Saint Petersburg.

History

Saint Petersburg was founded on 27 May 1703 on the site of a fortress taken from the Swedes. It was Russia's capital from 1712 to 1918, apart from a short break in 1728–1732. In 1914 it became Petrograd, in 1924 Leningrad, and in 1991 it took back its original name. The darkest chapter of its history is the Siege of Leningrad: it lasted 872 days, from September 1941 to January 1944, and killed more than a million residents, mostly through starvation.

Culture & traditions

The historic centre, with its 18th- and 19th-century Baroque and Neoclassical buildings, is a UNESCO World Heritage site together with the palace ensembles around the city. The Hermitage is one of the world's largest art museums, joined by the Russian Museum and the Kunstkamera. The Mariinsky Theatre is famous for opera and ballet. The skyline is shaped by the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Winter Palace, and the Kazan and St Isaac's cathedrals, while the 462-metre Lakhta Center on the gulf shore is Europe's tallest skyscraper.

Nature

The city sits in the delta of the Neva, a river only 74 km long but carrying a huge volume of water from Lake Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland. There are about 42 islands within city limits, the largest being Vasilyevsky. The Neva freezes from December to April, and more than 300 floods have struck since the city's founding. Green spaces include the Summer and Tauride gardens, Primorsky Victory Park and the largely parkland Yelagin and Kamenny islands. From mid-May to late July come the white nights, when it never gets fully dark.

Sport

The city's main football club is Zenit, which since 2017 has played at the stadium on Krestovsky Island, designed by Kisho Kurokawa on the site of the old Kirov Stadium. The arena, with its retractable roof, hosted the 2017 Confederations Cup and matches of the 2018 World Cup and Euro 2020. The ice hockey club SKA is another local pride, and a basketball team also bears the Zenit name.

Food & drink

A Petersburg classic is the pyshka, the local name for a doughnut, either ring-shaped or without a hole. The pyshechnaya on Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street has served them since the 1960s and has become part of city lore. On Nevsky Prospekt the Eliseyev Emporium, an Art Nouveau building of 1902–1903, still sells delicacies, confectionery and wine. The city has long been known for brewing, too.

Practical information

Most visitors fly into Pulkovo Airport. From Moscow, high-speed trains arrive at the Moskovsky station, and the city also has a seaport. The easiest way around is the metro, opened in 1955. The city is on Moscow time. The climate is humid continental: summer days reach about 23 °C, winter lows sit around −8 °C, with snow from December to March. The best time is the white nights from late May to July, when the bridges open at night.

What to see

• The Hermitage — one of the world's largest art museums, in the Winter Palace
• Peter and Paul Fortress — where the city began, with its tall-spired cathedral
• Peterhof — the Grand Cascade and the Samson fountain with its 20-metre jet
• St Isaac's Cathedral — one of the defining shapes of the city skyline
• Mariinsky Theatre — world-class opera and ballet
• Drawbridges — a night-time spectacle over the Neva during the navigation season