I love you, Peter’s great creation, Saint Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities in I love your view of stern and grace, The Neva wave’s regal procession, the world, the cultural capital of Russia, the nation’s im- The grayish granite – her bank’s dress, portant business and academic centre. The airy iron-casting fences, The gentle transparent twilight, The city was founded by Peter I on the 16th (27th) of The moonless gleam of your nights May, 1703 as an outpost on the Neva’s banks. For a restless, long time Saint Petersburg remained the capital of the When I so easy read and write Without a lamp in my room lone, Russian Empire. From the moment of its foundation to And seen is each huge buildings’ stone this day the city has remained the centre of culture and Of the left streets, and is so bright The Admiralty spire’s fl ight… art. Famous architects of that time participated in con- struction and creation of the architectural image of Saint A. S. Pushkin, a fragment from the poem Petersburg. Among them were: George Mattarnovi, “The Bronze Horseman” Jean-Baptiste Le Blond, Domenico Trezzini, and Giaco- mo Quarenghi. In the course of its existence, the city changed its name three times. At the beginning of the World War I (1914) it became Petrograd. In 1924 it was renamed Leningrad in honor of V. I. Lenin at the workers’ initia- tive. In 1991 the historical name of Saint Petersburg was given back to the city. Saint Petersburg is often called Venice of the North, as it is located on the islands of the Neva River estuary, and the rivers and canals, the number of which amounts to over 90, give it a special charm in any time of the year. During our tour you are going to see not only the pros- pects, the architectural ensembles and the Neva River embankments, but also learn about the history of Saint Petersburg and everyday life of its residents. S nt Pe rsb g in 5 days 4 Day 1 Dear friends, we are beginning our journey from Gorkovskaya metro station. The station was named like that for a reason – the writer Maksim Gorky lived in the building opposite the street from 1914 to 1923. The monument to the author installed in 1968 towers over the square. Around the Gorkovskaya metro station, the Alexander Garden extends. It was named in honor of the Empe ror Alexander I, by whose order the park was laid out. To the left of the metro vestibule is the Mini-City, the centre of Saint Petersburg in miniature made in the shape of the decorative 3D map, on which there are bronze miniature copies of the key architectural land- marks, and next to the miniature the re are also sculp- tures of Saint Pe tersburg architects. The park alley takes us back toward the metro and then we enter Kamennoostrovsky Prospect. The opposi- te side of the Prospect is dominated by the Saint Pe- tersburg Cathedral Mosque, which appeared on Pe- trogradskaya Storona in 1920. A little further on Kamennoostrovsky Prospect you see the monument to the Steregushchiy (Guarding). It is dedicated to the heroic deed of the Steregushchiy’s crew who sank the ship during the Russo-Japanese War lest it fell into the enemy’s hands. The monument was designed by the architect A. I. von Gogen and the sculptor K. V. Izenberg in 1911. It is the last monument installed in Saint Petersburg before the revolution, Nich- olas II himself was present at its unveiling. 5 S nt Pe rsb g in 5 days We continue our walk along the prospect to the inter- section with Kuybyshev Street. At the intersection of the street and the prospect there is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. That is a mansion of the great ballet dancer Mathilda Kschessinskaya built in 1904–1906, and its luxuriance is breath-taking. Today the Museum of Political History of Russia is housed in the mansion. We are crossing the prospect and heading toward the Troitskaya Square resembling a small park or a garden. The Troitskaya Square is the fi rst square of Saint Peters- burg. It has traced its history since the city’s earliest years. The square was named after the Old Trinity Cathe- dral which used to be there. Until the 1730s, the Troit- skaya Square was the central square. The fi rst Gostiny Dvor, the customs, the market, tavern ʺAusteriaʺ, the Senate and Synod building, the printing house and the Colleges were located on the square. In 1933 the Cathe- dral was demolished, and in 2003 there appeared the Chapel of the Life-Giving Trinity