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The "Grand City" of Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great assumed power in 1762 after a coup d' etat, which she engineered together with the officers of the Royal Guard. Unlike her husband, she was well loved by the country's elite and received a very good press in Europe thanks to her contacts with various figures of the French Enlightenment. Catherine enjoyed an extremely luxurious and decadent court life and was the first monarch to move into the newly built Winter Palace. Catherine started a royal art collection which later developed into the world-famous Hermitage which required the construction of several additional buildings (the Small Hermitage and the Old Hermitage) along the Neva embankment to house the growing number of exhibits. Catherine commissioned the building of the Hermitage Theater and ensured the area surrounding the palace was adorned with the finest houses and the only the most elegant architecture.
The embankments of the River Neva were reworked in elegant red granite and the Summer Gardens were adorned with an intricate wrought iron fence, designed by the craftsman Yuri Felten and created between 1773 and 1786.
Under Catherine's patronage science, the arts and trade all flourished. New buildings for the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Fine Arts and the first Public Library (now the Russian National Library) were constructed and the large Gostiny Dvor trading complex was opened on Nevsky Prospekt. Many educational institutions were also established.
In Tsarskoye Selo (now Pushkin) several additions were made to the royal palace, including a new wing, the Cameron Gallery, which served as living quarters for Catherine the Great herself. The delightful park surrouding the palaces was littered with pavilions and architectural follies and gives some indication of the lively social life Catherine and her closet confidantes enjoyed.
Among Catherine's many reforms was the reform of the St. Petersburg local administration. In 1766 the position of gorodskoi golova (a mayor) was established, in 1774 a Magistrat (municipal council) was formed and 12 years later it was transformed into the city Duma.
In 1873 a monument to Catherine the Great was built in a small garden just off Nevsky Prospekt (between the Public Library and the Alexandrinsky Theater). Thousands of people come to visit the tomb of the city's greatest and most progressive monarch every year in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
http://www.saint-petersburg.com/history/index.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great as the window to Europe. Thousands of workmen were brought from all parts of Russia to build a new city on the swampy land at the mouth of the Neva River. Peter the Great was in a hurry. The work was fast and hard, and workmen dropped dead by hundreds. But the work went on. In 1712 Saint Petersburg, a city of great beauty, with palaces, cathedrals, churches, government buildings became the capital. Under later rulers the new capital of the Russia Empire grew rapidly in wealth and beauty. Architects were brought from Western Europe to lay out the city in harmonious squares. Buildings were constructed in gray and rose-colored granite. The Hermitage and the Winter Palace, the homes of the Russian czars, were equal to any in Europe. When the First World War began in 1914, the German-sounding name Saint Petersburg was changed to Petrograd. After the October Revolution the city was renamed after Vladimir Lenin. During the Great Patriotic War the city suffered a great deal. The German armies laid siege to it in 1941, and for the next year and a half it was cut off fro the rest of the country Daily shelling and air raids destroyed parts of the city. Thousands of people were killed. Rebuilding took years. Now Saint Petersburg is an important industrial, cultural, and educational center. It is also a large transport center. The first railroad line connected Saint Petersburg with Tsarskoye Selo. Then the famous Nicholas Railroad line from Saint Petersburg to Moscow was constructed. Now there are five railroad stations, two airports, a seaport, two bus terminals, a sea passenger terminal, and a river passenger terminal. The population of the city grew fast. At the beginning of the 20th century it was about one million, by 1941 - it was about two million people, in the seventies - it was about four million, and it is near six million people. Diversity is one of the main features of Saint Petersburg. A lot of geographical names in the city are russified Finnish, and some are just translations from the Finnish language, for example: the Neva River, the Moika, the Karpovka, Okhta, Ulyanka, Ligovsky Prospect, Kalinkin Bridge, Zayachy Island and many others. Saint Petersburg now, as in the past, is the city of many nations and religions. Some of the streets still keep the names of ethnical communities, which were there, for instance: Italianskaya Street, Grechesky Prospect, Shvedsky Pereulok, Angliysky Prospect and Anliyskaya Embankment, and others. In the city there are a lot of churches and temples representing different religions groups: Othodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran Churches, Moslem Mosques, Synagogues and a Buddhist Temple as well. Saint Petersburg is a wonderful city: at every turn there is something to catch your eye. There are spacious squares and circles and the streets are wide and straight. Palace Square, Senate Square, St. Isaac`s Square, Trinrty Square and Arts Square - they all are historical places, shaped with famous buildings and have striking monuments. Alexander Column, the highest structure of this kind in the world, raises on Palace Square. Peter the Great Monument, better known as the Bronze Horseman, is on Senate Square. Nicholas 1 Monument, which is considered a masterpiece of engineering art, stands on St. Isaac`s Square. Pushkin Monument is in the center of Arts Square. The Field of Mars, with the area of twelve hectares, is the biggest square in Saint Petersburg. The main street of the city is Nevsky Prospect. It runs from the Admiralty to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery and lines famous buildings, luxurious hotels and fashionable stores. Sadovaya Street got its name from a lot of gardens once facing the street. Moskovsky Prospect is the longest street in the city and Architect Rossy Street is the shortest one. It was in Saint Petersburg that the tradition to number stre