Travel to Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg travel is so exciting adventure that once visited Saint Petersburg you'll never forget it.
Saint Petersburg was founded on May, 16 1703 by Peter the Great. It has long been known as Russia's " Window to the West".
The main reason for Saint Petersburg travel is that Saint Petersburg has it’s own unique, unforgettable character. Compared to other large cities, Saint Petersburg is a mere youngster, only ninety years older than Washington. Ten years after it's foundation Saint Petersburg looked just about as Paris must have looked in the first few centuries A.D., consisting only of an island fortress and a handful of buildings stretched out along the banks of the river.
Youthful cities such as Saint Petersburg seldom acquire "character". This usually takes hundreds, even thousands of years. The same is also true of statues and buildings: Venus of Milo and the Acropolis would not be quite so interesting if they did not bear the marks of long, long life. Most cities, too, need time before countless generations can mould their character. The most marvelous thing about Saint Petersburg is that the rule does not hold true. The city was founded fairly recently, and, it may have seemed, in defiance of all reason: that is, on the swampy banks of a wild river, amidst dense forests, and between an ocean gulf and an enormous lake, both of which are ice-bounded almost half the year. But Saint Petersburg vital force could not be held in check. Saint Petersburg travel lets you feel all it’s force and power.

Peter and Paul fortress

The fortress was laid on May 16, 1703, and it is from this day that Saint Petersburg dates its existence.
The first fortress was made of earth. It was rebuilt in stone under the supervision of the architect Domenico Trezzini who also designed a number of buildings within its walls, among them the Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul.
The fortress is in plan an elongated hexagon stretched out from west to east. The bell-tower of the Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul is one of the tallest architecture points of the city.
Access to the fortress is through St. John’s Gate , put up in the 1740s, and through the old St. Peter’s Gate designed by Trezzini. Preserved intact on the territory of the fortress are structures dating from the 18th and 19th centuries.
In the 18th century the fortress was turned into a political prison.
Its walls saw many famous prisoners, Lenin and Maxim Gorky among them.
The Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul took 21 years to build – from 1712 to 1733. It has a hipped roof and a cupola of modest dimension over the altar; in plan it is an elongated rectangle. The interior of the cathedral resembles a palace hall. The lofty vaults rest on massive piers which partition off the interior into a nave and two aisles. The nave leads to an altar with a carved wooden iconostasis designed in the shape of a triumphal gate by Ivan Zarudny. Constructed in Moscow in the 1720s, the iconostasis is an incomparable example of Russian wood-carving.
Opposite the cathedral is a little pavilion, the so-called Boathouse built in 1763 to the design of Alexander Wist to house “the grandfather of the Russian Navy” – the boat of Peter the Great.