Transcript Document

Can I be a guide?
• The history and the sightseeings of St.Petersburg
• Vocabulary
• Grammar structures
• Find, systematise and present information in English
•
•
Introduction
History
(video:Zayachy
Island)
• Sightseeing:
1. Palace Square
2. The Hermitage
3. The Winter Palace
4. The Nevsky Prospect
5. St. Petersburg’s bridges
(video)
6. The Summer Garden
(video)
7. The Kazan Cathedral
8. St. Isaac’s Cathedral
Saint Petersburg (Russia) (Russian
Sankt Peterburg), second largest
city and largest seaport in Russia,
located in the northwestern part of
the country, at the head of the Gulf
of Finland (an arm of the Baltic
Sea). The capital of Russia for two
centuries (1712-1918), Saint
Petersburg is one of the most
beautiful cities in Europe, noted for
its lavish palaces and grand
cathedrals. It is also a major rail
junction and an industrial, cultural,
and scientific center. The city is
located on both banks of the Neva
River and on a number of river
islands.
Saint Petersburg has been renamed three times
since its founding. Construction of the city began in 1703,
ordered by Russian tsar (later emperor) Peter the Great,
who named it Saint Petersburg after his patron saint.
After World War I broke out in 1914, the city's Germanic
name was changed to Petrograd. In 1924, upon the death
of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, its name was changed to
Leningrad. Finally, in June 1991, six months before the
USSR officially dissolved and Russia emerged as an
independent country, the city reverted to its original
name.
Saint Petersburg’s climate is one of strong
contrasts. It is affected by air masses coming off the
Atlantic Ocean and by polar continental air, which in
winter is very dry and cold. Saint Petersburg has cold
winters, with temperatures in January averaging -10° C
(14° F); the summers are generally cool, with the
temperature in July averaging 17° C (63° F). Although the
city’s harbor is frozen for three to four months of each
year, icebreakers keep it open for much of the winter
season.
The Saint Petersburg region was originally inhabited by Swedes. It was
conquered by Russia during the Great Northern War (1700-1721) fought
between Sweden and a coalition of countries led by Russia. In 1703 Russian
tsar Peter the Great chose a site on Zayachy Island in the Neva River and
began the construction of the Peter and Paul Fortress, named after the two
saints. Although the site was cold, damp, and poorly protected, Peter was
determined to build a new capital in the Neva delta to replace Moscow, which
had served as Russia’s capital since the origins of the Russian state in the
1300s. Peter wanted an outlet to the Baltic Sea and intended to make Saint
Petersburg a modern, Western-style city that would serve as Russia's “window
on Europe.” Although the fortress was originally a primitive earthen structure,
stone was brought in when construction of the city began. Saint Petersburg
was built at great human cost. Hunger and cold killed nearly 100,000 people
during the first years of its construction. The imperial capital—including the
Russian court, the Senate, and the foreign embassies—was moved to the new
city in 1712. Peter and the rulers after him commissioned Dutch and Italian
architects to build the city’s beautiful palaces, and an influx of Western
scholars and artisans helped make Saint Petersburg a cultural as well as
political center.
Saint Petersburg has witnessed some of the most dramatic political events in
Russia’s history. In 1825 a group of Russian military officers called the
Decembrists tried to instigate a rebellion in the city to prevent the accession to
the throne of Nicholas I, favoring Nicholas’s brother Constantine instead. Five
of the rebel leaders were hanged. In January 1905 a huge parade of
demonstrators marched toward the city’s Winter Palace to voice their
grievances with Emperor Nicholas II; the imperial guard responded by
opening fire on the crowd. Nationwide outrage over the massacre, which
became known as Bloody Sunday, turned into a full-scale, although ultimately
unsuccessful, revolution against the monarchy (see Russian Revolution of
1905).
