St.Petersburg guide

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject located in Northwestern Federal District of Russia on the delta of the Neva River at the east end of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. It was formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and Leningrad (1924–1991)

Founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 27, 1703 as a "window to Europe", it served as the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years (1712-1728, 1732-1918). St. Petersburg ceased being the capital in 1918 when the government moved to Moscow after the Russian Revolution of 1917. With about 4.8 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest and one of largest cities in Europe, a major European cultural center, and the second most important Russian port on the Baltic Sea (after Primorsk, Leningrad Oblast). The city has a total area of 1439 square km.

Among cities of the world having populations of over one million people, Saint Petersburg is the northernmost. The city center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Russia's political and cultural center for 200 years, the city is impressive even today, and is sometimes referred to in Russia as "the Northern Capital" (северная столица, severnaya stolitsa). It is the administrative center of Leningrad Oblast (itself a separate region) and of the Northwestern Federal District.

The majestic appearance of St. Petersburg is achieved through a variety of architectural details including long, straight boulevards, vast spaces, gardens and parks, decorative wrought-iron fences, monuments and decorative sculptures. The Neva River itself, together with its many canals and their granite embankments and bridges gives the city a unique and striking ambience. These bodies of water led to St. Petersburg being given the name of "Venice of the North".

St. Petersburg's position below the Arctic Circle, on the same latitude as nearby Helsinki, Stockholm, Aberdeen and Oslo (60° N), causes twilight to last all night in May, June and July. This celebrated phenomenon is known as the "white nights". The white nights are closely linked to another attraction — the eight drawbridges spanning the Neva. Tourists flock to see the bridges drawn and lowered again at night to allow shipping to pass up and down the river. Bridges open from May to late October according to a special schedule between approximately 2 a.m. and 4:30 a.m.

The historical center of St. Petersburg, sometimes called the outdoor museum of Architecture was the first Russian patrimony inscribed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

Saint Petersburg is built on what originally were more than 100 islands created by a maze of rivers, creeks, canals and other bodies of water, with the Neva river being the main waterway.

When Peter the Great was designing the city, he is said to have conceived it as another Amsterdam, with canals instead of streets and citizens skillful in sailing. This is why initially, there were only about ten bridges constructed in the city, mainly across ditches and minor creeks. By Peter's plans, in the summer months, the citizens were supposed to move around in boats, and in the winter months when the water froze to move in sledges. However, after Peter's death, new bridges were built, as it was a much easier way of transportation. The first bridge across the Neva appeared in the 19th century.

Today, there are 342 bridges of different sizes, styles and constructions, built at different periods. Some of them are small pedestrian bridges, such as Bank and Lion bridges, others are huge transport arteries such as almost one kilometer long Alexander Nevsky Bridge. The nearly 100-meter-wide Blue Bridge, claimed to be the widest in the world, spans the Moyka River. There are bridges decorated in medieval styles with lions, horses and griffins, and there are modern styles lacking any decor.

St. Petersburg has been known as the city of palaces. One of the earliest of these is the Summer Palace, a modest house built for Peter I in the Summer Garden (1710–1714). Much more imposing are the baroque residences of his associates, such as the Kikin Hall and the Menshikov Palace on the Neva Embankment, constructed from designs by Domenico Trezzini over the years 1710 to 1716. A residence adjacent to the Menshikov palace was redesigned for Peter II and now houses the State University.

Probably the most illustrious of imperial palaces is the baroque Winter Palace (1754–1762), a huge building with dazzlingly luxurious interiors, now housing the Hermitage Museum. The same architect, Bartolomeo Rastrelli, was also responsible for three residences in the vicinity of the Nevsky Prospekt: the Stroganov palace (1752–1754, now a wax museum), the Vorontsov palace (1749–1757, now a military school), and the Anichkov Palace (1741–1750, many times rebuilt, now a palace for children).

The Peter and Paul Fortress, formerly a political prison, occupies a dominant position in the center of the city. A boardwalk was built along a portion of the fortress wall, giving visitors a clear view of the city across the river to the south. On the other bank of the Neva, the spit of the Vasilievsky island is graced by the former Bourse building (1805–1810), reminiscent of a classic Greek temple, with two great Rostral Columns, decorated with ships' prows, standing in front of it.

The most famous of St. Petersburg's museums is the Hermitage, one of the world's largest and richest collections of Western European art. Its vast holdings were originally exhibited in the Greek Revival building (1838–1852) by Leo von Klenze, now called the New Hermitage. But the first Russian museum was established by Peter the Great in the Kunstkammer, erected in 1718–1734 on the opposite bank of the Neva River and formerly a home to the Russian Academy of Sciences. Other popular tourist destinations include the Stieglitz Museum of Applied Arts (1885–1895), the Ethnography Museum (1900–1911), the Suvorov Museum of Military History (1901–1904), and the Political History Museum (1904–06).

Population: According to the 2002 census the population was 4,661,219, making it the second largest city in Russia with slightly less than half the population of Moscow. Just over 3.21% of the total population of Russia live in the city.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated there were up to 16,000 children living on the street in 2000.

The Russian Orthodox church is still the most important religious denomination, though many people are atheist.

Ethnic groups: The 2002 census counted twenty-two ethnic groups of more than two thousand persons each. The national composition was • Russian 84.72% • Ukrainian 1.87% • Belarusan 1.17% • Jewish 0.78% • Tatar 0.76% • Armenian 0.41% • Azeri 0.36% • Georgian 0.22% • Chuvash 0.13% • Polish 0.10% • Finnish 0.08% • Korean 0.08% • German 0.08% • Moldovan 0.07% • Mordovian 0.07% • Uzbek 0.06% • Kazakh 0.06% • Ossetian 0.06% • Bashkir 0.05% • Tajik 0.05% • Estonian 0.05% • Karelian 0.05% and many other ethnic groups of less than two thousand persons each. In addition, 7.89% of the inhabitants declined to state their nationality on the census questionnaire.

Economy. The city is a major center of machine building, including power equipment, machinery, shipyards, instrument manufacture, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy (production of aluminium alloys), chemicals, printing, and one of the major ports of the Baltic Sea. The Saint Petersburg Mint (Monetny Dvor) is apart from Goznak in Moscow the only place in Russia that mints Russian coins, medals and badges. Ford Motor Company began producing the Ford Focus automobile here in 2002. Toyota is building a plant in one of the suburbs; General Motors and Nissan have signed deals with the Russian government too. Saint Petersburg is also known as a "beer capital" of Russia contributing over 30% of the domestic production of beer with its five large-scale breweries including Europe's second largest brewery Baltika, Vena (both operated by BBH), Heineken Brewery, Stepan Razin (both by Heineken) and Tinkoff brewery (SUN-InBev). In 2006 Saint Petersburg's budget reached volume of more than $9 billion and is planned to reach $15 billion by 2010.

 

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