THE BEST of the CITY

The Peter and Paul Fortress (Petropavlovskaya Krepost') is historical core of St.Petersburg. It is a monument of military and engineering craft. It was laid by the order and to the plot-plan of Peter the Great on May 16, (27) 1703 on Zayachy Island that is linked with Petrogradsky Island by Ioanovsky and Kronverksky bridges.  The fortress was constructed "in quite a haste" under supervision of Peter the Great and his closest associates. In 1706-1740 the walls of fortress that face the Neva River were lined with granite blocks. For defense of the northern approaches to the Peter and Paul Fortress the Kronverk fortifications were constructed on the southern bank of the Petrogradsky Island. A canal was dug in the territory of the fortress to bring construction materials and supply the garrison with water. It was filled up with ground in 1882. The parade Petrovsky gate is located in the Eastern Wall of the fortress. Vasiliev gate is in the Western Wall, Kronverk and Nicholas gates are in the Northern Wall, and Neva gate (leading to the jetty) is in the Southern Wall. Ioannovsky Ravelin was constructed in 1731-1740 outside the fortress on the eastern side, while 1733-1740 Alexeyevsky Ravelin was built on the western side. The new Peter and Paul Cathedral of stone appeared in 1712-1733 in place of the old wooden church of St.Peter and St.Paul. The cathedral became the burial-vault of Russian Emperors.

The Palace Square (Dvortsovaya Ploshchad) is the most grandiose among the squares of the city. The focal point of its architectural ensemble is the Winter Palace (Zimny dvorets), an architectural masterpiece of the flamboyant Russian Baroque and the royal residence of all the Russian Emperors but Paul. It was built by Rastrelliat the close of the Empress Elizabeth reign, in 1754-1762. The Empress ordered it to show off the grandeur of her Court. Hurry as he did, Rastrelli had not completed the Palace before Elizabeth died and she never saw her dream to come true. To make it look truly imperial Rastrelli resorted to all the advantages of the Russian Baroque. He decorated the edge of the roof with huge bronze figures and reduced the emerald wall space to the minimum disguising it by decorative columns and golden tracery, plastic Amours, vases and sculptures. Several rooms of the Palace that had been used for the location of unique objects d'art later received the designation of the Hermitage. Then the growing collections found the new accommodations: the buildings of the Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, the Hermitage Theaterand New Hermitage. Nowadays all these buildings belong to the State Hermitage - the largest artistic, historical and cultural museum. It exhibits the paintings of Rubens, Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian and works of many other masters, relics of the past culture of many countries of the world.  The semi-circular facade of the General Stuff of Russian Army and MinistriesBuilding is its southern border. The General Stuff Building is a genius creation of the architect K.Rossi. The portal of the Winter Palace faces the two long buildings of the General Headquarters joint by the Triumphal Arch and thus forming the semicircular boarder of the Palace Square.  The colossal Alexander Column (Alexandrinskaya Colonna) with the bronze figure of an angel at the top was erected in the center of the Square in 1834 to commemorate the triumphant victory of the Russians over Napoleon in the Patriotic War 1812. It was built by architect Monferran and was named after Emperor Alexander The First. The bronze angel on its top resembles the Emperor Alexander while the snake he is trampling by his cross looks much like Napoleon. This means the victory the good over the evil. Today the Palace Square is the place for all the city's festivals and official performances. Traditionally, the citizens and tourists spend almost all the Russian public holidays here.

The State Hermitage
 is one of the world biggest art and culture museums. Founded in 1764, the Hermitage comprises eight departments: the Primitive Culture, the Culture of Antiquity, the Culture of the East, the History of Russian Culture, the Numismatics, the West European Culture, the Department of Science and Education, and the Restoration Department. There are over 350 halls in Hermitage. The museum keeps 15 thousand paintings, 12 thousand sculptures, 600 thousands drawings, over 600 thousand monuments of archeology, over one million coins and medals, and 4224 thousand items of applied arts. Empress Catherine II initiated the collection of the Hermitage. In the end of the 19th century the museum was opened to public. Paintings of such great masters as Leonard da Vinci, Titian, Raphael, Rembrandt, Poussain, Manet, Renoir are in the ownership of the Hermitage. The Hermitage is famous through its collection of Scythian golden articles.
Address: 32-38, Dvortsovaya nab.

