St. Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is also the second largest and northernmost metropolitan city on the globe. This explains the white nights that any visitor can enjoy between 11 June and 2 July.

St. Petersburg is relatively young. Peter the Great, who laid the first stone in the Peter and Paul's Fortress in 1703 as a symbol of launching a new city, founded St. Petersburg on May 27, 1703. For 200 years, beginning from 1712, St. Petersburg was the capital of the Russian Empire.

St. Petersburg has a historical and cultural importance comparable to that of Paris, London, and Rome. It is a large industrial, transport, scientific and cultural centre of Russia with 5 million population.