St Petersburg
St Petersburg
St Petersburg History
St Petersburg has for centuries been one of Europe's most splendid cities. In recent years the desire to rekindle memories of the elegant and glittering Imperial days of the Tsars has seen palaces, cathedrals, hotels and museums restored to their former splendour.
Peter the Great was a determined man, his mind was firmly set on establishing a new capital at the mouth of the river Neva in the Gulf of Finland and in 1712 his masterpiece was complete. Catherine the Great continued Peter's policy and the foremost architects of Italy and France created a monumental town plan with pastel-coloured palaces. In baroque and neo-classicism they created a city that was an exquisite composition of gilded spires, arches and colonnades. Channels and rivers cut across streets and avenues and they, in turn, were crossed by six hundred bridges - a Venice of the North.
Here in St Petersburg, a shot from the battleship 'Aurora' in 1917 signalled the Bolshevik assault on the Winter Palace and with it the revolution that changed the history of the World. The city was then re-named Leningrad.
Now the city has changed its name again, but its soul is the same as it has always been - Nevsky Prospekt, which stretches five majestic kilometres from the Admiralty with its stiletto-sharp spire to the imposing Alexander Nevsky Monastery.