St. Petersburg – Russia’s Window to the West

Saint Petersburg, Russia, is a world class destination as well as Russia’s second largest city having a population of over 5 million and is located at the eastern tip of the Baltic Sea and the Neva River. Saint Petersburg was founded by Tsar Peter The Great on 27th May 1702 and was the imperial capital of Russia between 1713-1728 and 1732-1918.

Towards 1918, the central government bodies shifted from Saint Petersburg which was then named Petrograd, to Moscow. It is a major European cultural centre as well as an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea and is one of the most amazing places on earth.

St. Petersburg has been called Russia’s window to the West featuring canals and neoclassical architectural that were designed by Italians giving the city a European look lending a European feeling with modern art galleries together with underground clubs making the city a spectacle at night. The city was formerly known as Petrograd and later known as Leningrad.

The city is threaded with canals dotted with baroque bridges which adds to the attraction and is considered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Hermitage Museum which is housed in the Winter Palace of the Romanov dynasty is one of the world’s greatest as well as the oldest collections of treasure, art and antiquities and also one of its most amazing buildings.

Exciting and Rich History 

Though Saint Petersburg is just 300 years old, it has an exciting and rich history which is full of major historical figures and dramatic events and is described as the most western city of Russia and its cultural capital. The city enjoys a vibrant, cosmopolitan atmosphere together with some beautiful architecture in Europe.

It is also home to The Hermitage one of the largest art museums in the world. Besides this, a large number of foreign consulates, banks, international corporations, together with other businesses are also located in St. Petersburg.

It is a fascinating and a beautiful destination for holiday, intriguing and historically significant cities in Europe and can be visited during a snowy Russian winter or during the dazzling White Nights of the summer months, where St. Petersburg’s beauty and culture is breath-taking. St. Petersburg has often been a city of ideas inciting the Russian Revolution, ushering in seventy years of communist rule. It was St. Petersburg that encouraged democracy and brought about immense changes.

Satellite Town – Horseshoe Shape

Greater St. Petersburg city with its satellite towns forms a horseshoe shape surrounding the head of the Gulf of Finland, including the island of Kotlin in the gulf. Towards the north it stretches westward along the shore for around fifty miles which is an extension of an area of dormitory towns, sanatoriums, resorts and children’s camps which have been set amidst extensive coniferous forest, accompanied by beaches and sand dunes.

Some of the upper class residents have summer cottages or dachas around this area and towards the southern side of the gulf, the metropolitan limits give way westward to include Peterhof and Lomonosov and eastward it stretches up to the Neva River to Ivanovskoye.