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Saint Petersburg

City in RussiaAt the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea, Saint Petersburg stands on the Neva River in north-western Russia.

What it's known for

Peter the Great founded the city in 1703 to give Russia a seaport for trade with Europe. Built on swampy ground and crossed by many waterways, it is called the Venice of the North and is known for the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world.

Fun facts

  1. The city was renamed Petrograd in 1914 and Leningrad in 1924, and it took back the name Saint Petersburg in 1991.
  2. In summer the night sky does not get completely dark for about a month, a time known as the White Nights.
  3. The Peter and Paul Fortress was the first brick and stone building of the new city.

Finding it on the globe

Follow the Gulf of Finland east from the Baltic Sea, past Helsinki and Tallinn, to its very end: Saint Petersburg sits there at the mouth of the Neva.

Easy to mix up

Saint Petersburg was Russia's capital from 1712 to 1918, apart from two years, but the capital is Moscow, to the south-east.

Sources: Wikipedia: Saint Petersburg