2. Saint Petersburg is a city of Russia located on the Neva
River at the head of the Gulf of Finland onthe Baltic Sea. In 1914
the name of the city was changed to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad
and in1991 back to Saint Petersburg. Saint Petersburg was founded
by the Tsar Peter the Great on May 27,1703. From 1713 to 1728 and
from 1732 to 1918, Saint Petersburg was the Imperial capital of
Russia.In 1918 the central government bodies moved from Saint
Petersburg (then named Petrograd) toMoscow. It is Russias
second-largest city after Moscow, with 5 million inhabitants
reached inSeptember 2012. Saint Petersburg is a major European
cultural center, and also an important Russianport on the Baltic
Sea.Saint Petersburg is often described as the most westernized
city of Russia, as well as its culturalcapital.
3. Palace Square connects Nevsky Prospekt with Palace Bridge
leading to Vasilyevsky Island. It waslaid out in 1819-1829 by Carlo
Rossi, a neoclassicist architect of Italian descent. The square has
aprominent place in the history of St. Petersburg. The massacre of
Bloody Sunday on January 22,1905, when Tsarist troops fired on
unarmed strikers sparked the revolution of 1905. It also played
animportant part in the 1917 revolution when a group of Bolshevik
militants stormed the Winter Palacefollowing a shot fired from the
Aurora cruiser. Palace Square buildings: Winter Palace, the
GeneralStaff Building in front of the Winter Palace, the Guards
Corps Headquarters (183743) on theeastern side; the western side
opens towards Admiralty Square
4. Winter Palace andAlexander ColumnWinter Palace was, from
1732 to 1917, the official residence of the Russian monarchs.Today,
the restored palace forms part of the complex of buildings housing
theHermitage Museum.Winter Palace (175462) baroque white-and-azure,
is the earliest and most celebratedbuilding on the square which
gave the squareits name.
5. The General Staff Building (built 1819-1829)is an edifice
with a 580 m long bow-shaped faade,situated in front of the Winter
Palace. It consists oftwo wings, which are separated by a
tripartitetriumphal arch.The arch links Palace Square through
Bolshaya Morskaya St. to Nevsky Prospekt. Untilthe capital was
transferred to Moscow in 1918, the building served as the
headquartersof the General Staff (western wing), Foreign Ministry
and Finance Ministry (easternwing). Now the western wing hosts the
headquarters of the Western Military District. Theeastern wing was
transferred to the Hermitage Museum in 1993.
6. The tripartite triumphal archcommemorates the Russian
victory overNapoleonic France in the Patriotic War of1812.
7. Alexander Column (183034) was designed byAuguste de
Montferrand. This red granitecolumn (the tallest of its kind in the
world) is47.5 metres high and weighs some 500 tons. Itis set so
well that no attachment to the base isneeded.
8. Palace Bridge and spit of Vasilyevsky Island
9. Vasilyevsky Island
10. Vasilyevsky Island, the largest of St. Petersburgs islands,
is home to several of St. Petersburgsgreatest institutions,
including the prestigious St. Petersburg State University, the
StockExchange, the LenEXPO exhibition center, the Passenger Sea
Port, Kunstkammer, PetersEthnographic Museum, the Twelve Colleges,
etc.
11. Spit of Vasilievsky Island(Building of Old Stock Exchange
and Rostral Columns)
12. Building of Old Stock Exchange
13. On the mid right is the old St. Petersburg stock
exchange.On the left are "spits" - light beacons fired by pitch to
warnboats of land in the old days.
14. Rostral Columns. The two monumental red-painted columns in
front of the Naval Museumsymbolized the naval power of the
Russianempire. The columns were built in the early19th century as
beacons.
15. Building of Old Stock Exchange and Rostral Columns
16. The institute is housed in an Empire style building on the
21st line and the Neva Riverembankment on the south shore of
Vasilievsky Island. It was built between 1806 and1811.Mining
Institute
17. St. Petersburg State University (1819)Today, the university
boasts over 20,000students, 2,000 professors, 210 departmentsand a
library with 4 million volumes. EightNobel Prize winners are
graduates of St.Petersburg State University (including thebiologist
Ivan Pavlov, the economist VasilyLeontiev and the poet Joseph
Brodsky).
18. Menshikov PalaceThe palace was founded in 1710 as a
residence of Saint Petersburg Governor GeneralAlexander Menshikov.
Since 1981, it has served as a public museum, a branch of
theHermitage Museum.Imperial Academy of ArtsView from
Blagoveshchensky(Annunciation) Bridge
19. Blagoveshchensky (Annunciation) Bridgeconnects Vasilievsky
Island and the central part of the city (Admiralteysky Island).The
bridges length is 331 meters and the width was 24 meters. The
original name of thebridge was Nevsky Bridge.
20. The KunstkameraEstablished by Peter the Great and completed
in 1727, the Kunstkamera Building hosts thePeter the Great Museum
of Anthropology and Ethnography.
21. Navy Museum
22. Exchange (Birzhevoy) BridgeIt crosses the Malaya Neva. Its
length is 239 meters and width is 27 meters. Birzhevoybridge
connects Vasilievsky Island and Petrogradsky Island.
23. Pushkin House as seen across the Malaya Nevaand Exchange
Bridge. The pediment is crownedwith the bronze statues of Neptune,
Mercury,and Ceres.
