7 September: St Petersburg

On this date in 1991, Leningrad changed its name back to St Petersburg. 10 things you might not know about St Petersburg:

1. This was the last of several name changes. The original name was St Petersburg. Some believe it was named for its founder, Peter the Great. There is a famous statue of him sitting on his horse. However, it was named for St Peter. During the first world war, it was decided the name sounded too German, so it was changed to Petrograd, and then to Leningrad on the death of Lenin. In September 1991 it was decided to go back to the original name. Colloquially, the city is often referred to as simply "Piter".
2. St Petersburg was the capital of Russia for 200 years. It was declared capital in 1712, ten years after it was founded. It lost its status during the Revolution of 1917 because of its associations with imperial history.
3. St. Petersburg is the northernmost city in the world with a population over 1 million people. Because it is so far north, there are two or three weeks a year when the city is in daylight 24 hours a day. This time is known as White Nights, when late night walks and theatre outings are popular. The White Nights Festival is a series of ballet, opera and orchestral performances at the famous Mariinsky Theatre.
4. The city's most famous museum is the Hermitage. It has about 3 million exhibits in 350 rooms of five buildings. According to one estimate, to look at each artwork for one minute it would take you 8 years – 25 if you were to limit your art viewing to 8 hours per day. It's even possible to go to the museum and come home with a cat. There is a colony of 50 Cats living in the museum to keep the rodent population under control. However, the museum management don't want the place overrun with felines either, so subject to an interview, you could adopt a surplus kitten along with a certificate to verify where it came from.
5. 10% of the city is covered in Water. The city was built on a marsh and is located on 42 islands. There are 342 Bridges including the Blue Bridge, which at 97.3 meters is one of the widest in the world. There are also 12 movable bridges which are raised overnight, so if you stay out too late your trip home could be much longer and more complicated.
6. Being built on marshland is the reason why St Petersburg has the deepest metro system in the world. The tunnels of the St. Petersburg metro are at a depth of about 70-80 meters, because it had to tunnel under the bedrock.
7. There is a 47.5 meter high column which weighs around 600-700 tons which is held in place by gravity alone (no foundations). It's called the Alexander Column and it has a statue of an angel on top. It was designed by Auguste de Montferrand. Needless to say, people were somewhat nervous at first that it might fall and crush them. Auguste de Montferrand did his best to reassure the population by walking underneath the column himself to prove it was perfectly safe. There is also an equestrian monument which is the only one in the world to have just two points of support. The monument is in St. Isaac`s Square, and was created by Peter Klodt, and is dedicated to Nicholas I, who said Klodt "creates Horses finer than any prize stallion does".
8. A much smaller statue is that of a bird known to locals as Chizhik-Pyzhik, which is the subject of a famous song. Tossing a coin at it is said to make wishes come true. Since it is small, the statue has been stolen seven times, although it has always been recovered and returned to its rightful place.
9. Peter & Paul Cathedral is the highest cathedral in Russia. The height of its bell tower is 122.5 meters. For a time it was the tallest building in Russia. St. Isaac’s Cathedral is the fourth largest in the world and has a dome plated with pure gold. It was never bombed during WWII because it was a handy reference point for the Germans. Hence it was used to store items from the museum.
10. Famous people from St Petersburg include Alexandr Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Peter Tchaikovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich and Vladimir Putin.

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