Where to Stay in Saint Petersburg, Sankt-Peterburg

What is Saint Petersburg known for?

Saint Petersburg is known as Russia's imperial capital on the Neva River. The Hermitage Museum holds one of the world's largest art collections, and the Russian Museum keeps the national school. The Mariinsky Theatre stages opera and ballet, and gilded domes crown Saint Isaac's Cathedral and the Church of the Savior on Blood.

At anchor lies the cruiser Aurora. Water and palaces define it.

What are the main landmarks in Saint Petersburg?

Saint Petersburg wears its imperial past in stone across the centre. The Hermitage Museum and the Russian Museum hold the art, while Saint Isaac's Cathedral, the Church of the Savior on Blood, and Kazan Cathedral raise their domes over the streets. The Peter and Paul Fortress guards the river.

Inside it stands the Peter and Paul Cathedral, its tall gold spire a landmark from far off. The Kunstkamera and the Admiralty building line the far banks.

What is the history of Saint Petersburg?

Saint Petersburg was founded in 1703 on the marshes of the Neva River delta. Work began with the Peter and Paul Fortress on an island in the stream, and the new city rose around it. It became the capital of the Russian Empire, and palaces, canals, and cathedrals filled the delta over the following century.

The Admiralty building and the great cathedrals followed as the port took shape. Court and fleet made it grow. The name changed with the times, to Petrograd and then to Leningrad, before returning to Saint Petersburg.

Names came and went here. Locals still call it Piter, a familiar short form that has outlasted every official change. The historic centre survived, remarkably whole, and its palaces and waterways are listed as the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg.

Nearby monuments joined the Silver Ring of the region's historic towns. The city stands among the great cultural centres of the Northwest of Russia. Its streets still carry the plan the first builders laid along the Neva River three centuries ago, when the delta first drained into a capital.

Where is Saint Petersburg?

Saint Petersburg lies at the head of the Gulf of Finland, where the Neva River empties into the Baltic Sea. The historic core spreads across the islands of the Neva delta, cut by canals and joined by bridges that lift for shipping at night. It sits low over the water.

The city anchors the Northwest of Russia, its low ground barely rising above the tide.

What is the climate of Saint Petersburg?

Saint Petersburg has a cool and damp maritime climate, tempered by the Gulf of Finland. Winters are long, grey, and cold, with ice forming along the Neva River and the canals. Summers stay mild and brief.

Because the city lies so far north, midsummer brings the white nights, when the sky never fully darkens and the light lingers over the water past midnight. Autumn turns wet and windy.

How do you get to Saint Petersburg?

Saint Petersburg is a major port and rail hub on the Baltic Sea, reached by air, train, road, and water. The Moskovsky railway station sends the main trains toward Moscow and the interior, and its platforms open onto Ploshchad Vosstaniya. Ships call at the sea terminals.

From the Gulf of Finland the port handles Baltic traffic, while the metro and the bridges knit the delta together for travellers moving about the centre. Time your river crossings before the bridges lift.