Fun Facts About St. Petersburg

· Dobre veche” means good evening

· Russia paid three times more to construct Saint Isaac’s Cathedral than American’s paid Russia for the acquisition of Alaska!

· Saint Isaac’s took forty years to construct.

                                                           

· The subway (Metro) has the fastest escalators in the world to  accompany the deepest subway in the world. In order for the Metro to go under the Neva River, it must go down 150 meters!

· The third largest library in the world is in Saint Petersburg. The second is in Moscow (the Lenin Library), and the first is the Washington Library in the United States.

· Saint Petersburg is the home of the famous composer Tchaikovsky, who wrote the Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake.

· It is very easy to remember how many bridges there are in Saint Petersburg because there is one for every day of the year (365)!

· “Hermitage” means secret corner or private. The Hermitage Museum was named such because Catherine the Great wanted to keep the collection to herself, so it would be her own private collection.

                                               

· Saint Petersburg changed its name several times throughout history. The city was created in 1703 and was names Saint Petersburg for Peter the Great. In 1914, the city changed its name to Petrograd to get away from “burg” which sounded Russian; in 1914 Russia was involved with WWI against Germany, so they did not want any ties to their rival country. In 1925, the name was changed to Leningrad in honor of Lenin’s death in 1924. The name was changed for the last time in 1991 because of the fall of the Soviet Union. The name was voted on by the citizens of the city back to Saint Petersburg.

· Saint Petersburg was the capital of Russia from 1712 until 1918, when it was then moved to Moscow. It is now considered the cultural capital of Russia.

· The “Merchant’s Yard” is the oldest department store of Saint Petersburg, originating in the 18th century.

 

· There are around six million foreign visitors a year; most come by a cruise ship, like me!

· Russians get marries in “wedding palaces” as opposed to churches. Couples can be married in churches only if they have been married in a wedding palace first.

· The phrase “I love you” in Russian sounds like “yellow blue bus.”

· Their Christmas is on January 7th because of the difference in their calendars. Because of this, their revolution anniversary that should be in October, is now hosted in November.

· Every night, the bridges open at 1:15 in the morning and remain opened until 5:30 in the morning. This tradition was started in order to allow larger ships to navigate the Neva River, but it is still done today because this is one of the traditions that Saint Petersburg is still known for.