St. Petersburg in Times of Peter the Great                
        
The beginning of the city. Big St. Petersburg and "The Venice of the North". "The Heart of St. Petersburg". How did the city look like? Embarrassment after death of the tzar.
 
The first years of St. Petersburg's history his citizens and visitors watched an astonishing transition from a swampy scarcely populated land to a fine European capital with state institutions, capital building.

The first city structure was St. Peter's and Paul's fortress designed to protect the area from the attacks of the Swedish army and navy, the fort was not involved in the actual fighting. The territory was well-protected, and also the Admiralty complex was fortified. It became a center of St. Petersburg's activities. The most powerful ships of Russia's Baltic Fleet were built here, which led to a series of naval victories in the course of the Northern War (the most exciting - near Gangut, 1714).

Many street and district names in St. Petersburg still remind us of Peter the Great's activities: (Liteiny - "Foundry Yard", Smolny embankment - "Tar Yard", which has produced tar for shipbuilding, etc.). These names came from the epoch of war with Swedes led by Peter the Great. The tzar himself lived in a tiny cabin, which became known as the Cabin of Peter the Great. On the right bank of the Neva another house was built for Peter where a special cabin was made and in 1714 the Winter Palace was build not far down the river.

There were no bridges across the mighty Neva River and people had to be ferried across by boat from bank to bank. That is why they called St. Petersburg "the Venice of the North".

The primary downtown was formed between in the area between the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Cabin of Peter the Great. The focus of the city building became the Trinity Church and later there appeared the Trinity Square. Houses for the local elite, the first Gostinyi Dvor (a market for local and visiting merchants) and several inns were also built. The tzar and most of the higher class social events (receptions, balls, assemblies) took place either in the Summer Gardens or in the palace of the Governor General of St. Petersburg. The last one was the luxurious Menshikov Palace, even more exciting than the tzar's.

Very few buildings from that time have survived: many were remodelled or destroyed to build new, comfortable and luxury. The building of the "Twelve Colleges" and the Kikin House give an impression of how the original city looked like. Many of the initial buildings in the city were built according to a number of typical designs, approved by the tsar. Some buildings in the city center still bear the mark of this time. Since Russia became the capital in 1721 Peter demanded to design the city according to European style. The streets were planned as parallel or perpendicular to each other, the blocks of the new city designed as on a chess board (the most typical example - buildings on Vasilievskyi Island). Perpendicular streets relative Neva and Nevka division were oriented to Admiralty, the bastion of imperial power.

The rush raising of the city paused when Peter the Great died in 1725, his wife Catherine assumed power and her son Peter the II. Later the niece of Peter the Great Anna Ioanovna and her favorite Biron ascended the Russian throne and city elite and then the royal court was moved back to Moscow. Many of nobility members and merchants, forced by Peter the Great to move to St. Petersburg, now chose to leave the city. The city was fully revived only when Peter's daughter Elizabeth became Empress in 1741. Elizabethan St. Petersburg became a lively European capital and its population reached 150 thousand.