1. Saint Petersburg __________________________________ Russia
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)

2. Saint Petersburg
Dvortsovaya Square – Alexander’s Column and General Staff building from the Hermitage

3. the old Winter Palace – official residence of the Tsars.
Saint Petersburg
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.

4. Saint Petersburg
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.

5. Saint Petersburg 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.

6. Saint Petersburg
The Hermitage – inside – a balcony

7. Saint Petersburg
The Hermitage – architecture and chandelier’s lights

8. Saint Petersburg
The Hermitage – old royal library

9. Saint Petersburg
The Hermitage - Raphael Loggia’s gallery

10. Hermitage Museum – the awakening of a new Great Russian artist?
Saint Petersburg
Hermitage Museum – the awakening of a new Great Russian artist?
Who knows…

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

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

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

14. Saint Petersburg
Peterhof Palace – inner architecture and paintings

15. Saint Petersburg
Peterhof Palace - a dining room

16. Saint Petersburg
Peterhof Palace - a bedroom

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

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

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

20. Saint Petersburg
Pushkin Catherine Palace – architecture’s details

21. Saint Petersburg
Pushkin Catherine Palace – banquet room

22. Statue of Alexander Pushkin (1900),
Saint Petersburg
Statue of Alexander Pushkin (1900),
poet which wide knowledge of Russian Idiom and richness in its use influenced authors like Gogol, Liermontov e Turgueiniev.

23. Saint Petersburg Mikhailovsky Palace, constructed in 1819-1825, houses
the State Russian Museum since 1895.

24. Saint Petersburg
Saint Isaac's Cathedral

25. Saint Petersburg
Saint Isaac’s Cathedral – dome with a lavish decoration

26. Tsar Nicholas II and the Romanov family - 1911
Saint Petersburg
Tsar Nicholas II and the Romanov family
After the 1917 Revolution Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Capital of the Empire, lost its title to Moscow, Capital of Russia.

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

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

29. Saint Petersburg
The same place... in a winter day...

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

31. Metro - Avtovo subway station
Saint Petersburg
Metro - Avtovo subway station

32. (Kirov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet from 1935 to 1992)
Saint Petersburg
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)

33. Saint Petersburg
Mariinsky Theatre – Royal box

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

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

36. Saint Petersburg Nevsky Prospect - today the avenue runs from the
Admiralty to the Moscow Railway Station

37. Saint Petersburg
Grand Hotel Europe

38. Saint Petersburg
Breakfast at the Grand Hotel Europe

39. Saint Petersburg
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.

40. Saint Petersburg
Water Carrier monument - Museum and administrative complex Vodokanal

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

42. Neva river and the Twelve Collegiums of Saint Petersburg University

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

44. Dom Knigi “House of books” is located in the Art Nouveau style
Saint Petersburg
Dom Knigi “House of books” is located in the Art Nouveau style
once Singer Building

45. Saint Petersburg
door detail
Dom Knigi “House of books”
inside

46. Saint Petersburg Fyodor Dostoevsky , writer whose works, including
Portrait by Vassili Perov
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.

47. Dostoevsky Memorial Museum - where he wrote “Crime and Punishment”
Saint Petersburg
Dostoevsky Memorial Museum - where he wrote “Crime and Punishment”

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

49. Saint Petersburg
So long, St. Petersburg!