UK callers, you can call us for 10p per minute on: +08 71 722 11 87
Local call rates in your country: (09) 2316 5332 Finland 08-559 26 228 Sweden 36 98 77 91 Denmark (02) 8005-7161 Australia (04) 889 2448 New Zealand (22) 548-33-65 Switzerland
Saint Petersburg is located in northwestern Russia, on the river Neva, on the Baltic Sea. Formerly known over the last century as Petrograd and then Leningrad, it has kept its present and original name since 1991.
Saint Petersburg was founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703, and would remain the capital of Russia for over two centuries, until the capital was moved to Moscow in 1917. Inspired by Venice and Amsterdam, Peter the Great had envisioned a city of canals where the main means of transport was by boat. It was also meant as a base for the navy, and indeed, the very first person to construct a home here was the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Cornelis Cruys.
During the 18th and 19th Centuries, the rich and royal ordered many construction jobs in Saint Petersburg, and most of these palaces are still standing. Eventually, when Alexander II freed the serfs in 1861, large numbers of poor people suddenly flooded into the city. As an indirect result of this, Saint Petersburg became one of the biggest industrial centres in Europe by the end of the 19th Century.
The Revolution of 1905 started right here in Saint Petersburg, and in 1917 the city brought about the Russian Revolution, which led to the Russian Civil War. Soon thereafter, the movement of the government’s seat to Moscow resulted in a reversal of the aforemented influx of the last part of the 19th Century. The city, now known as Petrograd, wound up losing a third of its population by 1920.
During the World War II era, Saint Petersburg was called Leningrad, and the famed Siege of Leningrad lasted from September 1941 to January 27 1944, and some 800,000 of the 3,000,000 people living here at the time are thought to have been killed. It’s said that Stalin delayed the breaking of the siege and purposely muddled attempts to evacuate, intending to allow its intelligentsia to be taken by the Germans.
With a population of over five million, Saint Petersburg is nowadays the second-largest city in Russia, and the third-largest in all of Europe, making it a primary center of European culture and business. It’s also the primary Russian port on the Baltic. In terms of size, Saint Petersburg is twice as big as NYC and over twelve times the size of Paris.
What’s more, this city looks absolutely stunning, due to its architectural layout featuring lengthy straight-arrow boulevards, large open spaces, plenty of natural green areas, along with some of the world’s most impressive monuments and sculptures. The Neva River provides lots of canals, embankments and bridges to the local terrain, and these resulted in Saint Petersburg earning its reputation as the Venice of the North.
Some of the highlights
The historical centre of Saint Petersburg, which can be said to resemble an outdoor museum of Neo-Classicism, was the first Russian patrimony to be added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Saint Petersburg is the City of Palaces, the oldest of which is the Summer Palace, which dates back to 1714. You can also visit the impressive Kikin Hall and Menshikov Palace on the Neva Embankment, both of which were completed in 1716. The Baroque Winter Palace is gigantic and features amazingly fancy interiors, as does the Stroganov Palace (now home to a wax museum) and the Vorontsov Palace. Among many other highlights, there’s also the Tauride Palace of Prince Potemkin, the Marble Palace, The Michael Palace which now houses the Russian Museum, the Yusupov Palace where Rasputin was killed, the Razumovsky Palace, the Shuvalov Palace and the Yelagin Palace, a gorgeous summer holiday spot for the imperial family, out on Yelagin Island.
Saint Petersburg’s biggest church is St. Isaac's Cathedral, actually one of the largest domed buildings in the world. Another wondeful example is Kazan Cathedral, which is patterned after St. Peter’s at the Vatican. The Peter and Paul Cathedral contains the sepulchers of Peter the Great and other Russian emperors. Besides these main sites, which now function primarily as museums, there are quite a few other churches, some of which include the Naval Cathedral of St. Nicholas, which is covered with dedications to sailors lost at sea, and St. Vladimir's Cathedral, St. Catherine’s Church on Vasilievsky Island, and the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, which also includes the Tikhvin Cemetery, where many famous Russians are buried.
Without a doubt, the most renowned of Saint Petersburg’s museums is the Hermitage, but there’s also the Stieglitz Museum of Applied Arts, the Ethnography Museum, the Suvorov Museum of Military History and the Political History Museum. What’s more, some of Saint Petersburg’s shops and storehouses are tourist attractions themselves. These include the monumental New Holland Arch, the Merchant Court designed by Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe, housing the largest outdoor market on earth, the Circular Market and the Passage, a wonderful covered arcade from the 19th Century.
The equestrian statue of Peter the Great which has stood on Senate Square since 1782, is considered the greatest masterpiece by the French artist Etienne Maurice Falconet, and Palace Square boasts the Alexander Column, the tallest of its kind in the world. The Russian victory over Napoleon was memorialized by the Narva Triumphal Gate, and the victory in the Russo-Turkish War of 1829 is symbolized by the Moscow Triumphal Gates.
Express Booking Form
About us
Tell your friends about us
+08 71 722 11 87