Northwestern Attractions

The monument stands at the Decembrists Square, opposite the Neva River in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is framed by St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Admiralty and the buildings of the former Synod and Senate. It is said that as long as the monument stands in the midst of the city, St. Petersburg will never be defeated. It is passionately defended by the people. In fact, it survived the Siege of Leningrad because the statue was not taken away from the city but was protected by a wooden shelter and sand bags. The siege lasted for 900 days.

At the foot of this imposing monument, you can find an inscription that says "Petro Primo Catarino Secunda" which is Latin for "Peter the First from Catherine the Second"...

The Marble Palace

Mramornyi Dvorets or the Marble Palace is located in Saint Petersburg, in Russia. The Neoclassical palace is located between the Palace Quay and the Field of Mars, near the Winter Palace. The Empress Catherine the Great had this built for her favorite nobleman, Count Grigory Orlov. Construction and design of the palace began from 1768 and lasted for 17 years.

The architect Antonio Rinaldi designed the palace, which features opulent marble decorations - pink Karelian marble pillars, Finnish granite floors, and white marble festoons and capitals. The urns that served as decorations are made of Tallinn dolomite. As floor separations, Rinaldi used bluish gray Urals marble...

During World War II, Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) underwent a 900-day siege by the Nazis. The people of Leningrad bravely defended their city, withstanding the lengthy siege and valiantly protecting the Bronze Horseman (as Peter the Great's monument is known). They also prevailed despite of hunger, cold and nonstop bombardment. Russia eventually triumphed against the Nazi Attacks. For their courage, strength of spirit and sense of nationality, a monument was built in their honor. This is called the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad.

The concept and design of the monument came from an open competition announced in 1958. Of the 44 entries, it was Sergei Speransky's work that stood out...

The Winter Palace (or "Zimnyi Dvorets") was the main residence of the Russian tsars during winter. It is located in Saint Petersburg, at Millionnaya Ulitsa.

It lends its majestic presence along the bank of the Neva River. The palace is superbly designed in the Baroque tradition. It is particularly impressive because of its elaborately adorned rooms and halls (there are about 1,000 such halls and rooms!). It also has close to 2,000 windows, nearly 1,800 doors. The 200-meter façade is just awe-inspiring. It is filled with pillars, bays and statuary and sports the colors green, white and gold.

It was built between 1754 and 1762 and was designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli...

The Peter and Paul Fortress (Petropalovskaia Krepost) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was Peter the Great's answer to possible attack from the Swedish army. When he reclaimed the lands on the banks of the Neva River, he had the fortress built on Hare Island (Zayachii Ostrov), an island in the Neva. Workmen labored overtime to finish the fortress because they expected an impending attack from the Swedes. The attack never came since the Swedes were defeated even before the fortress was completed. However, the foundation of the fortress (on May 1703) also resulted in the birth of St. Petersburg. In fact, the fortress was the first major structure of the city.

The fortress was designed by Domenico Trezzini, while construction of the six bastions at the fort was supervised by Peter the Great's close friends and were named after them – Peter, Mensikov, Zotov, Trubetskoy, Folovin and Naryshin...