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St. Petersburg is one of the architectural gems of the world and is the second largest city in Russia after Moscow.
It was the capital of the Russian Empire for over 200 years. These were the years when Russia won numerous wars and gained enormous territories, when it transformed from a backward half-Asian country into a strong and cultivated European Empire, and when it produced some of the world's finest music, architecture, art and literature masterpieces. To cut it short, St. Petersburg was the headquarters of the Russian Empire during its most remarkable period...
Latitude 59 degrees 57' North (passes roughly across the South of Alaska and Greenland and is just six degrees south of the Arctic circle) makes the city to the most Northern city in the world with a population over 1 million.
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White Nights run from May 25 to July 17 (overall over 50 days). During this period it does not get dark at all! June 21-22 are the longest days (18 hours 53 minutes). The sun hardly hides behind the horizon but even then there is enough light for reading. Each night all the bridges across the Neva River are raised from 1 to 5 a.m. to let the ships pass, with only a short 20 minute break to allow the traffic cross over.
Population is 5 million people.
The length of the city from the North to the South is 44 km, and 25 km from the West to the East.
Venice of the North. Saint Petersburg was built on 101 islands that existed until the beginning of the 20th century and were then reduced to 42. It has over 500 bridges.
Water accounts to ten per cent of the city's area, and the city itself is situated in an immediate proximity to the Gulf of Finland.
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UNESCO has over 4.000 buildings, ensembles, bridges, parks, and streets of Saint Petersburg registered in its World Heritage List.
According to UNESCO statistics, St. Petersburg is the eighth most popular city in the world among tourists (while Moscow is the 300th).
City of museums. There are over 170 museums in the city. The world famous Hermitage Museum hosts over 3 million items. The total length of the Hermitage galleries is 19 kilometres!
There are 10 cathedrals, 39 Orthodox churches, a few Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches, an Armenian church, a Buddhist temple, a mosque and two synagogues.
The Russian Navy, the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Arts, the first Russian museums and theatres were all built on the Neva banks.
During its history, the city changed its name 3 times. Petersburg - in the honour of Peter the Great's Patron Saint - St. Peter. Petrograd - the City of Peter in Russian. Leningrad - the City of Lenin. Finally the original name was returned to the city in 1991 by a public referendum.