Welcome to St Petersburg

St Petersburg, the second largest city in Russia, was founded in 1703 by the Russian Tsar Peter the Great. The city is situated on nearly fifty islands in the Neva River, with more than 350 bridges. It is surrounded with a necklace of beautiful suburbs that used to be Royal residences. St Petersburg, with its four millions of inhabitants, is often called "Russia's Northern Capital". It was built by mainly European architects on a grand scale, with palaces and boulevards designed to be viewed from afar. There are over 80 museums in St Petersburg. The Gem among them is the Hermitage, one of largest museums in the world, with its art collection of 3 million items.

Travel

St Petersburg is easy to reach via numerous convenient daily flight connections from main European and American cities. St Petersburg International Airport Pulkovo-2 is 17 km away from the centre of the city. Participants also can use flights via Moscow or one of European airports. The nearest to St Petersburg foreign airport is in Helsinki (Finland). Travelling by bus, car, ship or train from Europe is also possible.

Climate

The end of July in St Petersburg is a very beautiful time for staying in the city. The sun rises around 5:30 AM and sets after 10:30 PM. The daytime temperature is about 20-25 °C.