St. Petersburg

However he had the audacity, vision, or sheer megalomania to do it, the Tsar Peter the Great created a city that pushed all boundaries, denied all norms, and overcame all obstacles when he created St. Petersburg 300 years ago. In his famous poem, “The Bronze Horseman,” Pushkin describes Peter, in creating St. Petersburg, as a builder of miracles. At 60°N, it is the northernmost megapolis city in the world, yet its historic center has the grandeur of the Mediterranean. With its beautiful honey-colored buildings along marsh-draining canals, St. Petersburg is sometimes called the "Venice of the North". But being this far north gives it a quality all its own. Come here in mid-summer and you are treated to the legendary 'White Nights,' when daylight never quite disappears and even midnight is filled with an orange glow that allows residents to revel almost 24 hours a day. Come here in mid-winter, however, and you will see the city transformed into a magical wonderland of ice and snow, with buildings that become larger-than-life wedding cakes and rivers so solid you can walk across them.

The center of St. Petersburg is an open-air museum with its array of 18th and 19th century palaces and mansions, culminating in the extraordinary Winter Palace. It houses the famous Hermitage, the world's greatest art gallery next to the Neva River. But the city was always much more than the architectural dream of a tsar. It became home to Russia's greatest artists, was the birthplace of the Russian ballet, and there is not a city in the world where you can walk past the homes of so many great literary and artistic figures in such a small area. Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, and many more lived within just a few minutes walk of each other. One of the great pleasures of a visit to the city, for anyone remotely interested in literature, is to wander around Pushkin's beautiful flat alongside the Moyka canal.

The one must-see site in St. Petersburg is Catherine the Great's Winter Palace with the adjoining Hermitage Art Gallery, but this city holds a plethora of sites that will take your breath away just as easily. There is the gloriously extravagant Church of the Spilled Blood, with its colorful onion domes, or the vast gold-domed St. Isaac's Cathedral. Or you could visit the Russian Art Gallery, with its stunning paintings by Repin and Levitan. If you are in the city during the summer, you can cruise the canals and take a boat trip to Petrodvorets to see the symphony of fountains at Peter's summer palace.

Follow this link to view our Cruises to St Petersburg, Russia.

First Name *
Last Name *
Email address *
Phone*	-- Example: +1(555)1234567
Your home country *
Message *

St. Petersburg

Travelers Talk