ST. PETERSBURG, AN EXPERIENCE OF A LIFE TIME, NOT TO BE MISSED ...

Russia is the world’s largest country with an area of 17 million sq km. In the northwest corner, sits St. Petersburg, Russia’s second city with a population of approximately 5 million. Once Russia’s capital, St. Petersburg was known as the “Window to the West”. The city founded by Tsar Peter The Great was built on marshy lands where the Neva River joins the Gulf of Finland. Estonia and Finland are St. Petersburg’s closest neighbors.

Being in close proximity to Lithuania and Estonia, St. Petersburg is often requested by our clients. We have an excellent working relationship with our Russian supplier’s that assures our guests a high standard of service and adequate rates.

What more could you ask for; The Hermitage, Ballet, Palaces, Caviar, Canals, Vodka, Bridges, Museums, Churches, Icons, St. Petersburg has it all and more …The city is the gem of Russia and the most wanted city on today’s world tourism market.

A city built on water, St. Petersburg offers spectacular scenery and a most amazing array of fascinating sights to see and visit. The Peter and Paul Fortress is one of them, started in 1703 it marks the founding of the city itself and is in stark contrast to the Baroque Monasteries’ and Neo-Classical Palaces to be seen throughout the city and surrounding suburbs. The city’s turbulent history comes to life in many of its museums which display the fine art collections of Catherine the Great to memorabilia of the revolution in the Kshesinskaya Mansion.

The city recently celebrated its 300 year anniversary. Some of the main highlights of St. Petersburg include;

A must see is the grand ensemble comprising the Winter Palace built for Tsarina Elizabeth by the famous Bartolomero Rastrelli and the Hermitage that was added by Catherine the Great to house her enormous art collection. A majestic, group of buildings with restored interiors today houses a museum displaying the largest Russian exposition of World Arts from ancient times to the beginning of 20^th century.

Not to be missed the Russian Museum holds one of the world’s greatest collections of Russian icons and art through the ages.

Two more museums worthy of a visit are the Naval Museum and the Kunstkammer (Houses Peter the Great’s collection of Biological curiosities) are on the eastern end Vasilevskiy Island just across from the Palace Embankment and Peter and Paul Fortress.

Cathedrals, Churches, and Monasteries abound in St. Petersburg, One of the first churches, was SS Peter and Paul, a magnificent church designed by Domenico Trezzini in 1712, who produced a Baroque masterpiece. After Peter’s death in 1725 the Cathedral became the last resting place of the Tsars.

Another outstanding edifice, St. Isaac’s, one of the world’s largest Cathedrals, is filled with hundreds of important 19^th Century works of art.

Kazan is one of St. Petersburg’s majestic churches with a nave that still houses an exhibition of Christianity. The Cathedral is named after the miracle working icon of Kazan, Mother of God, which it once housed.

The Church of Spilled Blood, a memorial to the assassinated Tsar Alexander II, with its tent roofed steeple, is a masterpiece of Russian revival style clothed in a riot of colour and intricate detailing, set alongside one of St. Petersburg’s many canals.

Alexander Nevsky Monastery founded by Peter the Great in 1710, commemorates the Prince of Novgorod who defeated the Swedes on the Neva River in 1240.

Nevskiy Prospect, St. Petersburg’s main artery, reveals a profusion of architectural styles, once known as the “Street of Tolerance” for the churches of different denominations established in the late 18^th and 19^th Centuries. Nevskiy Prospect has been the focus of St. Petersburg shopping, and entertainment for centuries. Bustling with life, cafes, bars, restaurants and shops are there at your fingertips’, just waiting to be sampled.

A network of rivers, canals and bridges are part of the mosaic of St. Petersburg that often draws comparisons to Amsterdam and Venice. Bridges, there are over 300 in the city, many of them ornamented with sculptures, elaborate lamp posts and detailed wrought ironwork.

St. Petersburg’s suburbs offer tourists an opportunity to get acquainted with lavish, luxurious palaces that once were the summer residences of Russia’s Tsars and nobles at Peterhof, Tsarskoe Selo and other neighboring towns.

The only concern for traveler planning to visit St. Petersburg is, “can I afford it,” because for the moment it is definitely the most expensive destination on the Baltic Sea shores.

St. Petersburg a city once experienced - never forgotten!