Saint Petersburg
Also known as St. Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad, Petersburg, Sankt-Peterburg, St Petersburg, St.Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd (Петроград) and later Leningrad (Ленинград), is the second-largest city in Russia, after Moscow, the nation's capital. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. With an area of 1,439 square kilometers, Saint Petersburg is the smallest administrative division of Russia by area. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents. As the former capital of the Russian Empire, and a historically strategic port, it is governed as a federal city.
AI overview
Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city, located on the Baltic Sea and serving as a major port with a population of over 5.6 million residents. As the former capital of the Russian Empire, it holds significant historical and strategic importance and is governed as a federal city.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
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Place details
- Locality
- Санкт-Петербург
- Region
- Санкт-Петербург
- Country
- Россия
- Population
- 5,351,935
Travel guide
Get in
Russian visa requirements are complex but are not hard to manage with some online research. See the Get In section of the article on Russia for information.
See
thumb|right|350px|The Hermitage Museum thumb|right|Bridges by night thumb|right|Church on the Spilled Blood thumb|right|The fountain in waters of Neva River at the spit of Vasilievsky Island right|thumb|The Exchange Building and the Rostral Columns thumb|right|The Kunstkamera thumb|Saint Michael's Castle
The historic center of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments are UNESCO world heritage, so definitely worth your while.
As the center of the Russian world for 200 years of the Romanov Dynasty, the city reaped the rewards of Peter the Great's impossibly grandiose and tyrannical vision, and the Empire's extreme inequality. The wealth of the wealthy in Imperial Russia was almost unfathomably extreme, and led to the extreme opulence of the palaces and ecclesiastical buildings throughout the city center, as well as the suburban palaces at Peterhof, Gatchina, Strelna, Pushkin, and Pavlovsk. The greatest concentration of sights is found within the huge area of the center inside the Obvodny Canal, along the south embankment of Vasilievsky Island, and in the southern half of Petrogradsky Island.
Do
The Telegram Messenger groups InterNational Events, SPb Couchsurfing, Say Yes Saint Petersburg, Train Your Brain, World Language Cafe, Mafia English Events, and English Meetup Saint Petersburg all contain almost daily events for meeting locals or other foreigners, excursions, or practicing languages.
Buy
ATMs accept Russian cards only. Ligovka is the best place to exchange currency; rates are published online. Do not exchange money on the street: the rate won't be any better, and you run a high risk of encountering any of numerous scams.
Small cornerstores are not necessarily more expensive than larger stores.
Churches often have small souvenir/religious shops with a large variety of items.
The famous place to shop is of course on Nevsky Prospekt in the Center. The streetfront shops there, Passazh, and the historic mall at Gostiny Dvor skew upscale, but there are street markets just off Nevsky, most notably Apraksin Dvor (south on Sadovaya from Gostiny Dvor) where you can get anything on the cheap (especially cheap if you speak Russian).
~40 min read
Article
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Nyenschantz (Ниеншанц) and after that Petrograd (Петроград) and later Leningrad (Ленинград), is the second-largest city in Russia, after Moscow, the nation's capital. Situated on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, its area of 1,439 square kilometers (556 sq mi) renders it the smallest administrative division of Russia by area. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents. As the former capital of the Russian Empire, and a historically strategic Baltic port, it is governed as a federal city.
The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the site of a captured Swedish fortress, and was named after the apostle Saint Peter. In Russia, Saint Petersburg is historically and culturally associated with the birth of the Russian Empire and Russia's entry into modern history as a European great power. It served as a capital of the Tsardom of Russia, and the subsequent Russian Empire, from 1712 to 1918 (being replaced by Moscow for a short period between 1728 and 1730). After the October Revolution in 1917, the Bolsheviks moved their government to Moscow. The city was renamed Leningrad after Lenin's death in 1924. It was the site of the siege of Leningrad during World War II, the most lethal siege in history. In June 1991, only a few months before the Belovezha Accords and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, voters in a city-wide referendum supported restoring the city's original name.