St Petersburg was called the new Babylon and the Palmyra of the North; it was compared to Rome and Venice. But none comparison or description can convey the essence of its unfathomable and changeable image.

The architectural appearance, tragic fate and mystic aura of St Petersburg amaze all those who are familiarizing themselves with the city. Founded in 1703, it soon became the brilliant capital of the Russian Empire and the arena of crucial events influencing the destiny of the whole country and its people.

The three past centuries seem to have been compressed tightly in the historical centre of the city on the Neva. The Peter and Paul Fortress, the Kunstkammer, the Academy of Science and the line-shaped streets of Vasilyevsky Island retain the memories of Peter the Great, the regal founder of the city. The Admiralty recalls that St Petersburg was born as an outpost on the northern seas and as Russia’s naval city.

The unique Hermitage and the Neva clad in granite show how harmoniously have ‘Peter’s stately spirit and Catherine’s cleverness’ combined here. The masterpieces created by the architects Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, Andreyan Zakharov and Carlo Rossi lend to the city an ‘austere slender appearance’ that implements the lofty traditions of ensemble building. The fancy Baroque, majestic Classicism, the elegant northern Art Nouveau and sever “Stalin’s Empire” – the city’s streets may well serve as a veritable reference book of architecture. St Petersburg and its suburbs have retained to this day fabulously rich royal residences and grand ducal palaces, luxurious mansions of the nobility and graceful churches.

Monuments and arcs, columns and obelisks decorate the city’s streets; green parks and gardens with shady avenues hide behind its ornate fences. Bridges with elegant lanterns and lacy metal handrails span St Petersburg rivers and canals. The northern capital is especially beautiful in the phantasmal light of the White Nights.