Saint Petersburg

St. Petersburg, sometimes referred to as Venice of the North is situated on the Neva river at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea.  It was founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and due to a catastrophic fire in 1736, the City was largely rebuilt in the neoclassical style.  With the start of World War I, the name St. Petersburg was felt to be too German and so was renamed Petrograd.  In 1924 after Lenin’s death, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad.  In 1991, a referendum was held and the citizens voted to return the name to St. Petersburg.