NEVSKIY PROSPEKT
The "Avenue of the Neva" is St Petersburg's main street.

PALACE SQUARE
In front of the Winter Palace and the Hermitage Museum.

THE ADMIRALTY
Its golden spire is the city's highest point.

ST ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL
The severe exterior hides a sumptuous interior.

BRONZE HORSEMAN
Czar Peter's statue, the city's best-known landmark.

PETER AND PAUL
Fortress, prison and last resting place of the Czars.

ONE-HOUR WALK
An invigorating 2½ kilometres of fine sights.

main sights

The main cities of the Baltic are all different but St Petersburg is the most dramatically original. Its centre is all baroque and classicism.

There is no Old Town of narrow streets, squeezed within city walls. St Petersburg was started from scratch on empty marshes, by order of Czar Peter the Great on May 27, 1703. The Russian Empire was beginning to look west.

There is no better expression of the passionate nationalism of the 18th and 19th centuries than this city, built on shifting swamps and the bones of its workers.

The list of main sights is long and they cover a great area. To reach them all by foot would take more time than most visitors have. A better alternative is a bus excursion or a personal guide with a car, but a condensed walking route is also offered at the end of this section, for determined adventurers.

NEVSKIY PROSPEKT
The "Avenue of the Neva" is the main street of St. Petersburg. It begins at Palace Square by the Winter Palace and ends at St Lazarus (Lazarevskoye) , St Petersburg's oldest cemetery. Some of Russia's greatest military leaders, scientists, artists and industrialists are buried here.

Nevskiy Prospekt has been repeatedly celebrated in Russian literature and arts. Today it is the main street for shopping. Its full length is 4.26 km (nearly 3 miles). The section from the Palace to Insurrection Square (Ploshchad Vosstaniya) and the Moscow railway station contains the most interesting monuments and buildings, hotels and department stores.

The River Neva loops around the area that the Avenue crosses, so both ends are close to it. Its two halves are not quite in a straight line. To speed construction, Nevskiy Prospekt was built by two teams working from opposite ends. There is a kink where they met in 1715.

PALACE SQUARE
This is one of the most magnificent architectural complexes in St. Petersburg, bounded by the Winter Palace and by a semicircle formed by General Staff and Ministry buildings. The Alexander Column in its centre commemorates Russia's victory against Napoleon in 1812.

In the 20th century, during Soviet times, the square was a symbol of revolutionary passion. The classic film October had shown angry sailors attacking the Winter Palace across the square in 1917. In fact no such attack had taken place. The director, Sergey Eisenstein, invented it; art made history.

Even so, every corner of the square drips history. It has seen parades of the Czars, marches of the Communists and Paul McCartney in concert.

The Winter Palace is now part of the Hermitage, one of the world's oldest art galleries and largest museums, with 3 million works of art on display or in storage. A cruise visitor could easily spend all the time ashore within its walls and still see only a fraction.

To avoid exhaustion it is best to decide in advance what collections interest you the most. Look at the Hermitage web site for information about everything that is available.

THE ADMIRALTY
The Admiralty building is one of the oldest buildings of St. Petersburg. Its steeple is 72.5 meters (240 feet) high, still taller than the highest points of the city, although there are plans for future skyscrapers away from the centre.

The steeple is crowned with a gilt wind-vane designed in the form of the ship, another symbol of St. Petersburg. Like the Rostral Columns on Basil Island Spit, the Admiralty symbolizes Russia's greatness as a naval power. The building has been used by the Navy since it was completed in 1762 and is still is a part of Russian Baltic Fleet headquarters.

On a walk from Palace Square there is a good place to rest near the Admiralty, just in front of the main building. The Alexander Gardens are named after Tsar Alexander II, who designed them.

ST ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL
Under the Tsars from Peter onward, St Petersburg was the capital of Russia and this was built to be the main state church. It was designed by the same architect – French-born August de Montferrand – who created the Alexander Column in Palace Square, as the church's 112 solid granite columns suggest. St Isaac's took 40 years to build.

