Saint Petersburg City Guide

11/10/2018

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16/03/2015

St. Michael's Castle, also called the Mikhailovsky Castle or the Engineers' Castle, was built as a residence for Emperor Paul I by architects Vincenzo Brenna and Vasili Bazhenov in 1797-1801. The castle looks different from each side, as the architects used motifs of various architectural styles such as French Classicism, Italian Renaissance and Gothic.
Afraid of intrigues and assassination plots, Emperor Paul I disliked the Winter Palace where he never felt safe. Due to his personal fascination with medieval knights and his constant fear of assassination, the new royal residence was built like a castle around a small octagonal courtyard. The building with rounded corners was surrounded by the waters of the Moika River, the Fontanka River and two specially dug canals (the Church Canal and the Sunday Canal), transforming the castle area into an artificial island which could only be reached by drawbridges.
Ironically, Paul I was assassinated only 40 nights after he moved into his newly built castle. He was murdered on 12 March 1801, in his own bedroom, by a group of dismissed officers headed by General Bennigsen. The conspirators forced him to a table, and tried to compel him to sign his abdication. Paul offered some resistance, and one of the assassins struck him with a sword, and he was then strangled and trampled to death. He was succeeded by his son, Emperor Alexander I, who was actually in the palace at the time and was informed of his accession by General Nicholas Zubov, one of the assassins.

11/03/2015

08/03/2015

Today, there are 342 bridges in Saint Petersburg over canals and rivers of various 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.

There are bridges designed in various styles with such decorations as statues, lamplights, lions, horses, sphinxes and griffins, and there are modern styles lacking any decor. Thanks to the intricate web of canals, Saint Petersburg is often called the "Venice of the North" which is a popular poetic name for the northern capital.

A familiar view of Saint Petersburg is a drawbridge across the Neva. Every night during the navigation period from April to November, 22 bridges across Neva and main canals are drawn to let ships pass in and out of the Baltic Sea into the Volga-Baltic waterway system.

Palace Bridge between Palace Square and Vasilievsky Island was opened in 1916.

Trinity Bridge connects Kamennoostrovsky Prospect with Suvorovskaya Square. It was the third permanent bridge across the Neva, built between 1897 and 1903.

The Alexander Nevsky Bridge connects Alexander Nevsky Square and Zanevsky prospect thus linking the southern and the northern parts of the city. Its length is 905.7 meters, and it is 35 meters wide. The bridge was built from 1960 to 1965.

The Big Obukhovsky Bridge is the newest bridge across the Neva River in Saint Petersburg. It is the only bridge across the Neva which is not a drawbridge. It is a cable-stayed bridge; the steel wire ropes are the key element of supporting construction. The first part of the bridge was opened in 2004, a "twin bridge" was opened in 2007. It is an important part of Saint Petersburg Ring Road. The Big Obukhovsky Bridge is also the longest bridge across Neva River (2824 meters).

The Blue Bridge is a 97.3 metre wide bridge that spans the Moika River. It is the widest bridge in Saint Petersburg. It is located at Saint Isaac's Square.

Bank Bridge is a g pedestrian bridge crossing the Griboedov Canal. It was built in 1826. The special popularity of the bridge was gained through angular sculptures of four griffins.They were designed by sculptor Pavel Sokolov (1764-1835), who also contributed lions for Bridge of Lions and sphinxes for Egyptian Bridge. The bridge is in front of the former Assignation Bank building (now housing the Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance). As griffins in mythology are the guards of treasure, the lions with eagle wings in front of the Assignation Bank were to watch the gold reserves of the Russian state.

The Anichkov Bridge is the first and most famous bridge across the Fontanka River. The current bridge, built in 1841-42 and reconstructed in 1906-08, combines a simple form with some spectacular decorations. As well as its four famous horse sculptures (1849-50), the bridge has some of the most celebrated ornate cast-iron railings in Saint Petersburg.

08/03/2015

The Alexander Column is the focal point of Palace Square. The column is a great monument to the Russian victory over Napoleon. The Alexander Column got its name in honour of the emperor Alexander I, who ruled Russia between 1801 and 1825. It was designed by the architect Auguste Monferrand and built between 1830 and 1834.

The granite column weighs more than 600 tons. The monolith of red granite was found near Vyborg.

There were a lot of people when 2000 soldiers and 400 workmen using 60 lifting mechanisms put the column on its base in 1 hour 45 minutes. 1250 6-metre piles were sunk in the base of the pedestal.

The column is 25.58 m high and 3.56 m in diameter. The total high of the monument is 47.5 m. It stays in place by its own force of gravity.

On the top of the column there is a figure of an angel whose cross tramples a snake – a symbol of victory of good over evil, the allegory of the peace that came to Europe after the Russian victory over Napoleon. The angel’s face is made to look like Alexander I.

06/03/2015

06/03/2015

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06/03/2015

The Admiralty is the beautiful masterpiece of the architect Andreyan Zakharov (1761-1811), one of the best monuments of Russian architecture. The little ship on its spire is our city’s main symbol.
Peter I planned St Petersburg as the main centre of shipbuilding and navigation in Russia. The world “admiralty” means the place where military ships are built and repared.
The gold-plated brass ship is more than 70 metres up. Its length is 192 cm, height – 158 cm, weight – 65 kg 200 g. The ship has three masts, its sails are blown by the winds, it has gold-plated flags and even slits. It looks like the two-deck navy ships of 18-19th century.
In 1886 the ship was taken down and brought to the Navy Museum. In its place an exact copy was built. Into the ship’s “apple” a metal box was placed with the date of the repair engraved on a plate, a photo of Alexander III’s family and three newspapers of that time. During every repair all the data about it, the masters’ names and new newspapers are put in.
There is a legend that the ship portrays the first Russian ship “Eagle” built by tsar Alexey Mikhailovich (1629-1676), because it does not look like the ships Peter I built.

04/03/2015

Peter the Great was a great fan of Amserdam and that 's why in St. Petersburg there are many natural and man-made canals and islands. City center is well organised, all the streets are perpendicular.
The main and the oldest street in St. Petersburg, is called Nevsky Prospect, there's the main railway station in city on this street, a lot of shops, cafes, hotels, and tourist sights. The street is 4.5 km long.
The area around Nevsky Prospekt is much calmer, and is a great place to walk around too. There are many museums, beautiful sights, little cozy cafes and restaurants.

09/02/2015

The view from the belfry of Cathedral. Winter landscape of !

04/02/2015

Now we have the deepest metro system in the world in St. Petersburg. But few people know that the question of building an underground road in the city arose back at the beginning of the 19th century. A resident of the city, a self-taught man by the name of Torgovanov, submitted a bold project to Alexander I - that of a tunnel to be dug from the center of the city to Vasilyevsky Island. The Russian ruler rejected the project and ordered the inventor to sign a pledge "not to engage in hare-brained schemes in the future, but to exercise his efforts matters appropriate to his estate".