals in its beauty and importance. By decree of Peter the Great, every year bricklayers, carpenters, joiners, tailors and merchants came to St. Petersburg with their families to settle and the first dwelling houses were built. On Berezovy Island (Birch Island) a small pine-log cabin was built for Peter the Great. The tsar’s house was the first in the city. This cabin is the only wooden building that has survived in St. Petersburg from the city’s foundation to the present day.

The first buildings were put up near Peter and Paul Fortress. The layout was very typical of Old Russia, with its crooked streets and separated subdivisions. However, this pattern didn’t last long. When St. Petersburg became the capital of Russia in 1712, the principles of regular layout were enforced in further works of construction for the first time. In 1716, Domenico Trezzini developed the project of the city center on St. Basil’s Island, which was supposed to be divided by a grid of canals into rectangular blocks. Although this project was never realized it became the basis of the rigid geometrical layout, which is so characteristic of this part of St. Petersburg. French architect J. B. Le Blonde developed the brilliant project of St. Petersburg’s layout. The stone buildings built according to this project still constitute the architectural base of many old districts in St. Petersburg

Changes in economics and politics led to the dynamic development of science, art and education and St. Petersburg quickly became the leading scientific and educational center of Russia.

In the second part of the 18th century, during the reign of Catherine the 2nd, the granite embankments of the Neva and the Fontanka rivers were created and stone bridges built. At the same time the Hermitage, one of the world’s largest museums, was founded. Architects Yu. M. Velten, A. Rinaldi, A. F. Kokorinov and J. Quarenghi

The Bronze Horseman, a monument to the founder of the city, Peter the Great, was erected as well.

Extensive reconstruction works were carried out in the beginning of the 19th century. The concept of building ensembles showed in the work of the great masters of high classicism: A. N. Voronikhin, A. D. Zakharov, and J. Thomas de Thomon, and became most prominent in the Empire style. The work of C. I. Rossi served as the finishing touch to the center of the city with monumental buildings such as the General Headquarters, the Senate and the Synod buildings, as well as the Alexandrine Theatre and Mikhaylovsky Palace, all of which appeared in the central squares.

In 1904-1905 the war between Russia and Japan broke out. The defeat in this war and the hardships of the World War I that followed only hastened the revolution. In March 1917 In October 1917 the revolution, headed by the Bolshevik party, led to the change in the Russian political system.

June 22, 1941, a tragic date for the Russian citizens, was the first day of the Great Patriotic War. In the war, Leningrad lost not only a great number of its citizens, but also some of its cultural heritage.

In 1991, during the time of the democratic change in Russia, the city got its old name, St. Petersburg, back.

The city landscape developed gradually as the architectural trends and concepts of city layout changed. However, St. Petersburg has a marvelous and unique artistic unity of the stern harmony of its monumental buildings and solemn grand ensembles in the historic center with its granite embankments, and bridges hanging above its rivers and canals.

Come and learn the history of St. Petersburg, see the White Nights of the mysterious «Northern Venice» and the spires of the Admiralty and Peter and Paul Fortress, shining in the dusk…