St. Petersburg!

"Venice of the North"

The city of St. Petersburg, the second largest city in the country, was founded by the tsar Peter the Great (for which the city is named for) in 1703 after the first visit of a Russian tsar to Europe. St.Petersburg is located on the delta of the Neva River, and was built on 101 islands that are surrounded by smooth rivers and canals. A series of bridges connect these islands together. Peter the Great was assisted by French and Italian architects to design the city. Therefore, the architecture of the city is much more European than that of Moscow and other cities in Russia. St. Petersburg is often called the "Venice of the North" because of its waterways running all through the city.

In St. Petersburg is the Hermitage Museum (picture shown below), or the Winter Palace, located at Palace Square.

In this museum is a collection of over three million pieces of fine art displayed in four hundred rooms. Some include pieces of collections belonging to tsars and their families, such as jewels. The palace itself used to be a home for the tsars and their families which they occupied during some of the winter months of the year. St. Petersburg was once the capital of Imperial Russia, which collapsed before the 1920s. When Russia became part of the Soviet Union, the name of the city was changed to Leningrad after the Communist leader Vladimir Illiytch Lenin, but the capital of Russia was also changed to Moscow. Today this city is once again called St. Petersburg.

A great attraction in St. Petersburg is the Petrodvorets, the summer palace of Peter the Great located on the Gulf of Finland. It is actually a replica of the original Petrodvorets, which was destroyed by the Germans during the second world war. There are hundreds of fountains on the palace grounds which, along with its gardens and elaborate buildings, add to the beauty of it. There are several surprise fountains Peter the Great had included because he loved a practical joke. If a person steps on the right cobblestone, they get an unexpected spray of water.

Petrodvorets

Other important sites in St. Petersburg are the Marinsky Theater, the naval vessel Aurora, the Admirality Building, and the Peter and Paul Fortress.

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Kari Zander, 8th grade, Ligon Middle School
Raleigh, North Carolina
midlink5@mail.ligon.wake.k12.nc.us