{"id":1709,"date":"2019-05-27T19:54:13","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T02:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/?p=1709"},"modified":"2019-11-21T22:03:05","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T05:03:05","slug":"why-is-st-petersburg-unique-city-in-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/why-is-st-petersburg-unique-city-in-russia","title":{"rendered":"22 Facts about Unique St Petersburg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How much do you know about St Petersburg Russia?<\/p>\n<p>Follow in the footsteps of our friendly local guide in St Petersburg to explore the unique pearls of Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Your mission should you choose to accept it is:\u00a0600 km of rails, 800 bridges or 3-million Hermitage collection.\u00a0Or take it all in on <a href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/saint-petersburg\/tours\">guided tours St Petersburg<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>22 interesting facts about St Petersburg and why\u00a0it\u00a0so unique.<\/h2>\n<p>Enjoy!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_46224\"  width=\"1070\" height=\"602\"  data-origwidth=\"1070\" data-origheight=\"602\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LAxf-05NTRY?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>St. Petersburg is the greenest of Russia&#8217;s major cities. The statistics are impressive: Over <strong>200 parks and gardens<\/strong>, plus over a thousand tree-lined streets and more than 700 leafy squares; and more than 2,000 hectares of greenery in total &#8211; or more than 56 square meters for each of the city&#8217;s more than 4.5 million inhabitants.<\/li>\n<li>St Petersburg has one of <strong>the longest and shortest streets of Russi<\/strong>a. The longest street in St Petersburg is Obukhovskoy Oborony prospect (11 km) and the shortest one is Peskovsky lane (34 steps).<\/li>\n<li>The oldest building in St Petersburg is <strong>Peter the Great&#8217;s house<\/strong> (history dates from 1703) and the oldest park is Summer Garden (history dates from 1704)<\/li>\n<li>While St Petersburg can&#8217;t impress us with the tallest building &#8211; Lider Tower, 145 m high, 42 stories, it will easily beat almost any city in the world with its local feature &#8211; bridges.<\/li>\n<li>St. Petersburg\u00a0is a proud owner of\u00a0<strong>800 bridges<\/strong>, 13 of them are drawbridges..<\/li>\n<li>Saint Petersburg is called the &#8220;Capital of Culture&#8221; for a reason. The whole historic center\u00a0of Petersburg is listed as a <strong>UNESCO World Heritage Site<\/strong> with estimated <strong>8000 landmarks<\/strong>. In comparison, There are only 2 World Heritage Sites in <a href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/red-square-the-kremlin\">Moscow &#8211; Red Square and Kremlin<\/a>.\n<p><div id=\"attachment_3669\" style=\"width: 791px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3669\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-3669 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/St-Petersburg-bridges.jpg\" alt=\"Facts about St Petersburg\" width=\"781\" height=\"462\" srcset=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/St-Petersburg-bridges.jpg 781w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/St-Petersburg-bridges-150x89.jpg 150w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/St-Petersburg-bridges-300x177.jpg 300w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/St-Petersburg-bridges-600x355.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 781px) 100vw, 781px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3669\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">St Petersburg tourism<\/p><\/div><\/li>\n<li>On May 26, 2013 in honor of the <strong>310th anniversary of the city<\/strong> the chorus of\u00a04,335 people was singing on St. Isaac&#8217;s Square.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Leningrad<\/strong> &#8211; the former name of St Petersburg &#8211; is Hero City. During the World War II the city was encircled by Nazi troops for nearly 900 days without access to food and completely cut off from the rest of Russia. But the citizens\u00a0did not let the enemy in. During this period of starvation, disease and the bombing in Leningrad approximately 1.5 million people died. Many places in the modern Petersburg are a remnant of this tragic and heroic time.<\/li>\n<li>In the city full of history and culture, how about a drink in the oldest St Petersburg cafe <strong>Palkin<\/strong>? The first cafe was open in 1785, \u00a0and celebrated \u00a0its 230-year anniversary in 2015. Among the oldest are also Metropol Restaurant and Literary Cafe. <a href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/saint-petersburg\/tours\/food-tour-st-petersburg\">St Petersburg food tour<\/a> will take you to Literary Cafe, our favorite place in the city.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The architecture of St Petersburg\u00a0<\/strong>is so unique and diverse that all four\u00a0facades\u00a0of the Mikhailovsky Castle and\u00a0the Russian Museum are\u00a0different. The castle was constructed\u00a0in such a way to achieve harmony with the surrounding architectural environment. It was built in the time of Paul I, who was the father of\u00a0the very concept and\u00a0the first sketches of the castle.