Continued opposition to imperial rule led to the Russian Revolution of 1917,
which began with a spontaneous uprising by workers and soldiers in the city
(then known as Petrograd). The revolution culminated in a seizure of power by
the Bolsheviks (later renamed the Communists) and the establishment of a new
Soviet government headed by Vladimir Lenin. With World War I still
underway, the Bolsheviks deemed Petrograd too vulnerable to German
invasion to remain the Russian capital. They also considered the city too
symbolically linked to imperial rule. Thus, the Bolsheviks made Moscow the
capital of the new Soviet state. After Lenin’s death in 1924, Petrograd was
renamed Leningrad in his honor.
From September 1941 to January 1944, during World War II,
Leningrad was besieged by invading German troops, who blocked
the supply of food and fuel to the city. Leningrad's only link to the
rest of the country was across the frozen waters of Lake Lagoda or
by air. About 1 million people are believed to have died as a result of
disease, starvation, and bombings, and more than 10,000 buildings
were destroyed or damaged. After the war, Soviet authorities
undertook to rebuild the city and restore important buildings and
palaces, an expensive project that has continued since the Soviet
Union collapsed and the new government of independent Russia
took power in 1991. The end of Communism led to the creation of
multiple political parties in Saint Petersburg—as elsewhere in
Russia—and the establishment of a democratic city government.
It is the heart of St.
Petersburg, where
the Winter Palace,
the General Staff
building, the
building of the
Ministries and 155
foot-tall Alexander
Column are
situated. The
Winter Palace
served as the tsarist
residence which
building nowadays
belongs to the State
Hermitage – the
largest artistic,
historical and
cultural museum.
It is the palace in St.
Petersburg that was built
and designed by the
famous architect
Bartolomeo Rastrelli in
1754-1762. Before 1917 it
was one of the residences
of the Russian tsarist
family. Now it is one of the
buildings of the world
famous museum the
Hermitage.
It is the largest art
museum in Russia and is
famous throughout the
world. It is the second
largest art museum in the
world after the Louvre in
Paris. It was founded as a
private collection of
Empress Catherine II in
1764 and was opened for
the public in 1852. Now
the museum has several
buildings, one of them is
the Winter Palace.
The Nevsky Prospect is the main avenue of St. Petersburg.
It is the center of business and trade activities and cultural
life of the city, a prime place for shopping, entertainment
and nightlife.
There are hundreds of bridges in
St.Petersburg. They all are
different and yet alike in
something. There are long and
short bridges, wide and narrow
bridges, stone and wooden bridges,
bridges across the broad Neva, the
still canals, the Fontanka and the
Moika.The bridges make an
organic part of St.Petersburg which
cannot be pictured without them.
The first bridge over the Neva was
built in 1727 to connect the
Admiralty and the Vassilyevsky
Island. The first bridge to appear
was the Nikolayevsky Bridge. The
longest bridge is the Alexander
Nevsky bridge.
It is the oldest garden in
St.Petersburg, existing since
1704. It has an area of 11
hectares. The planning was
done by Peter the Great
himself who wanted to have a
better garden than the
French king had in Versailles.
There you can find marble
statues, a “Coffee House”, a
“Tea House”, a bronze
monument to the great
Russian fabulist Ivan Krylov
and a lot of other interesting
things. The Summer Garden
is kept in good repair and is
one of favourite places for
residents of St.Petersburg
and its tourists.
The Kazan Cathedral encircles
a small square with a double
row of beautiful columns- an
impressive colonade. It is
devoted to the Holy Virgin of
Kazan (Казанская Божья
Матерь). The architect Andrew
Voronikhin built this church in
1801-1811. The Kazan
Cathedral was thought to
become the main church of
Russia.
It is the biggest Orthodox
cathedral in St. Petersburg
that was built in honour of
St. Isaac of Dalmatia
(Святого Исаакия
Далматского) because on
St. Isaac’s day Peter the
Great was born. The
cathedral was designed
and built by the architect
A. Motferrand (Огюст
Монферран) in 18181858.
1. Диск “Интерактивный мир”.
Искусство и путешествия.
Мультимедийная коллекция, том №1.
2. Диск “Санкт-Петербург. 300 лет”.
3. Диск “Encarta Encyclopedia, 2005”.