Harbour cities. Sea of attractions

This time on a journey through major port cities, we invite you to St. Petersburg, a metropolis located at the gateway of the port of the same name. The port of St. Petersburg, also called the gateway to Russia, is Russia's leading port and the largest container port in the Baltic area. It is from here that Russia's main trade with Europe and the rest of the world takes place.

The port occupies 164.6 km² of water area, the so-called aquatorium. The length of the mooring lines is 31 km and the greatest depths available are about 11-11.5 m. However, the deepest places available for 4 ships in the harbour anchorages are between 23.5 m and 25 m deep. In 2019, the port handled a total of more than 59.9 million tons of cargo, which was 0.1% more than a year earlier.

However, let's leave the port behind and focus on leisure opportunities in this monumental city. According to a UNESCO report, St. Petersburg is the eighth most attractive tourist city in the world.

How about a bit of history?

The establishment of the city is the fulfillment of many years of efforts and efforts to gain access to the Baltic Sea by the rulers of the Romanov dynasty. Thanks to the Northern War, which Peter I fought against the Swedes from 1701 to 1721 and the victory in the battle of Poltava in 1709, as well as the favorable peace treaty of Nystad (fin.

Uusikaupunki), he could start developing the coastal areas. Construction work, in which the most prominent architects of Europe at the time participated, began as early as 1703 on Hare Island, located in Ingria at the mouth of the Neva River, which had been captured from Sweden a year earlier. It was a marshy and sparsely populated area, so the drainage of this land was the primary challenge for the builders. The first structure located in the area of the Hare Island was the Petropavlovsk Fortress, which began construction by order of the Tsar on May 16 (May 27 according to the Gregorian calendar) 1703. This day is considered to be the date of the founding of the city. The following years saw the dynamic development of the city. St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia from 1712 to 1918.

St. Petersburg is the largest economic, cultural and scientific center of Russia after Moscow. The city is full of impressive palaces, theaters and monumental You would need at least a week to thoroughly explore all the attractions of St. Petersburg. We have prepared top 7 attractions that you must see while having even 2 days in the city.

▶ The Hermitage

Hermitage, the State Hermitage Museum - Russian state museum in St. Petersburg. It is housed in five palaces on the banks of the Neva River. The museum is named after one of Peter I's winter palaces. Empress Catherine II transformed the palace into an art gallery. The main building of the Hermitage is the Baroque Winter Palace, built for Empress Elizabeth between 1754 and 1762, designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli. In 1766, Tsarina Catherine II asked the French philosopher Denis Diderot to buy paintings from French collections on her behalf. Thus, canvases by Poussin, Watteau, Rembrandt, Rubens, Raphael, Titian and many other great painters came to St. Petersburg. On February 5/ February 17, 1852, Nicholas I opened the collections to the public and for this purpose built the last palace of the complex, called the New Hermitage, which was designed by Leo von Klenze.

St. Isaac's Cathedral

St. Isaac the Dalmatian Cathedral - the largest Orthodox church in St. Petersburg and the second largest in Russia, built by order of Tsar Alexander I. It measures 97.6 m in width, 111.2 m in length, and 101.5 m in height; it is crowned with gilded domes, the largest of which has a radius of about 11 m. It can accommodate 14,000 worshippers.

The Resurrection Cathedral, Church on the Blood - a cathedral built in St. Petersburg on the Griboyedov Canal. The building was placed on the site where Tsar Alexander II was mortally wounded in an assassination attempt in 1881, hence the popular name of the church - on the Blood. Work began in 1883 by Alexander III in memory of his father and lasted until 1907. The Cathedral was built according to the design of Alfred Parland and Ignatiy Malyshev. In 1930 the church was closed and planned to be demolished, 26 years later it received the status of a monument. It reopened in 1997 after nearly 30 years of restoration work. Today, it is one of the main tourist attractions of St. Petersburg. The total area of the temple is 1 642 m², the height - 81 m. The Cathedral was built in the traditional Russian style, prevailing in the church construction in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries and is richly decorated.

Peterhof

Peterhof is a vast palace and garden complex located in the city of the same name, situated on the Gulf of Finland, less than 30 km west of St. Petersburg. It was founded in the first half of the XVIIIth century by Tsar Peter I as one of the Tsars' summer residences. Today, the entire complex covers more than 1,000 hectares. It consists of 20 different buildings, 7 gardens and the famous Grand Cascade. The main building is the Grand Palace designed by Jean Baptiste Leblond (and later rebuilt by Bartolomeo Rastrelli). The most impressive element of the palace-garden complex is the so-called Great Cascade. It was created in 1724 as a tribute to the triumph of Russia over its enemies. It consists of about 200 different fountains and streams and nearly 40 beautiful golden statues. The largest fountain spouts vertically up a huge 20-meter column of water.

▶ Winter Palace

Winter Palace - located on the banks of the Neva River, a Baroque palace built in St. Petersburg between 1754 and 1762, designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli for Elizabeth. Construction was completed after her death. It was the first to be inhabited by Empress Catherine. The Winter Palace is one of the largest palace complexes in the world. Here is what the numbers say: length - about 200 m, width - 160 m, the length of the cornice surrounding the entire building - 2 km, height - 22 m. The palace has 1,057 rooms with a total area of 46,516 m², 117 staircases, 1,886 doors and 1,945 windows. The interiors are finished with polished marble, azurite, malachite, porphyry, jasper and semi-precious stones. Bronze, crystal, gilding, rare woods and decorative wall fabrics were also used generously.

The powerful complex was founded by Catherine I on uneven and marshy land near St. Petersburg, which she received from her future husband, Tsar Peter I, in 1708. The monarch later ordered a small park to be built on the land, in 18th century fashion, with a small orangery. On the site where the Grand Palace stands today, the Empress had a small wooden church dedicated to St. Catherine built. In 1722 a small palace was built for Catherine, based on designs by Braunstein, and in 1725 the entire estate was officially named Tsarskoye Selo.

▶ Petropavlovsk Fortress

Built by order of Peter the Great between 1706 and 1740, the Petropavlovsk Fortress is a citadel of St. Petersburg, built on an island along the Neva River. It is a defensive fortress, built according to the design of architect Domenico Trezzini. The main purpose of the building was defense but the fort never fulfilled its military purpose. In the XVIIIth century, part of the fortress became a prison and continued this function after the Bolshevik Revolution. Today, the Fortress is one of St. Petersburg's most famous tourist sights and houses the State Museum of Political History of Russia. At the center of the complex rises the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul with its 122-meter bell tower, which is the burial place of all Russian tsars from Peter I to Alexander III, except Peter II and Ivan VI. The island is also home to the St. Petersburg Mint, which is still in operation today.

Drawbridges

This is another attraction of St. Petersburg. Neva, which is the main river flowing through the city is navigable. To allow boat traffic, the bridges on the river open at 11:00 pm every day. Remember to be on the ‘correct’ side of the river when the bridges open. Otherwise, you may get stuck until the bridges are closed again, which will take place the following morning.