The fortress, which is now amuseum of history andarchitecture, unites within its walls structures of variousdesignation and different periods...
The Summer Gardens, founded simultaneously withthe city, lie in the central part of the northern capital...
Next to the Summer Gardenslies the Field of Mars — the largest square of St Petersburg...
Saint Petersburg
Peter the Great is a colossal phenomenon in Russian history with no other figure of a similar stature. His age, from the late seventeenth century through the first quarter of the eighteenth, was the era of great achievements and brilliant military victories, the time when Russia joined the European family of peoples. Perhaps there was not a single sphere in the country's life that Peter would not change by his iron will according to European models. "He was your god, Russia!" exclaimed the poet Mikhail Lomonosov in his ode devoted to the Emperor...
Winter Palace
The Winter Palace, the city's focal point on Palace Square, was the main residence of the imperial dynasty in St Petersburg. The building is so large that it can be held in view as a whole only from the Neva or from the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island. The last monumental structure in the Baroque style, the Winter Palace was erected "for the glory of Russia"...
The Department of Western European Art is the earliest in the Hermitage. Works by Western European masters became the first accessions that made up the core of the future art collections of the now famous museum. There were some first-rate examples of High Renaissance art. The art collections of Catherine the Great were preserved in the hall situated near the end of the long suite of rooms created by Yury Velten in the Old Hermitage...
St Isaac‘s Cathedral
St Isaac's functions both as a church and a memorial museum. Its golden dome can be seen from the Gulf of Finland and the observation deck of the cathedral affords a fine all-round view of the city. The chief creation of Auguste de Montferrand, the cathedral completed the age of Russian Classicism and became the dominant feature of the central squares of St Petersburg and one of its symbols...
The Mariinsky Theatre of Opera and Ballet situated on Theatre Square is a pride of the city. This square was used for theatrical spectacles since long ago. Carnivals and performances of amateurish troupes took place in the wooden building of the theatre put up in 1765.Seventeen years later Antonio Rinaldi erected on the site of the wooden building a stone theatre, which was known as the Bolshoi Theatre and was the largest of this kind in Europe...
Nevsky Prospekt
Nevsky Prospekt, like the entire city, owes much of its charm to rivers and canals crossing it and picturesque bridges spanning their banks. St Petersburg is sometimes called a museum of bridges - there are 350 of them in the city, perhaps more than elsewhere in the world....
The Cathedral of the Resurrection, so unlike other churches in St Petersburg, is well seen from Nevsky Prospekt. Stylized in the spirit of whimsically decorated early Russian architecture, it is especially reminiscent of the Cathedral of St Basil the Blessed in Moscow...
Palace Bridge
Peter the Great is a colossal phenomenon in Russian history with no other figure of a similar stature. His age, from the late seventeenth century through the first quarter of the eighteenth, was the era of great achievements and brilliant military victories, the time when Russia joined the European family of peoples. Perhaps there was not a single sphere in the country's life that Peter would not change by his iron will according to European models. "He was your god, Russia!" exclaimed the poet Mikhail Lomonosov in his ode devoted to the Emperor.
The Winter Palace, the city's focal point on Palace Square, was the main residence of the imperial dynasty in St Petersburg. The building is so large that it can be held in view as a whole only from the Neva or from the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island. The last monumental structure in the Baroque style, the Winter Palace was erected "for the glory of Russia".
The Department of Western European Art is the earliest in the Hermitage. Works by Western European masters became the first accessions that made up the core of the future art collections of the now famous museum. There were some first-rate examples of High Renaissance art. The art collections of Catherine the Great were preserved in the hall situated near the end of the long suite of rooms created by Yury Velten in the Old Hermitage.
St Isaac's functions both as a church and a memorial museum. Its golden dome can be seen from the Gulf of Finland and the observation deck of the cathedral affords a fine all-round view of the city. The chief creation of Auguste de Montferrand, the cathedral completed the age of Russian Classicism and became the dominant feature of the central squares of St Petersburg and one of its symbols...
The Mariinsky Theatre of Opera and Ballet situated on Theatre Square is a pride of the city. This square was used for theatrical spectacles since long ago. Carnivals and performances of amateurish troupes took place in the wooden building of the theatre put up in 1765.Seventeen years later Antonio Rinaldi erected on the site of the wooden building a stone theatre, which was known as the Bolshoi Theatre and was the largest of this kind in Europe...
Nevsky Prospekt, like the entire city, owes much of its charm to rivers and canals crossing it and picturesque bridges spanning their banks. St Petersburg is sometimes called a museum of bridges - there are 350 of them in the city, perhaps more than elsewhere in the world....
The Cathedral of the Resurrection, so unlike other churches in St Petersburg, is well seen from Nevsky Prospekt. Stylized in the spirit of whimsically decorated early Russian architecture, it is especially reminiscent of the Cathedral of St Basil the Blessed in Moscow...