St. Isaac's Cathedral
Mon-Tue Thu-Sun	11:00 - 19:00 (7 p.m.)
Observation platform	till 18:00 (6 p.m.)
Last admission one hour earlier

The exterior looks severe. The interior is sumptuous. After the Russian revolution, it was turned into a Museum of Atheism. Now one of its chapels is used for worship again.

Even agnostics will appreciate the spectacular view from its observation platform.

THE BRONZE HORSEMAN
The statue of Peter the Great, known as the Bronze Horseman, is in Senate Square on the south bank of the Neva, between the river and St Isaac's Cathedral. It was commissioned by Empress Catherine in 1775 and its inscription "Catherine II to Peter I" was intended to underline her status as Peter's successor. Catherine was in fact a German princess who had married into the royal family and become the ruler of Russia in a palace coup.

The statue stands 6 metres (20 feet) tall and shows Peter on his horse. Its pedestal has a tale of its own. It is made from a giant boulder that was found some considerable distance way and is quite possibly the largest stone ever moved by manpower.

The statue got its nickname fifty years after it was completed, from Russia's famous poet Alexander Pushkin. His poem, the Bronze Horseman, describes one of the many times that the River Neva has overflowed its banks.

A flood victim curses Peter for founding St Petersburg in such a dangerous place, whereupon the statue comes to life and chases him through the city to teach him some respect. There is a modern lesson here, not necessarily related to flooding.

THE STRELKA
The Strelka is the eastern tip of Basil Island and one of St. Petersburg’s most beautiful spots. It affords spectacular views of the Winter Palace and the other granite quays lined with great buildings.

On the tip, like lighthouses, stand two 32-metre Rostral Columns, from which the bows of ships project. They refer to ancient Greece, where captured enemy ship were important trophies. Many of the symbols of St Petersburg were built to evoke past history and thus to glorify the present, especially Russian naval power.

PETER AND PAUL FORTRESS
The fortress (Petropavlovskaya krepost) stands on its own small island in the River Neva, separated from its north bank by about 70 meters (yards). It was founded by Peter the Great in 1703, just before the building of the city began.

Peter and Paul Fortress
Open daily	10:00-19:00 (7 p.m.)
Tuesdays	till 18:00 ( 8p.m.)
Last admission one hour earlier

Despite its fortifications, it has never actually protected St Petersburg except from dissent, serving as a prison and place of execution during the time of the Czars. Many free-thinkers spent time in the grim cells of the Trubetskoi Bastion, including Fyodor Dostoevsky, author of "Crime and Punishment".

In its middle stands the gleaming gilded spire of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. All the Czars of Russia from Peter I to Alexander III are buried here. The last of the Romanov dynasty, ill-fated Nikolai II, was also reburied here in 1998. He had been shot 80 years earlier at the order of the leader of the October Revolution, Vladimir Lenin.

WALKING
The centre of St Petersburg has things to see on almost on every corner but, with street blocks often longer than 250 metres (800 feet), there a lot of road to walk. By concentrating on the north end of Nevskiy Prospect, you can see quite a lot on foot without risking exhaustion.

Start at Gostiny Dvor department store, where there is a convenient metro station. Head north-east along Nevskiy Prospekt towards the spire of the Admiralty. After a block, there's a breathtaking view up Griboyedov Canal to the Church of the Resurrection, better known as the Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood, because it is built on the place where Czar Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881.

On the left, as you continue along Nevskiy Prospekt, is Kazan Cathedral with its great colonnade. You then cross the River Moyka, a narrow stream compared with the great River Neva, which it meets at both ends. After one more block, turn right off Nevskiy Prospect and enter Palace Square under its Triumphal Arch.

From the square turn left and walk along Admiralty Prospekt until you reach St Isaac’s Cathedral. Opposite it, behind the Alexander Gardens, is Senate Square with its Bronze Horseman statue.

Unfortunately there is no metro station near Senate Square so, if you are on a coach tour of the city, this is where you'll want to be picked up again. The whole walk is 2½ km (1½ miles) if you don't stray along the way.