Saint Petersburg History, Russia

The Foundation of St. Petersburg

The man responsible for the foundation of St. Petersburg was Peter the Great. St. Petersburg is completely different from any other place in Russia because of his desire to come up with a European city in Russia. When he died in 1725, Russia was considered a principal eastern European state by centralizing the government and modernizing the army. He was very successful at tugging Russia out of the Middle Ages.

The great tsar who had a vision

Peter the Great was born in 1672 and he died in 1725. Peter was the emperor - the tsar - of Russia from 1682 to 1725. He was officially known as Peter I but he gave himself the title Peter the Great. Legend even has it that Peter the Great stood almost 7 feet tall.

Peter the Great became an emperor when he was very young. Everything about Russia's empire was good enough although he stopped at nothing to have it completely improved. Peter the Great sent hundreds of nobles with ambassador eminence to Europe to find out about the life's circumstances there.

Peter the Great immersed himself into the European population acting up as a man from the working class serving his very own delegation -- all that just to feel what it was like to be a commoner.

Finding a new capital city

When he went back to Russia he decided to convert it into something much like Europe. Peter the Great loved Holland and Amsterdam most and he envisioned of bringing their similitude into his own country.

Modernization was greatly on his mind; he at once wanted to sink his teeth into modernizing Russia. He thought of beginning with the then capital city of Moscow but then he realized there was no way of improving Moscow that was definitely Russia’s cultural seat. Then he thought of coming up with a new capital city for the nation because he felt that the old one was too prejudiced by Russia's troubled times of yore.

So Peter the Great decided to set up a new city where he could lay the foundations of his vision. Peter the Great chose a suitable and strategic location at the bank of the Baltic Sea, but all there was to it were swampy marshlands - not really suitable for what he had in mind, so he ordered thousands of peasant to salvage the swampy area by having them cover the area with ground.

The city built on bones

Peter the Great ordered the workers to drain the land by constructing canals. Using forced labor and ordering a grueling work to finish, many of the workers died throughout the work span form exhaustion or getting sick and were just left to be buried and hard pressed beneath the foundations of the reclaimed land. For this reason, St. Petersburg is sometimes referred to The City Built on Bones. Peter the Great then declared this new place as his new capital in 1703 and commanded the merchants, officials and aristocrats to settle there.

email to a friendAsk our travel experts a question about Saint Petersburg
ask now

Things about Saint Petersburg you may be interested in

• Saint Petersburg Travel tips

 

+ list your site

 

ReviewsTravel TipsWrite a reviewWrite a travel tip

 

 

Read our members' reviews about Saint Petersburg

No reviews have been added yet for this category. Be the first to add a new one.

 

Read our members' travel tips about Saint Petersburg

• Kunstkamera
  travel tip by tylerd posted more then 30 days ago
  Kustkamera museum contains over a million exhibits gathered from all over the world, and it is the oldest state  museum in Russia, dating back to the reign of Peter the Great. However, the main attraction of the museum is a gallery...
• The Historic Center of Saint Petersburg
  travel tip by andra88 posted more then 30 days ago
  I you ask me, all of Saint Petersburg is definitely worth visiting, but if you don't feel like walking around all the town in search of cool things to see (although there are lots of them, I assure you), just take a tour of the old...
• State Hermitage Museum
  travel tip by kachou_n posted more then 30 days ago
  Catherine the Great, the famous empress of Russia was the initiator of the collection that gave birth to the State Hermitage Museum, currently one of the largest museums in the world. Tips before visiting: buy a ticket before the day...

view all

 

 

Community

Members Who Have Been to Saint Petersburg

See who has been to Saint Petersburg and ask them a question (membership required)

Ivan ask a question add to friends

Ruslan ask a question add to friends

Forester76 ask a question add to friends

joska ask a question add to friends

 

show all

 

Community Galleries About Saint Petersburg

Browse our members' Saint Petersburg galleries to get a better impression of the place

view gallery

 

show alladd gallery

 

 

the best travel deals provided by TravelZoo...