Saint Petersburg

Founded by Peter the Great as Russia’s window on Europe, Saint Petersburg is a city of canals, palaces and imperial perspectives. The Hermitage, the Mariinsky, the Neva embankments and the white nights of early summer give it a grandeur and a melancholy unlike any other city in Europe.

Peter the Great founded the city in 1703 on the marshy islands of the Neva delta and moved the capital of Russia here a few years later. It remained the capital for two centuries, and it was planned rather than grown: Nevsky Prospekt runs straight from the Admiralty, the Peter and Paul Fortress faces the Winter Palace across the river, and dozens of islands are joined by hundreds of bridges, several of which open at night for shipping.

The Hermitage fills the Winter Palace and its neighbouring buildings with one of the great art collections of the world. Around it stand St Isaac’s Cathedral, the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, the Russian Museum in the Mikhailovsky Palace and the Mariinsky Theatre, home of a celebrated ballet company. Beyond the city, the imperial estates of Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk continue the story of the court.

The white nights, from late May to mid-July, are the city’s high season: the sun barely sets, the bridges rise over a luminous river in the small hours, and the Mariinsky’s Stars of the White Nights festival fills the evenings with opera and ballet. The fountains of Peterhof play from late spring to early autumn, and late June brings the Scarlet Sails celebration on the Neva for the year’s school graduates.

Autumn is short and damp, but the theatre season opens in September and the museums grow quieter. Winter is long, dark and cold, with the Neva frozen and the palaces under snow — a severe beauty, best seen in clear January weather. Travellers should check entry, visa, flight and payment arrangements well in advance, as international connections are limited and foreign bank cards are not accepted.

The international hotel groups left Saint Petersburg after 2022, and the city’s grand hotels have dropped their international brands. The best known is the Grand Hotel Europe, opened in 1875 on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and Mikhailovskaya Street, opposite the Philharmonia and a short walk from the Russian Museum. Other historic houses stand on St Isaac’s Square and along the embankments of the Moika and the Neva.

No hotel-group programme applies in Russia today. LVXVRY advises on and arranges the stay directly, confirming the current name, operator and conditions of each hotel at the time of booking, and recommends reserving well ahead for the white nights, when rooms with views over the river and the canals are scarce.