1 Booklet 3 Day.Indd

I love you, Peter’s great creation, St. Petersburg is recognized as one of the most I love your view of stern and grace, beautiful cities in the world. This city of a unique fate The Neva wave’s regal procession, The grayish granite – her bank’s dress, attracts lots of tourists every year. Founded in 1703 The airy iron-casting fences, by Peter the Great, St. Petersburg is today the cultural The gentle transparent twilight, capital of Russia and the second largest metropolis The moonless gleam of your of Russia. The architectural look of the city was nights restless, When I so easy read and write created while Petersburg was the capital of the Without a lamp in my room lone, Russian Empire. The greatest architects of their time And seen is each huge buildings’ stone worked at creating palaces and parks, cathedrals and Of the left streets, and is so bright The Admiralty spire’s flight… squares: Domenico Trezzini, Jean-Baptiste Le Blond, Georg Mattarnovi among many others. A. S. Pushkin, First named Saint Petersburg in honor of the a fragment from the poem Apostle Peter, the city on the Neva changed its name “The Bronze Horseman” three times in the 20th century. During World War I, the city was renamed Petrograd, and after the death of the leader of the world revolution in 1924, Petrograd became Leningrad. The fi rst mayor, Anatoly Sobchak, returned the city its historical name in 1991. It has been said that it is impossible to get acquainted with all the beauties of St. Petersburg in 3 short days. And this is true, since St. Petersburg has an infi nite number of unique monuments. The route developed by the guides of the City Tourist Information Bureau will help you get your fi rst idea about St. Petersburg and feel the enchantment of it. During the tour you will not only see the grand avenues, architectural ensembles and magnifi cent embankments of the Neva, but also learn a lot about the history of St. Petersburg and the daily life of its citizens. 2 3 S nt Pe rsb g in 3 days 4 DAY 1 Let’s start our way from Gostiny Dvor metro station. It got its name for a reason: its entrance hall is located on the ground floor of the city’s oldest department store, called Gostiny Dvor. The construction of the largest store in Saint Petersburg began in 1758 following the decree “On construction of a stone shopping arcade under the plan of the chief architect Rastrelli”. Gostiny Dvor was fi nished in 1785 upon the project of the architect J-B. Vallin de la Mothe. Upon getting out of the metro station, we fi nd ourselves on the main street of the city, Nevsky Prospect, which stretches for about 4.5 km from the Admiralty to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The facades of 240 buildings look out onto Nevsky Prospect. Among them are palaces, churches and theatres. On the left you can see the Kazan Cathedral (built by A. N. Voronikhin), a U-shaped building with lots of columns. This is the cathedral church of the city, wherein the unique Icon of Our Lady of Kazan is kept. The Cathedral was built prior to the war with Napoleon and became an original memorial to that event. Inside the Cathedral, the famous Russian commanderin-chief Mikhail Kutuzov was buried. Flags, standards and keys to the conquered cities are kept here. In 1837, on the 25th anniversary of the victory over Napoleon, the monuments to the Field-Marshals M. I. Kutuzov and M. B. Barсlay de Tolly were erected in front of the Cathedral. 5 S nt Pe rsb g in 3 days Having visited the Kazan Cathedral, we are returning to Nevsky Prospect. The art nouveau building on the left corner was built for the Singer Company at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the fi rst building with metal framing in Saint Petersburg. Now, the largest book store of the city, “The House of Books”, is located there. We are now crossing the Griboedov Canal and heading to the Square of Arts via Inzhenernaya Street. Here, we can see the ensemble of the square. It consists of the Mikhailovsky Palace (now it is the State Russian Museum), the Mikhailovsky Theatre, the building of the Theatre of Musical Comedy, the Russian Ethnographic Museum and the Big Concert Hall of Saint Petersburg Philharmonia named after D. D. Shostakovich. The ensemble was created upon the project of the famous architect Carlo Rossi in the early 19th century. In 1957, a monument to A. S. Pushkin, created by the sculptor M. K. Anikushin and the architect V. A. Petrov, was raised in the middle of the square. The State Russian Museum is a real treasury of the national art. Paintings, graphics, sculptures, a large collection of engravings, drawings, applied