Saint Petersburg was established in 1703 as the capital of the Russian Empire, serving in that role for over 200 years until the revolution of 1917. It is home to many famous landmarks including the Hermitage Museum, originally the Winter Palace of the Tsars housing over 3 million works of art, and the Cathedral of Saint Isaac. The city sits along several rivers and canals and has a long history and culture as a center of art, music, and literature in Russia.

1. Auto Advance Music By The Boston Pops Orchestra While Not Russian musicians , this Russian music is universally popular all around the world

2. Saint Petersburg ___________________ Established for the Czar Peter the Great One on 27 of May in the year 1703. It became the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years. It then ceased being the Capital of Russia in 1918, after the Revolution of 1917. It also had other names: Petrogrado (1914-1924) and Leningrad (1924-1991 Russia __________________________________

3. Saint Petersburg Dvortsovaya Square - Column Remembering Alexander The Great note Employees & Visitors to the Hermitage Museum.

4. Saint Petersburg Hermitage museum – As it appears beside the flowing river. Established in 1764 and inaugurated in 1852, the museum occupies five contiguous palaces . T he grea test being the old Winter Palace which was the official residence of the czars.

5. Saint Petersburg Hermitage Museum. - from the other the side directed toward the Dvortsovaya Square. Commissioned by Bartolomeo Rastrelli in white and green style . T he palace has 1,057 halls and rooms; 1,786 doors and 1,945 windows.

6. Saint Petersburg Catherine the Great was the first imperial occupant. The construction required more than three million craftsmen , one of its first great acquisitions received in 1865 – Madona and the Child (Litta Madona), by Leonardo of the Vinci -

7. Saint Petersburg Hermitage museum – Interior Balconey

8. Saint Petersburg Hermitage museum – Beautiful architectural columns and glowing light of candelabras

9. Saint Petersburg Hermitage m useum - the old original library

10. Saint Petersburg Hermitage museum - the Raphael Loggias gallery

11. Saint Petersburg Hermitage museum – Perhaps the beginning of a new great Russian artist? Who knows…

12. Saint Petersburg Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan (1810-1811), the main cathedral of the M etropolis of St. Petersburg

13. Saint Petersburg Peter The Great’s , summer palace . Actually it is a series of palaces and gardens, constructed between 1714 and 1725

14. Saint Petersburg Peter The Great P alace - the source of the “ Gulf of Samson” and the canal to the sea, with sight of the G ulf of Finland , an arm of the Baltic sea. .

15. Saint Petersburg Peter The Great P alace - architecture and paintings

16. Saint Petersburg Peter The Great Palace One of the dining rooms

17. Saint Petersburg Peter The Great Palace - One of the bedrooms.

18. Saint Petersburg Resurrection church of Christ (known as the Church of the spilled blood of Our Savior) was constructed between 1883 and 1907

19. Saint Petersburg Resurrection of Christ Church (known as Church of the spilled blood of Our Savior

20. Saint Petersburg The Catherine palace , in rococo style . It was the summer residence of the Russian czars, situated in the district of Tsarskove today known as , Pushkin .

21. Saint Petersburg Catherine palace in Pushkin – architectural details

22. Saint Petersburg Catherine palace in Pushkin – informal dining room

23. Saint Petersburg Statue of Alexander Pushkin (1900), The poet whose vast knowledge of the Russian language and wealth in its use influenced authors such as Gogol, Liermontov and Turgueneiev

24. Saint Petersburg Mikhailovsky palace, constructed in 1819-1825, home of the State Russian Museum since 1895.

25. Saint Petersburg Cathedral of Saint Isaac

26. Saint Petersburg Cathedral of Saint Isaac The beautiful decorated dome

27. Saint Petersburg Czar Nicholas II and T he Romanov F amily – in 1911 After the Revolution of 1917 (S t . Petersburg), then capital of the Empire, lost its title to Moscow, as capital of Russia

28. Saint Petersburg Aurora Cruiser – launched in 1900, a shining star of the imperial shipyards, it became a symbol of the October Revolution . Today, converted to a museum.

29. Saint Petersburg On a summer night, with the Church Our Savoir of Spilled Blood and the deep canal

30. Saint Petersburg ... The Same Area... On a brisk winter day...

31. Saint Petersburg But the n the colo u rs of S pring always arrive in St. Petersburg

32. Saint Petersburg Avtovo Subway Station

33. Saint Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre - Inaugurated in 1860, it is historical theat re of opera and ballet . (Kirov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet from 1935 up to 1992)

34. Saint Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre – real ly beautiful

35. Saint Petersburg Swan Lake – Presentation of the famous ballet of Tchaikovsky in the Imperial Theatre in Fontanka

36. Saint Petersburg Neva, is the main street; planned for Peter T he Great O ne to be the beginning of the road between Novogorod and Moscow.

37. Saint Petersburg Nevsky Prospect - today the avenue goes from the Admiralty until the Moscow Railway Station

38. Saint Petersburg Grand Europe Hotel

39. Saint Petersburg Morning Coffee at the Grand Europe Hotel

40. Saint Petersburg Th is most sumptuous building other than the imperial palace, was constructed in 1760 . In 1830 it was bought by Duke N.B. Yusupov. O n a visit to Italy the eccentric Duke was so enchanted with a staircase in white marble: he bought the palace only to bring the steps to St. Petersburg . Today this palace is a museum .

41. Saint Petersburg Monument to the water carrier – Museum and administrative complex of Vodokanal.

42. Saint Petersburg Egyptian Bridge - crossing the Lermontov Avenue on the River Fontanka. “Esfínge” workmanship of the sculptor Pavel Sokolov - 1 9 th. century.

43. Saint Petersburg The r iver s nows and the Twelve Colleges of the Saint Petersburg University

44. Saint Petersburg Bank Bridge - on the Griboyedov canal – 19 th . century

45. Saint Petersburg Dom Knigi “Book House”, situated in Art Nouveau building that was once the Singer House

46. Saint Petersburg Dom Knigi “book House” The Exterior Interior

47. Saint Petersburg Fyodor Dostoievsky, writer whose work s , including “Crime and Punishment” ‘ The Karamazov Brothers”, had deep and permanent effect on intellectual thought and literature

48. Saint Petersburg Dostoievsky Memorial Museum - where he wrote `Crime and Punishment '

49. Saint Petersburg East St. Petersburg is a charmer and Dostoevsky often said : ”it’s beauty only will save the world”

50. Saint Petersburg Just one normal day in St Petersburg…

51. The end Hope you Enjoyed the tour.