in honor of the city’s 300th anniversary. In the south the Square is traced by the Petrovskaya Embankment (Peter’s Embankment), where we are hea ding to. Upon reaching the Embankment, let us turn left and walk to the Cabin of Peter I, which is located in the centre of a small green pocket park. The single-fl oor brick building that you can see from the street is just a case. It holds the Cabin of Peter I built by carpenters in 1703. Today it is the museum whose display contains 6 Day 1 Peter I’s personal possessions and materials related to the foundation of Saint Petersburg and victories in the Great Northern War. After visiting the museum let us go back to the Embankment and take notice of two mytho- logical Shih Tsza (Foo Dogs) fi gures. Shih Tsza are Chi- nese guardian lions usually mounted in front of the en- trance to a temple, a palace or a cemetery. Two granite fi gures (weighing 2,500 kg each) were delivered to Saint Petersburg in 1907 from Manchuria. One of the fi gures is a lion and the other is a lioness. Under the lion’s paw there is a ball (a symbol of Buddhist knowledge). As for the lioness, she is holding a lion cub with a paw. Having turned to the left from the stone creatures we are heading along the Petrovskaya Embankment toward the Avrora Cruiser. Before reaching the Cruiser, let us halt by the monument commemorating the 300th anni- versary of the Russian Navy. This is bronze Nika, a patron of seamen. Let us walk ahead a little, and we shall see the legend- ary Avrora cruiser, which was built in 1900 at the Admi- ralty Shipyards. The cruiser played an active part in the Russian history: in the Russo-Japanese War and in the World War I, when the salvo from its gun served as a sign to begin the storming of the Winter Palace during the Oc- tober Revolution. Today the Aurora cruiser is a branch of the Naval Museum and a training facility for cadets of the Nakhimov Naval School, which is straight behind us. The blue building with white columns was built in 1909– 7 S nt Pe rsb g in 5 days 1910. The School was named after the prominent Rus- sian naval commander and Admiral Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov, the hero of the Crimean War of 1853–1856. And now let’s go back along the Petrovskaya Embank- ment to the Troitskaya Square and pay attention to the bridge connecting the Neva’s left bank and the Pe- trogradsky Island. The Neva is the city’s main waterway, its length is 74 km. So, we are facing the Troitsky Bridge gifted to Saint Petersburg for its 200th anniversary in 1903. It was built under the project of the French fi rm Batignolles and is a specimen of the art of engineering. Let’s continue our walk along the Embankment to the unique historical and architectural monument of Saint Petersburg – the Peter and Paul Fortress located on the Zayachiy Island. First we cross Kuybysheva Street, then Kamennoostro- vsky Prospect and the Kronverkskaya Embankment. In front of us there is the wooden Ioannovsky (St. John’s) Bridge connecting the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress with the Petrogradsky Island. To the left a small hare is mounted on the wooden stilt, it re- minds us of the name of the island where the Fortress is located – i. e. Zayachiy (Hare). 8 Day 1 We enter the territory of the Fortress through the Ioan- novskiyeh (St. John’s) Gate. The Peter and Paul For- tress was laid on the Zayachiy Island on May 16 (27), 1703. This day is recognized as the day when Saint Pe- tersburg was founded. The fortress is an irregular hexa- gon with bastions in the corners named after distin- guished dignitaries of that time: Menshikov, Golovkin, Zotov, Trubetskoy, Naryshkin, and Gosudarev (Tzar’s, in honor of Peter the Great). Built to protect the city from enemies, the Fortress has never been used for the in- tended purpose. The dominant of the fortress is the Peter and Paul Cathedral. It was built on the design of the ar- chitect D. Trezzini (1712–1733) in place of a wooden church. The multitier belfry 122.5 meters height with its gilded spire crowned with an angel fi gure towers over the cathedral. After the interment of Peter I the Cathedral be- came the imperial sepulchre. In 1870–1872 a prison was built in the courtyard of the Trubetskoy Bastion. By 1917 almost fi fteen hundred prisoners had been in it. In 1924 the prison was convert- ed into a museum. On the left of the Cathedral the re is the Saint Petersburg Mint.