St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia and one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia from 1712 to 1918.
It is located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea.
1) Saint Petersburg was founded by Tsar Peter the Great as a fortress and the ‘Window on Europe’ in 1703.
In 1914 the name of the city was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, and in 1991, back to Saint Petersburg.
Today many people call the second Russian capital Peter for short.
Saint Petersburg is a major European cultural center, and also an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea.
3) The climate.
As the city is situated on the banks of the Neva River near the Baltic Sea, strong winds blow from the sea.
There are a lot of cold and rainy days in St Petersburg.
As a rule there is not a lot of sunshine and the weather is often unpleasant in autumns and winters.
4) St Petersburg is a charming city famous for its beauty.
The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg Winter Palace and Dvortsovaya Square and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Winter Palace and Dvortsovaya Square are home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world.
The main street in St Petersburg is Nevsky Prospect.
Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral Peter and Paul Fortress is a symbol of St. Petersburg. It is the building the history of St. Petersburg began with.
The main symbols of St Petersburg are also St. Isaac’s Cathedral, which has room for 12000 people at once; the Bronze Horseman, one of the monuments to Peter the Great, Kazan Cathedral and some others.
Museums: the Winter Palace, the Kunstkamera, the Russian Museum which is the first state museum of Russian fine arts in the country. It holds one of the largest collections of Russian art in the world. It was founded in 1895 in St. Petersburg by Emperor Nicholas II.
St Petersburg is famous for its White Nights and drawbridges. The city is sometimes called Russian Venice for it stands on forty-two islands and there are 342 bridges across rivers and canals. There are a lot of beautiful parks and gardens in and round the city. One of them is the Summer garden. It was founded in 1704 by order of Peter the Great, who was personally involved in planning it, and is laid out according to strict geometrical principles. The Summer Garden is home to marble statues acquired from Europe especially for Russia's new capital, and also to rare flowers and plants, as well as fountains.
St Petersburg is a major industrial, cultural and scientific centre. There are over 80 museums, more than 20 theatres, a lot of exhibitions, clubs, universities, colleges, schools and parks.
More than 5 million people live in St Petersburg (2019 г.). Everybody is happy to visit this cultural capital of Russia to see its numerous landmarks.
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