St Petersburg

Saint Petersburg was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 27 1703. In 1914, the city was changed its name from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, and in 1991, back to Saint Petersburg. The city is a major European cultural center and also an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. Tourists can come to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, in the city. Gradually, the city evolved from a swampy backwater into a modern European city, Russia’s ‘window to the West”.