St. Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia, after Moscow. Specially built as an imperial capital ad exemplum of great European cities, St. Petersburg has a unique ambience that is found nowhere else. With the arrival of the twenty-first century, a new page in St. Petersburg's history has opened with the 300th anniversary of the founding of the city conducted in May, 2003.

Basic Dates in the History of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg is relatively young city. It celebrated its three-hundredth anniversary on the 27th of May, 2003. In spite of its young age, the city has always played, along with Moscow, the important part in the history of the whole country. During three centuries, St. Petersburg had three different names, was the Russian capital and faced many famous and tragic events of our history.
History of St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg was founded on the 16th of May, 1703. That day the six-bastion Peter and Paul fortress was ceremonially laid on Zayachy Island in the broadest part of the Neva estuary as a result of Russia's victory in the Northern War against Sweden. The fortress paved a way to the construction of the city and in 1710 the capital of Russia was transferred from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.
Legends and Myths about St. Petersbug Great Russian poets, writers and artists commemorated Saint Petersburg in their works and confessed that the city is covered with mystic aureole and full of riddles and mysteries. They called Petersburg the ghost city , which is definitely true, as the splendid palaces, majestic cathedrals and exquisite parks of the city have their own legends and myths. We suggest that you get acquainted with some of them.