St. Petersburg, Russia
St.Petersburg is the northern largest city of the world, famous for its exquisite beauty, impeccable style and strict harmony! Everyone who once visited this magnificent city is left impressed with its magic image!
According to UNESKO St.Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities of the world and it is listed among the 6 most attractive tourist destinations of the world!
Its culture is extremely rich and its history is tragic and filled with dramatic events, despite the city is comparatively young - it is going to grandiosely celebrate its 300 anniversary in 2003!
The city was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great as the “Window on the West” to face Europe on the Gulf of Finland - the bay of the Baltic Sea.
A strictly planned city whose elegance is reminiscent of Europe’s most alluring capitals was built on the swampy lands on more than one hundred islands in the Delta of the Neva River linked by numerous canals and rivers spanned with arched artistically decorated bridges.
It was first called “Venice of the North” by Goethe for its endless rivers and canals, but St.Petersburg has a uniquely northern appeal. And its elegant granite embankments are reminiscent of those of Paris.
It was constructed forcibly, stone by stone, under Peter the Great’s power and control for whose patron saint the city was named. The best architects were brought from Western Europe by Peter the Great to design and lay out the city in its harmonious squares. Buildings were constructed of gray, light green and rose-colored granite to make it harmonious and classically fit the quiet and calmly appealing beauty of North nature.
St.Petersburg - with its strict geometric lines and perfectly planned architectural ensembles is almost too European to be Russian. And yet it is too Russian to be European! A powerful combination of both West and East makes it unique and the most attractive among other Russian cities!
During the 18th century St.Petersburg was transferred into an Imperial city of the unique architectural ensembles and dazzling palaces. An outstanding example of Russian Baroque is the Winter Palace created by the great Italian architect Rastrelli.
There can be no better reason for coming to St.Petersburg than to visit the Hermitage - the second (after Louvre) largest museum in the world! The Hermitage is included in the Guiness Book of Records for its richest collections of world masterpieces!
St.Petersburg’s Imperial palaces sparkling on the embankments maintain the city’s regal bearing, especially in the cold light of the Russian winter.
In the long days of summer the colorful facades of its riverside estates glow gently, in harmony with the dark blue of the Neva's waters.
Between June and July, when the city falls under the spell of the White Nights, the fleeting twilight imbues the streets and canals with an even more delicate charm!
No one can stand indifferent while strolling along the gorgeous elegant embankments of the Neva River and its tributaries. On the Strelka (the spit or arrow of St.Basil’s Island) there is a dazzling view of both the Winter Palace and the Peter and Paul Fortress that reveals the city’s triumphant rise from a watering outpost to an elegant metropolis.
The brightly colored houses lining the embankment seem like children’s toys - the building blocks of a bygone aristocracy. Gazing at this architectural wonder you begin to understand the scope of Peter’s the Great vision for his country. From that spot you see clearly how careful the city’s founders were to build their city around and with the Neva River. Its natural ebb and flow accords perfectly with the monumental architecture lining its course!
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St.Isaak’s Cathedral
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St.Petersburg with its numerous palaces and cathedrals, parks and gardens, theaters and museums, government and administrative buildings were the capital of the Russian Empire for over two hundred years and under its rulers grew rapidly in wealth and beauty.
The former Czarist capital of Russia has gone through tremendous changes, its name has been changed three times during its brief history: St.Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad - St.Petersburg! But for all the controversy surrounding its name, many residents have always referred to the city simply - and affectionately - as Peter.
Modern St.Petersburg is home to 5 million people and thus one of the largest cities in Europe. There are more than 539 (!) artistically decorated bridges, about 60 rivers and canals lined with magnificent granite embankments, it is one of the biggest European industrial, educational and cultural center - the city is home to about 50 (!) Universities, numerous theatres and museums, endless art galleries, historic buildings, libraries and scientific Institutions!
Its reputation as the Russia's cultural capital is well deserved. St.Petersburg hosts various international music and cultural festivals all over the year, its rich musical heritage is on show all over the city, with classical and jazz festivals and concerts, recitals, and a multitude of other musical programs given daily.
It was a home city for many Russian classical composers and writers who being inspired with the remarkable beauty of the city created here and then went further to conque the world with their wonderful music and literature. Among them there were such outstanding composers as Tchaikovsky, Rakhmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rubinstien, Prokofiev, Glinka, Shostakovich and such famous writers as Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Gofol!
But it is world's best ballet heritage that the city is most famous for: it was in St.Petersburg that Petipa invented the ballet - the most aristocraticof all dance forms!
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The Mariinsky Theatre
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The Mariinsky (Kirov) Theatre - Opera and Ballet House has produced the world’s best dancers, admist them there were Anna Pavlova, Nijinsky, Ulanova, Nureyev and Barishnikov!
St.Petersburg can fairly be called a city of the symphony of marble, malachite and gold. Today it remains an Imperial city of golden spires and gilded domes, of pastel palaces and candlelit cathedrals, the city whose treasures and pleasures beckon.
It is an important sea port, a city of bridges, space, sky and water! Its beauty is striking and its harmony is unforgettable. You should feel its special spirit yourself!
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