Saint Petersburg

Founded on 27 May 1703 by Tsar Peter the Great on Hare Island at the mouth of the Neva River, Saint Petersburg served as the capital of the Russian Empire from 1712 until 1918. Built across 42 islands at the eastern head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, the city is home to more than 5.6 million residents, making it the second-largest city in Russia and the northernmost metropolis on Earth with a population exceeding one million. Known as Petrograd between 1914 and 1924 and as Leningrad until 1991, its historic centre and surrounding imperial estates were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990.

Unlike older Russian cities that grew outward in concentric rings around a hilltop kremlin, Saint Petersburg was laid out according to rectilinear European planning principles with broad avenues, granite-lined river embankments, and uniform Baroque and neoclassical facades. Three radial thoroughfares, led by the 4.5-kilometre Nevsky Prospekt, fan out from the gilded spire of the Admiralty Building across the Moika River, the Griboyedov Canal, and the Fontanka River.

International and domestic flights arrive at Pulkovo Airport (LED), located 23 kilometres south of Palace Square and connected to Moskovskaya Metro Station on Line 2 by frequent city buses 39 and 39Ex. High-speed Sapsan and overnight express trains from Moscow terminate at Moskovsky Railway Terminal on Vosstaniya Square at the bend of Nevsky Prospekt. Suburban trains to Peterhof depart from Baltiysky Station, while trains to Pushkin and Pavlovsk leave from Vitebsky Station.

Visitors arriving in the city benefit most from staying within the Admiralteysky or Tsentralny districts near Palace Square, Saint Isaac's Square, or Arts Square, where the State Hermitage Museum and the State Russian Museum sit within easy walking distance. Quieter boutique hotels line the Moika and Fontanka river embankments near the Mariinsky Theatre.

Start on Palace Square before the green-and-white Winter Palace and the 47.5-metre Alexander Column, then tour the State Hermitage collections. Walk along the Griboyedov Canal to the mosaic-covered Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, Kazan Cathedral, and the panoramic colonnade of Saint Isaac's Cathedral. Cross the Neva to the Peter and Paul Fortress and dedicate full days to the fountains of Peterhof and the Amber Room in Tsarskoye Selo.

Saint Petersburg's dining scene combines nineteenth-century Franco-Russian aristocratic recipes with Baltic fish and Soviet-era comfort classics. Sample beef Stroganoff, created in the city for Count Alexander Stroganov, alongside fresh spring smelt (koryushka) from the Neva, buckwheat blini with red caviar, and hot sugar-dusted pyshki doughnuts served at historic counters off Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street.

From the premiere of Tchaikovsky's ballets at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre to the poetry of Alexander Pushkin and Anna Akhmatova and the novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Saint Petersburg shaped modern Russian literature, music, and visual art. At latitude 59 degrees 56 minutes north, the city experiences the annual White Nights from late May to mid-July, when twilight lingers all night and crowds gather along the Neva embankments to watch the bascule bridges rise.