art and folk craft objects are exhibited in the museum. Having visited the Russian Museum, we can return to the Griboedov Canal Embankment via Italianskaya Street. The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood bursts upon our eyes in all its beauty. It was built upon the project of A. A. Parland and I. V. Malyshev in 1883–1907. The Church stands on the very spot where, on March 1, 1881, the Russian Emperor 6 DAY 1 Alexander II, the Tsar-Liberator, was killed by a bomb thrown at him. After a visit to the Church, we now reach Konyushennaya Square. In 1720–1723, the livery yard was built on the Moyka riverside. The Church of the Holy Image of the Savior Not Made By Hands (Konyushennaya) occupies the center of the square. In this very Church the funeral service for A. S. Pushkin was performed. We are now walking along the embankment and admiring a wonderful building leftward. It is the building of the Saint Petersburg State Capella. Capella is the oldest professional institution in Russia, which establishment and development is closely connected with the fate of the whole Russian music culture. On the right, the Pevсhesky Bridge is spread out. A great view of the Alexander Column opens up from this bridge. This monument was devoted to Russia’s victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. It is topped with the statue of an angel, spearing a snake. This Column, 47.5 m in height and 600 tons in weight, stays in place under the load of its own weight and does not fall due to precise calculations. Having enjoyed the ensemble of the Palace Square, let’s visit the State Hermitage Museum – one of the main sights of the city. 1764 is considered as the date of the foundation of the Hermitage. At that time the Empress Catherine the Great purchased a large collection of foreign artists’ masterpieces. She founded a small museum, where she used to spend many hours in seclusion. She called it Hermitage (the French word “ermitage” 7 S nt Pe rsb g in 3 days means “a place of seclusion”). Now it is the most frequently visited museum of the city: every year, over 3 million visitors come here to admire its famous collections. Historically, the State Hermitage Museum complex includes fi ve buildings: the Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the Old Hermitage, the Hermitage Theatre and the New Hermitage. The exhibitions with numerous masterpieces are placed in the halls of those buildings. The total number of the Hermitage’s exhibits, including the Museum Storage, exceeds three million items. Having visited the Hermitage Museum, we are walking along the Palace Embankment. We are passing the Marble Palace – a building decorated with marble pilasters, originally built for the minion of Catherine the Great, Count Grigory Orlov. 32 types of marble were used for fi nishing the facades and the interiors of the Palace. We proceed to walk along the Palace Embankment and now, on our right, we can admire the monument to a Russian commander-in-chief A. V. Suvorov. It was unveiled on May 5, 1801, on the fi rst anniversary of Suvorov’s death, on the Field of Mars. The generalissimo is presented as Mars, the Roman god of war. The Palace Embankment starts from the Summer Garden. From the Embankment’s side, it is decorated with a delicate cast-iron railing (the architects Y. M. Felten and P. E. Egorov). The poet A. A. Akhmatova wrote about that railing: I want to the garden, where I was not old, To roses and railing – the best in the world… 8 DAY 1 The Summer Garden is a park and garden ensemble created at the order of Peter I in 1704 by the architects I. Matveev and M. Zemtsov and the gardeners Y. Roozen and I. Surmin. After walking through the garden, we reach the Moyka River Embankment, where the Mikhailovsky Castle stands proudly. It was built for the Russian Emperor Paul I in 1801, replacing the old wooden palace, where the Emperor was born. The Mikhailovsky Castle was encircled with moats with lift-bridges and protected by the guards. It was in this castle, where Paul I was cruelly killed in his sleeping room only 40 days after moving into the palace, on March 11, 1801. Later, the Castle was assigned to the Engineering School and got its second name – the Engineer’s Castle. We suggest that you go on a boat trip along the rivers and canals at the end of your fi rst day in Saint Petersburg. You can start this unforgettable trip from several wharves in the city. The nearest one is located on 23 Fontanka River Embankment, in front of the Anichkov Bridge, which is famous for the horse sculptures created by P.

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