With numerous canals that cut across the city and about 400 bridges of varying sizes, St. Petersburg is called the 'Venice of the North.' The second-largest city in Russia was the country's capital for about 200 years starting in the 18th century. Tsar Peter the Great designated this former Swedish territory his capital and used it as a bridge to the rest of Europe. For the next two centuries, St. Petersburg developed into the political, financial, cultural and artistic center for the Romanov dynasty. It was the largest trading port in Russia and also attracted many great artists and literary minds. Poet Alexander Pushkin called St. Petersburg the 'Window to Europe.' And it wasn't just because of its geographical location. Many of Europe's finest intellectuals and artists flowed into Russia through St. Petersburg.

There is much more to St. Petersburg than great writers or artists. The city was developed under meticulous planning and it's home to some magnificent buildings. Architects brought in from France and Italy gave St. Petersburg its beautiful look. There are more than 100 museums, art galleries and theaters in St. Petersburg. It clearly deserves the title as the 'cultural capital of Russia.'
The State Hermitage Museum, built in 1764, is one of the world's premiere art museums, alongside the British Museum and the Louvre. About 4 million tourists flock to St. Petersburg to visit the Hermitage each year. The Hermitage consists of the Hermitage Theatre, the Old Hermitage, the Small Hermitage, the Winter Palace and the New Hermitage. The Winter Palace is what we commonly associate with the museum. The jade-green colored building has dozens of Ionic orders (columns and entablature in classical architecture) and the gold-tinted decorations on the front. Inside, it holds over 3 million works by some of history's greatest artists, such as Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Gauguin and Renoir, and ancient artifacts and Egyptian mummies.

Though St. Petersburg is home to so many buildings, Saint Isaac’s Cathedral was the top observatory in the city until the completion of Lakhta Center (the tallest building in Europe at 462 meters) in 2018. Built in 1858, the cathedral stands 102 meters tall, making it one of the largest cathedrals in the city and also one of its oldest landmarks. It was designed by French architect Auguste de Montferrand, and the construction took some 40 years, with over 500,000 people summoned to work. The gold dome at the top was made with more than 100kg worth of gold. And there are plenty of gold decorations and bronze statues inside. The painting on the ceiling of the main dome is the highlight. The painting of the Twelve Apostles is as brilliant as any religious works of art in Europe, in terms of its size and its beauty.