St. Petersburg

💡 About St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, Russia's imperial capital for over two centuries, is one of the most magnificent cities in the world — a grand, European-facing metropolis conjured out of a marshy delta by the will of Tsar Peter the Great, who founded it in 1703 as his "window to the West." Built on more than 100 islands laced with canals, it is often called the Venice of the North.

The city is a masterpiece of imperial planning, its wide avenues and river embankments lined with pastel-coloured baroque and neoclassical palaces. Chief among them is the Winter Palace, home to the Hermitage — one of the largest and greatest art museums on Earth, its galleries so vast it is said to take years to see every work.

St. Petersburg is the cultural soul of Russia, the city of Pushkin, Dostoevsky and Tchaikovsky, home to the legendary Mariinsky ballet and opera. Its lavish suburban palaces, such as gilded Peterhof with its cascading fountains, rival Versailles in their opulence.

During the summer "White Nights," when the sun barely sets, the city stays awake in a festive glow, its bridges rising over the Neva at midnight to let ships pass. Elegant, romantic and steeped in art, St. Petersburg is a monument to imperial ambition.

⭐ Known For