Tsarskoe selo

Pushkin city, a beautiful city near St.petersburg

Winter Palace Square in St. Petersburg

Located between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, the Winter Palace or Zimniy Dvorets (Russian: Зимний дворец) in Saint Petersburg, Russia was built between 1754 and 1762 as the winter residence of the Russian tsars.

Designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the Rococo-style, green-and-white palace has 1,786 doors and 1,945 windows. Catherine the Great was its first imperial occupant.

The Palace is now part of a complex of buildings known as the State Hermitage Museum, which holds one of the world's greatest collections of art. As part of the Museum, many of the Winter Palace's 1,057 halls and rooms are open to the public. The Military Gallery, opened in 1826, accommodates 332 portraits of military leaders of the Russian army during Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

After the February Revolution in Russia, the Winter Palace was the headquarters of the Russian Provisional Government.

The assault of the Winter Palace by Bolshevik forces was the official milestone of the October Revolution.

Nevsky Prospect in St.Petersburg

Nevsky Prospect
Nevsky Prospect or the Nevsky Avenue, is the main street in the city of St Petersburg. Planned by Peter the Great as beginning the road to Novgorod and Moscow, the avenue runs from the Admiralty to the Moscow Railway Station and, after making a turn at Vosstaniya Square, to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

St.Petersburg in aerial view

Few pictures of the second important city of Russia, St. Petersburg. I post here only some of them taken from a helicopter by a great photographer and the credits go to him. Tourists can go on ride in a helicopter and see the city in a bird's view.
It is Russia's second largest and Europe's fourth largest city (by city limit) after Moscow, London and Paris.
I am proud to say that I have spent some time of my life here and enjoyed the beauty of the city. Even now when I see the pictures I go into nostalgia.