It would probably be wrong for me if I did not tell you about the most beautiful places and monuments of my city. In my story about myself, I mentioned that I live for many years in one of the most beautiful cities in Europe - St. Petersburg (Russia). The city was founded in 1703 by the Great Russian Tsar Peter the Great. At the end of the 17th century, Russia waged several wars for expanding its territory, strengthening its influence both in Europe and in the East. In addition, it was necessary to provide access both to the Mediterranean and to the Baltic Seas. But despite the political and economic difficulties, Peter the Great tried to ensure Russia's influence in the cultural sphere. For these purposes Peter invited a large number of famous architects, scientists and people of science and art to Russia. But in addition to inviting specialists from abroad, the tsar sent thousands of young and talented people to study abroad, hoping to return them later to Russia as experienced scientists, masters, architects, artists, military and political figures. During this period of the beginning of the 18th century, St. Petersburg from a small fortress on the Neva River began to turn into one of the most magnificent cities in Europe.
This is the first construction, built on the joint project of the Great Petrine and the French engineer Lambert on the island of the Neva River - Peter and Paul Fortress.
One of the masterpieces of architecture erected in St. Petersburg is the Winter Palace (the Hermitage). It was built on the Palace Square of the city by the Russian architect of Italian origin Bartalomeo Francesco Rastrelli in 1754-1762.
The Winter Palace is the most famous architectural building of St. Petersburg. It consists of many buildings and houses millions of exhibits and masterpieces of world art. They say that to fully get acquainted with the exhibits presented in the walls of this palace museum, it is necessary to spend several years.
In the square in front of the Winter Palace, military parades and mass festivities take place from the time of the tsar to the present day.
On the same place in front of the Winter Palace in 1834, the architect Auguste Monferan, in honor of the victory of the Russian army over Napoleon, erected the Alexandrian column.
Another masterpiece of the creation of the architect Auguste Montferrand was the St. Isaac's Cathedral, built in 1818-1858. This cathedral is located in the center of St. Petersburg near the Winter Palace.
The most famous and beautiful street of the city is Nevsky Prospekt. Nevsky Prospekt begins from the building of the Naval Admiralty, built in 1704 - 1706 by the architect Andriyan Zakharov
and ends Nevsky Prospekt complex of buildings and structures of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra founded in 1713. The Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra includes a complex of monasteries, cathedrals and necropolises with a huge square. Lavra was founded in honor of the victory of Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky over the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in 1240
Throughout Nevsky Prospekt there are dozens of masterpieces of architecture, which we can talk about for hours. I will try to further tell you in more detail about each of these museums-monuments. I will pay special attention to two of them here.
The first building is another cathedral right on Nevsky Prospekt. Kazan Cathedral was built in 1801 - 1811 by architect Andrei Voronikhin to store the icon of the Kazan Mother of God. After the war with the French army of Napoleon in 1812 the cathedral became a monument of Russian military glory. In this cathedral was buried the great commander Mikhail Kutuzov and kept the keys to the taken cities and other trophies of the Russian army.
The second building is the famous State Russian Museum, built by the famous Russian architect Karl Ivanovich Rossi in 1819-1825. It is a complex of buildings for the storage and exhibitions of works of art and painting and is one of the largest in the world along with the Winter Palace.
Collections and exhibits presented in the museum are so valuable and magnificent that they need to devote special attention. I will do it in one of the following topics.
As you already understood, I only briefly told you about the places of interest in my city. Many museums, historical sites and monuments I visited several times and mostly during my youth. Then I did not take pictures and thought it was normal walks. Yes, and photographic equipment in those years 80's and 90's was not good. I had to publish all the photographic materials using Internet resources, but I assure you that there is not even 10% of beauty and luxury in these photos that I want to get myself in the near future. Today, having convinced myself of the interest in beauty on the part of many people, I plan to start a detailed information tour of St. Petersburg with a camera to tell the audience of our community about the beauty of architecture, painting and art that I seen. I would be grateful if someone would write about what you would like to know more about.
Thank You for reading and attantion.