"Venice of the North" a Saint Petersburg Travel Page by hunterV

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Speaking about this city I can't help thinking about Venice that lies on 116 islands, whereas St.Petersburg lies on more than 40 islands. That is why St.Petersburg is often called "Venice of the North".

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The city includes dozens of big and small rivers, brooks and canals within its present boundaries. Their total number is 68!

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You can see a lot of beautiful bridges in the city. One of my favorite bridges that I often crossed is the Bank Bridge (a suspension bridge) decorated with figures of gryphons. I used to cross that bridge almost each time I went downtown. The bridge is located behind Kazan Cathedral along Griboyedov Canal. These gryphons are mythical creatures considered to be guardians of gold in ancient times.
The city is also famous for its splendid palaces. All in all there are 150 palaces in this city now.
As far as I know, the longest street in the city is Obukhov Defence Avenue that is 9,760 meters/6 miles long.
They say the city has over 1,800 streets, avenues, lanes and embankments with the total length of more than two thousand kilometres.

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"Little Winter Ditch" canal, St.Petersburg

1703 - 2008

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St.Petersburg marked its 300th anniversary on May 27, 2003.
They began to build the city in 1703 as a fortress to defend the outlet to the Baltic Sea that Russia conquered back from Sweden.
The busiest thoroughfare of the city is Nevsky Avenue named after the River Neva. It would be easier to call it simply Neva Avenue.
This avenue stretches for more than three miles.
It's the cultural hub of the city with its numerous libraries, museums, theaters, publishing houses and editorial offices.
Among the squares of the city Arts Square is very nice, popular and famous. It is in front of the Russian Museum that I liked to visit during my stay there.
I was privileged to serve in the army in that city as a soldier fulfilling my sacred citizen's duty. There was no escaping that duty in Soviet times.
Also, it would have been a shame for a man not to have joined the Soviet Army. First of all, the young ladies would not date you.
During my year-long stay in this splendid city I often visited the Russian Museum that stands in Pushkin Square and admired the Pushkin monument in front of it.
I enjoyed my strolls and bus drives about the city, admired its straight thoroughfares, spacious squares, granite embankments, magnificent palaces, numerous bridges, monuments and churches.
As a Soviet soldier wearing a uniform of the Army Map Service with golden letters CA ("Sovietskaya Armiya") on my black shoulderstraps, I had a privilege of jumping all the lines at any theater/movie theater or a museum. It was especially useful at the Hermitage where I couild easily jump the kilometer-long lines and enter the Hermitage freely without even having to apologize... I had the right to a free entrance to any museum and I only had to pay 10 kopeck instead of one rouble at the Hermitage. What a well-respected guy I was! :-)
A Russian web site about the Hermitage

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Downtown Leningrad (1977)

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A Hermitage hall, St.Petersburg

Wonderful Sites!

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34 Palace Embankment is the address of the world-famous Hermitage that along with the British Museum and the Louvre is one of the leading arts museums of the world.
The Hermitage, as its name suggests, is a place of seclusion. Empress Catherine II gave that name to the part of her palace (called the Winter Palace) where she kept unique art treasures. This museum contains 125 exhibition halls now and the palace itself consists of 600 rooms.
Madonna Litta, so called after Duke Litta, who once owned this picture is one of the treasures of the Hermitage. This work strikes you by its blissful tranquility and stresses maternal love as the supreme human value. This picture along with other work of Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna with a Flower - (it was also called Benois Madonna after its former owner) is exhibited in Hall # 214.
Your impression of this city on the Neva can be completed by visiting the nearby estates: Petrodvorets (formerly Peterhof), Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo) and Pavlovsk. All these towns are roughly a half an hour's drive by car from St.Petersburg. There you will find palaces, fountains and parks designed by world-famous architects and built by anonymous Russian craftsmen of the 17th century.

Enjoy your trip to Venice of the North!

Special thanks to my new friend Michael Posner from Florida who visited this wonderful city too and was kind enough to share some of his marvellous pictures with me.

Happy traveling, friends!

See you in St.Petersburg!

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