Bordeaux-Merignac Airport

In 1703 Tsar Peter the Great decided that it was time to create a modern capital for Russia, a city open to the Baltic Sea and to Europe. The result was St. Petersburg, founded in the north-west of Russia in the Neva delta. The city was renamed Petrograd in 1914, lost its capital status to Moscow in 1918 and in 1923 was renamed Leningrad. A long and draining siege during the Second World War severely depopulated the great city. St. Petersburg is now Russia’s second largest city, with around 5 million inhabitants. It remains a major centre of European culture, with its palaces, museums and squares. The vast canal network, criss-crossed by 324 bridges, has earned St. Petersburg the nickname ‘Venice of the North’. In total the city boasts somewhere in the region of 4000 monuments, listed and protected by the UNESCO classification.

Incredible! St. Petersburg truly lives up to its reputation. The most iconic street is the famous Nevsky Prospekt, a 3-mile long commercial and cultural artery leading up to the immense Winter Palace. The former home of the Imperial family now houses the Hermitage Museum, and masterpieces by Gauguin, Picasso, Matisse and Da Vinci among thousands of others. The city is full of architectural and historical treasures: the Palace Square with its monument to Alexander, the Peter and Paul Cathedral with its huge spire, the dramatic orthodox Church of the Saviour, the Alexander Nevsky Monastery which houses the tombs of Tchaikovsky and Dostoyevsky... Not to mention the grandiose Admiralty building on the banks of the Neva. A boat trip on the city’s river and canal network can be a unique and convenient way to explore this magnificent city.

• Time difference:  +2h00
• Currency:  Rouble