Saint Petersburg

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Founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 27, 1703, it was capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years. Ceased being the capital in 1918 after the Russian

Revolution of 1917.The city's other names were: Petrograd (1914–1924) and Leningrad (1924–1991)

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Dvortsovaya Square – Alexander’s Column and General Staff building from the Hermitage

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Hermitage Museum from Neva River. Founded in 1764; inaugurated in 1852, it occupies five contiguous palaces, the largest being

the old Winter Palace – official residence of the Tsars.

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Hermitage Museum – Winter Palace – side at Dvortsovaya Square. Designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, in Rococo-style green-and-white,

it has 1,057 halls and rooms; 1,786 doors and 1,945 windows.

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Catherine the Great was its first imperial occupant.Its collection exceeds three million art pieces; one of its great

first acquisitions was Da Vinci’s The Madonna and Child in 1865.

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The Hermitage – inside – a balcony

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The Hermitage – architecture and chandelier’s lights

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The Hermitage – old royal library

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The Hermitage - Raphael Loggia’s gallery

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Hermitage Museum – the awakening of a new Great Russian artist? Who knows…

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Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan (1810-1811) is the mother cathedral of the metropolis of St. Petersburg

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Peterhof, the Summer palace, in fact a series of palaces and gardens, built between 1714 and 1725

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Peterhof Palace - the Samson Fountain and Sea Channel overlooking the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea

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Peterhof Palace – inner architecture and paintings

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Peterhof Palace - a dining room

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Peterhof Palace - a bedroom

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Resurrection of Christ Church (a.k.a. The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood) built between 1883 and 1907

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Church of Resurrection of Christ (a.k.a. The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood) -

details

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The Catherine Palace was the Rococo summer residence of the Russian tsars, located in the district of Tsarskove Selo (Pushkin).

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Pushkin Catherine Palace – architecture’s details

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Pushkin Catherine Palace – banquet room

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Statue of Alexander Pushkin (1900),poet which wide knowledge of Russian Idiom and richness in its use

influenced authors like Gogol, Liermontov e Turgueiniev.

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Mikhailovsky Palace, constructed in 1819-1825, housesthe State Russian Museum since 1895.

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Saint Isaac's Cathedral

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Saint Isaac’s Cathedral – dome with a lavish decoration

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Tsar Nicholas II and the Romanov family - 1911After the 1917 Revolution Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Capital of

the Empire, lost its title to Moscow, Capital of Russia.

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The Aurora Cruiser launched in 1900, achievement of Imperial shipyards, became a symbol of the October Revolution. Nowadays is a museum.

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Summer night with Church Our Savior on Spilled Blood in background...

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The same place... in a winter day...

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But Springtime’s colors always comes in St. Petersburg too...

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Metro - Avtovo subway station

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Mariinsky Theatre - is a historic theatre of opera and ballet, opened in 1860. (Kirov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet from 1935 to 1992)

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Mariinsky Theatre – Royal box

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Swan Lake – performance of Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet at the Imperial Theatre on the Fontanka.

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Nevsky Prospekt, or the Neva, is the main street; planned by Peter the Great as beginning of the road to Novgorod and Moscow

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Nevsky Prospect - today the avenue runs from the Admiralty to the Moscow Railway Station

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Grand Hotel Europe

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Breakfast at the Grand Hotel Europe

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Yusupov Palace, the most sumptuous non-imperial palace, was built in the 1760, and

in 1830 the palace became the property

of Duke N.B.Yusupov.

Visiting Italy the eccentric Duke admired a white

marble staircase: bought the entire

palace just to have it transported to St.

Petersburg... Today, this palace is

a Museum.

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Water Carrier monument - Museum and administrative complex Vodokanal

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Egyptian Bridge - carries Lermontov Avenue over the Fontanka River. “Sphynx” by the sculptor Pavel Sokolov - 19th-century

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Neva river and the Twelve Collegiums of Saint Petersburg University

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Bank Bridge - across the Griboyedov Canal – 19th-century Mythological “Griffins” by the sculptor Pavel Sokolov

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Dom Knigi “House of books” is located in the Art Nouveau styleonce Singer Building

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Dom Knigi “House of books”door detail inside

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Fyodor Dostoevsky , writer whose works, including ‘Crime and Punishment’ and ‘The Brothers Karamazov” have had a

profound and lasting effect on intellectual thought and world literature.

Portrait by Vassili Perov

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Dostoevsky Memorial Museum - where he wrote “Crime and Punishment”

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And from the enchanting St. Petersburg Dostoievsky prophesied: “Only beauty will save the World!”

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So long, St. Petersburg!