St. Petersburg Russia's great northern capital of Russia

Many fans of travel, both Russian and foreign, dream of visiting Russia's great northern capital. Founded by Peter I in 1703, the city was always intended to be great, but the modern St. Petersburg has outgrown its old boundaries manyfold. Among other European cities St. Petersburg occupies the third position in terms of the population (4.6 million people) and is right after Moscow and London. It is one of the most cosmopolitan, safe and tolerant city in Russia. The historic city center and the complexes of monuments associated with it are included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

It is noteworthy that St. Petersburg is the northernmost city in the world with a population of over one million. This high-latitude location is the source of one particular symbol of the city — the White Nights. In the period around the summer solstice, the sun only sinks below the horizon by 7° even at midnight, and all night it gets no darker than twilight. The lightest nights are from late May to mid July. Various festivals and festivities are held around this time. The motif of the White Nights is widely used in art and literature, and exploring the city at this time is the most romantic entertainment you can think of. The city of the White Nights occupies the first place among Russian cities and one of the first in the world by the square of its water areas and the number of bridges.

There are about 8 thousand sights of interest and more than a thousand cultural institutions which include museums, theatres, concert halls, exhibitions. These makes St. Petersburg an attractive tourist centre which is highly appreciated by guests from all over the world. You will need a few days to do its attractions justice, and if your plans include a visit to the Hermitage and Russian Museum, you can definitely add on another day or two. But Piter is not the only interesting place in the Leningrad region and its surrounding area: After all, people colonized this area as early as the Mesolithic era, around 8,000 B.C.

In the first century, the Finno-Ugric tribes who lived here were actively engaged in various kinds of farming, especially since the vast wooded areas and access to the Gulf of Finland made it possible to obtain from nature everything necessary for life. One of the major ancient sites, Ladoga, carried major political and economic weight for a long time. Later it became part of the Novgorod republic, which built many fortifications and made every possible effort to protect Lake Ladoga from attack by the Livonian knights and Swedish feudal lords. The fate of this territory, now part of the Leningrad region, has never been easy.

Over the centuries it has been “cut off” from Russia many times: for example, in the Time of Troubles it was taken possession by Sweden; between 1917 and the war its borders changed constantly, and during World War II it sadly became notorious for the 872-day siege of Leningrad. Today, the Leningrad region is one of the most successful industrial and cultural areas of the country, with numerous preserved monuments to the region’s history and ethnography. Many new cottage complexes, holiday sites and camp sites have sprung up in the vicinity of St. Petersburg in recent years, offering a wide choice of recreation.

For example, many of them have their own stables and also offer the opportunity of riding snowmobiles or going on hiking or cross-country skiing trips. Nearby there are also ski resorts, which buzz with activity even in summer, offering rough terrain quadbiking and even motocross competitions. The Leningrad region also has paraglider and parachute sites, kite and surf associations and diving clubs.

You can go fishing on the coast, rivers and lakes, not to mention take a trip on a motor boat or sailing yacht.