The St.Isaac Square got its name from the magnificent St.Isaac Cathedral (Isaakievsky sobor),  located in its center, that is dominating building linking with the Decembrist Square. It is the biggest Orthodox Cathedral in St.Petersburg. The majestic grandiose cathedral strikes itself riches and luxury. The high walls inside the Cathedral are covered with various kinds of marble and porphyry, the icons are adorned with green malachite, azurite and guilt bronze. St.Isaac's Cathedral is one of the largest domed structures in the world, and nowadays is the 4th highest cathedral in the world after the world-known St.Peter's in Rome, St.Paul's in London and Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Having the area of 4000 square meters, the Cathedral can accommodate up to 14000 standing worshipersat a time. Both inside and outside the cathedral is decorated with sculptures. The decor of the Cathedral is extremely impressive. The walls and vaults of the cathedral bear paintings and mosaic works made by well-known Russian artists: Briullov, Bruni, Basin, Shebuyev and others. The mosaic has 14 sorts of marble of contrasting colors, that is 12000 shades and colors. The great plafond of the big dome with the area of more than 700 square meters was painted by Briullov. It shows Madonna surrounded by saints and angels. St.Isaac's Cathedral is a remarkable monument of Russian architecture. This grand structure filled up the space of the Senate Square, and created a new square as well. Alongside with the Peter and Paul's Cathedral and the Admiralty it became an important architectural landmark in the city outline. The golden dome of St.Isaac's can be seen from any part of the city, and in clear weather - even from the suburbs.

Translations of the church's name (Khram Spasa na Krovi) vary between guidebooks and include "The Resurrection Church" (Khram Voskresenia Khristova),

 "The Church of the Resurrection of Christ", "Church of the Redeemer", and the nearly identical "Church of the Bleeding Savior". The moniker "Bleeding Savior" is somewhat arbitrary as this church has twenty different names depending on whom you ask. This marvelous Russian-style multicolored, onion-domed church was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1, 1881. On this site a terrorist Grinevitsky, a member of the revolutionary organization People's Will, mortally wounded Tsar, by tossing a bomb at at his royal carriage. Architecturally it revives the traditions of the 17th-century Russian church building. The church stands out for its complicated and picturesque outline, as well as rich and multicolored decoration. Both the interior and exterior of the church is decorated with incredibly detailed mind-boggling 7000 square metersof mosaics, designed and created in Frolovs' workshop to the originals by the most prominent Russian artists of the day: Vasnetsov, Nesterov, RiabushkinandVrubel.

Yusupov's Palace  is outstanding not only for its architectural and artistic merits, however, butalso for the events that happened there in December 1916, with the murder of Grigory Rasputin. Recently the palace opened an exhibit attempting to make up for the loss of all the art treasures, an exhibit concerning the assassination of Rasputin. This event was one of the most well known stories of Russian history and they try to capitalize on this to the fullest, retelling the story and showing the two rooms where it all happened.

The Russian Museum is opened in 1898 in the Mikhaylovsky Palace (architect Rossi). The museum is the world's largest museum of Russian art and numbers nearly 400,000 works. The museum exhibits the collection of icons, wonderful pieces of graphic art, sculpture, applied art (XVIII-XX centuries) and the Avant-garde painting of the XX century. It contains works by Great Russian artists: Rublev, Shubin, Kiprensky, Fedotov, Repin, Levitan and many others.

Saint Petersburg is known as the City of Bridges.
 There is no wonder, because the city is situated on more than 45 islands. Saint Petersburg wins the leading position in Russia in the quantity of bridges. Nowadays it is more than 340 (even not taking into consideration those having local industrial and transport functions). Across the Neva River there are 10 bridges, across the Griboedov canal - 26, 15 of them stretch across Moika and Fontanka rivers.  Of course the most amazing fact about the Saint Petersburg bridges is that all the bridges across the Neva River are "opening" ones. It means that at night they are lifted to let the big steamers and ships pass through the delta of the river into Ladoga Lake. That is the picture of majestic beauty, especially during the famous period of Wight Nights from May till July, when nights are as light as daytime and there is a wonderful feeling of magic all around the city.

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