ABSTRACT
Frequently referred to as the northern capital, St Petersburg is Russia’s second largest city with a population (in 2010) of 4.85 million. The city was founded in the late seventeenth century, constructed around the Peter and Paul fortress where the river Neva breaks up into a network of smaller rivers and fl ows into the bay of Finland. The founding of a new Russian capital on these marshlands became a symbol of the ruthless determination of Peter the Great and his vision of a modern, Europeanised Russian nation. The cityscape of islands, rivers, canals and drawbridges was inspired by Amsterdam and Venice but contends with a more hostile environment: winters are cold and windy, thawing river ice wreaks havoc each spring, and, in summer, the swamps are fi lled with unhealthy drinking water and hoards of mosquitoes. Tens of thousands of serfs perished in the record-breaking construction work and in 1703 St Petersburg replaced Moscow as capital of the Russian Empire.