\n<p><div id=\"attachment_3668\" style=\"width: 970px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3668\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3668\" src=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/St-Petersburg-attractions.jpg\" alt=\"Facts St Petersburg\" width=\"960\" height=\"544\" srcset=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/St-Petersburg-attractions.jpg 960w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/St-Petersburg-attractions-150x85.jpg 150w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/St-Petersburg-attractions-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/St-Petersburg-attractions-600x340.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3668\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">St Petersburg bridges<\/p><\/div><\/li>\n<li>There are as many reasons why <strong>St Isaac&#8217;s Cathedral<\/strong> is unique as you want. First off, it&#8217;s the highest observation platform of St Petersburg with the 360-degree panoramic views from the 43 store.<\/li>\n<li>The main dome of St Isaac&#8217;s Cathedral is gilted with <strong>100 kg of pure gold<\/strong>. During the WWII siege residents hid it beneath the layer\u00a0of gray paint.<\/li>\n<li>A couple of more interesting facts about St Isaac&#8217;s Cathedral: At St Isaac&#8217;s Square you can see a\u00a0<strong>monument to Nicholas I<\/strong>, a unique equestrian sculpture on two points of support, the only one in the world. Nikolay sits on a horse facing the St. Isaac&#8217;s Cathedral. The fact that the rider turned away from the palace served as the formal reason for the daughter of Nicholas I to refuse staying in the palace, despite the fact that it was a present for her. Her\u00a0wedding present.\n<p><div id=\"attachment_3667\" style=\"width: 850px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3667\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-3667 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Why-St-Petersburg-is-unique.jpg\" alt=\"St Petersburg facts\" width=\"840\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Why-St-Petersburg-is-unique.jpg 840w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Why-St-Petersburg-is-unique-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Why-St-Petersburg-is-unique-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Why-St-Petersburg-is-unique-600x450.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3667\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sightseeing in St Petersburg<\/p><\/div><\/li>\n<li>Bridges are not the only specialty of The city. St. Petersburg is t<strong>he world capital of trams.<\/strong> The length of the tram tracks in the city is more than 600 km. This fact is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.<\/li>\n<li>Petersburg&#8217;s symbol is <strong>White Nights<\/strong>, which are explained by high-latitude position of the city. White nights start\u00a0on May 25-26, when the sun goes down by no more than 9 \u00b0, and evening twilight practically coincides with the morning. The total length of white nights is about\u00a0than 50 days\u00a0finishing on\u00a0July 16-17. The maximum duration of the day falls on June 21-22 (18 hr. 53 min.).<\/li>\n<li>And the #1 attraction in St Petersburg is, of course, the <strong>Hermitage<\/strong>.\u00a0Hermitage collection has about 3 million items housed in 350 halls of five buildings. To view the entire collection, stopping at each exhibit only for 1 minute, you will have to spend 8 years of life and walk more than 20 kilometers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Now, how about a <a href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/saint-petersburg\/tours\/3-day-tour-of-saint-petersburg\">3-day tour of St Petersburg<\/a>? ;)<\/p>\n<p>Our local <a href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/saint-petersburg\/guides\">St Petersburg guide<\/a> Valery \u00a0collected some more fun facts about Spb for you.<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/St-Petersburg-Russia.pdf\" class=\"pdfemb-viewer\" style=\"\" data-width=\"max\" data-height=\"max\" data-toolbar=\"bottom\" data-toolbar-fixed=\"off\">St-Petersburg-Russia<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How much do you know about St Petersburg Russia? Follow in the footsteps of our friendly local guide in St Petersburg to explore the unique pearls of Russia. Your mission \u2026<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/why-is-st-petersburg-unique-city-in-russia\">Continue<i class=\"icon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[637],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[1029,3202,3203,705,3201,3204,3205,2988,3199,3208,3207,1593,1594,3206,3200,771,1299,2994,968,2998],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1709"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6524,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions\/6524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1709"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}