24. The Admiralty building we see today was built between
1806and 1823 by the architect Adrian Zakharov. The Admiraltytower,
topped with its golden spire, is the focal point of three ofthe
citys main streets; Nevsky Propect, Gorokhovaia Street
andVoznesensky Prospekt, and can be seen along the entire length
ofeach one.The Admiralty was Russias Naval Headquarters until
1917,and now serves as a naval college.
25. The equestrian statue of Peter the Great, known asthe
Bronze Horseman, is a tribute to the founder ofSt. Petersburg. The
fascinating monument is one ofthe most famous symbols of the
city.It was a gift to the city byCatherine the Greatto honor her
predecessor on theRussian throne, Peter the Great.
26. Now serves as a museum and services are heldonly on
significant ecclesiastical holidays.St Isaachs CathedralBuilt by
the French-born architect AugusteMontferrand to be the main church
of theRussian Empire, the cathedral was underconstruction for 40
years (1818-1858), and wasdecorated in the most elaborate way
possible.
27. St Isaac Cathedral and Square
28. Kazan Cathedral was constructed between 1801 and 1811 by
the architect Andrei Voronikhin. Thecathedral was inspired by the
Basilica of St. Peters in Rome and was intended to be the countrys
mainOrthodox Church. After the war of 1812 (during which Napoleon
was defeated) the church became amonument to Russian victory. The
cathedral was named after the "miracle-making" icon of Our Ladyof
Kazan, which the church housed till the early 1930s. The Bolsheviks
closed the cathedral forservices in 1929, and from 1932 it housed
the collections of the Museum of the History of Religion
andAtheism. A couple of years ago regular services were resumed in
the cathedral.
29. Kazan Cathedral
30. Gostiny Dvor is a huge department store, which is being
gradually turned into a shoppingmall. Constructed between 1757 and
1785, Gostiny Dvor has a reputation for being one ofthe worlds
first shopping malls and occupies a whole city block on Nevsky
Prospekt.
31. City Hall (Mariinsky Palace)
32. Mariinsky Palace
33. The Mariinsky Opera and Ballet TheatreThe world-renowned
Mariinsky Theatre, known during Soviet times as the Kirov Operaand
Ballet Theatre, reverted to its original name in 1992. The present
building, whichdates back to 1859, originally housed another
theater but was remodeled and taken overby the Mariinsky
company.
34. Anichkov Bridge is one of thearchitectural highlights of
NevskyProspekt.
35. Square of Arts(Monument to Pushkin)Main faade of
Mikhailovsky Palacewhich today houses the Russian Museum.
36. Malaya Konyushennaya St and Kazan Cathedral
37. Basin House(Apartment House on Ostrovsky Square
)1878-1879
38. Baltic Station
39. Moscow Station (from Vosstaniya Square)
40. Vitebsky Station
41. Bridge of Kisses
42. Catherine Institute(nowadays Russia National Library
building)
43. Budhist Temple(1913) the first in Europe
44. Catholic Church(1783)
45. Lutheran Church(1838)
46. Mosque(1913)
47. Peter and Paul Fortress
48. St Peter and Paul Cathedral
49. Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood(1883-1907)
50. Smolny Cathedral
51. Church of St John the Baptist (Chesme Church)
52. Simon and Ann Church
53. Trinity Cathedral, Fontanka River
54. The Trinity Cathedral , sometimes called the Troitsky
Cathedral, in Saint Petersburg, is a late exampleof the Empire
style, built between 1828 and 1835 to a design by Vasily Stasov. It
is located due south ofthe Admiralty on Izmaylovskiy Prospekt, not
far from the Tekhnologichesky Institut Metro station.
55. Nikolsky Cathedral
56. Nikolsky Cathedral(1753-1762)
57. Perspective of Glinka Street withthe domes of Nikolsky and
Troitsky cathedrals
58. English Embankment
59. Aleksandrinsky Drama Theatre
60. Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre(1838)
61. Staro-Kalinin Bridge
62. Constantine Palace
63. Sheremetev Palace(The Fountain House)
64. Catherines Palace
65. HermitageWinter PalaceThe State Hermitage Museum is one of
the largest and oldest museums in the world andan absolute must-see
for any visitor to St. Petersburg. The museum was founded in 1764by
Catherine the Great, empress of Russia, and opened to the public in
1852.
66. Stroganov Palace
67. Yelagin Palace
68. Kamennoostrovsky Palace
69. House of Books
70. Residential
71. Narva Triumphal Arch
72. Monument to Alexander III
73. Monument to Ivan Krylov(in the Summer Garden)
74. The Moscow Triumphal Gate is a Neoclassical triumphal arch
in Saint Petersburg.The monument built mainly in cast iron was
erected in 1834 -1838 in thememory of the Russian victory in the
Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829.
75. 300 Years of St Petersburg Park
76. Chinese Garden
77. Petrogradsky District
78. Egyptian Bridge
79. Egyptian Bridge
80. Field of MarsThe Field of Mars was long used as a
militaryexercise and parade ground. Today it is apeaceful open
terrain; at its center is amonument honoring victims of the
FebruaryRevolution in 1917.
81. Mrs. Putins Academy of Needle Works(she is now the primary
benefactress ofthis school originally started by theEmpress
Alexandra for girls from the countryside)
82. theRiver Moika
83. Bridge of Four Lions
84. Griboedov Canal
85. The Cruiser Aurora was built between 1897 and 1900 at the
AdmiraltyShipyard in St. Petersburg. It was one of three
Pallada-class cruisers, all ofwhich served during the
Russo-Japanese War. . A museum since 1956, it isanchored in the
Bolshaya Nevka, near the Sampsonievsky bridge.